Double Treat

Today I went on two fabulous mountain bike rides. The first one started with my cute husband. We rode in AF Canyon. Since last Saturday I have been wanting to take Royce up to the look out, so he could see the same gorgeous view I had seen. So with some hesitation, but a lot of desire we set out. The hesitation and desire were both on my part since Royce is a beginning mountain bike rider and had no idea what he was getting in to. This ride is a lot of up hill 3.5 of the 4 miles is up hill (that is only one way). We started out at Salamander Flats and headed to Ridge 157. Needless to say it was not too long before Royce realized there was a lot of uphill and very little relief. I am guessing about the time he realized this is when he announced he was switching to road biking. Ooops, too much too soon. I was worried he really was not going to like the ride, but we kept riding forward.

The hill side is changing colors .Royce cranking it up the hill on Salamander Flats.As we hit the meadow at mud spring flats I heard a clinking on my bike and noticed an unusual tension as I pedaled. Upon inspection of my bike I found 1 loose bolt on the small ring of my front cassette and one that was ready to pop out. I was able to tighten the loose bolt almost tight, but was not able to rethread the other bolt. This did not stop our ride, however I had to ride in my middle cog for the rest of the ride. This turned out to not be as bad as I imagined.

From the meadow we headed up to the lookout. We stayed there for a while enjoying the scenery and watching the wild life. We saw a hawk circling in the sky and we kept hearing a bull elk. Never did see the elk, so I am not sure if it was an elk or hunters, but it sure sounded real.

Royce checking out the spectacular view.

A rock wall created by mother earth. After pausing and enjoying the beauty of the canyon is was time to go back. The ride back was great. When you ride 3.5 miles up hill then you know you are going to get 3.5 miles down hill. Once we got back I think I may have actually seen a smile on my husbands face. I don't know if he has changed his mind about converting to being a roadie, but I do know that I will stick to the trails with less climbing when we got out together....at least for now.

These steps may look fun going down, but they were not as great as they look.Royce bombing downhill.War wound from the ride. I popped out of my pedals while trying to pedal over some rocks. I ended up rolling down the hill with my bike. The second ride of the day was the Ride Like a Girl group ride. Jolene and I rode our bikes up to Timpanogus park to meet the group for the ride. Once we got there we found out the ride had been changed and we were going to Big Spring Hollow. There was someone there to help us load our bikes and make sure we got up to the trail head.

For the group ride we had there was Patty and Jen (part of the Mad Dog racing Team), Jessica, Jennalyn and Tiffany and of course KC Holley helping us along the trail to improve our skills. At the trail head we met and worked on tight circles, unweighting our bike and hopping our bike. After working on these skills we headed up the trail. It was a beautiful evening for riding the temperature was perfect and the landscape showed the beauty of the changing colors of leaves on the trees.

Jessica, Jennalyn and Patty coming up the trail.
Jolene heading up the trail.
At the top of the hill I scrambled ahead to get some pictures of everyone riding. This turned out to be good because after taking pictures I ended up behind KC and got some great advice on riding my bike and now have something new to practice. Unfortunately as we were riding Jessica's chain broke. KC stayed to fix it and we rode on. However it wasn't long before KC and Jessica caught up to us. Granted Jolene and I were taking pictures, but I don't think I could fix a chain as fast as KC did.

Patty tearing up the trail.

Jessica clearing the obstacles on the trail.

Jennalyn looks like she is having a great time on the ride.

Jolene riding the trail with style and grace.
Tiffany doing a great job riding. This is one of her first mtb rides.KC showing her more serious side.

We ended the group ride in the parking lot by the trail head, but Jolene and I continued riding down the canyon and back home. I wanted to see how fast I could get my bike to go down the canyon road, but it never got over 31 mph. I tried, but that's as fast as I could get. When we got to the Provo River Trail Jolene and I got out our blinking lights and took off down the trail. Somewhere along the way mine fell off and I ended up without a light. Glad we did not have far to go on the city streets.

It got dark rather quickly and was cool riding in the dusk as it changed to dark of the night. A perfect ending to a great day of riding.