headwinds for everybody

For some reason, our Island Lake hike hit me really hard Saturday night, sending me to bed unusually early.  This translated into not really seeing the need to get a particularly early start to the day on Sunday and thus we didn't get on our MTBs in Park City until 10:00 a.m.  Given the lateness of the hour and how beautiful the day was (sunny, breezy and unseasonably warm, actually), I assumed the MTB trails would be overrun.  I was, thankfully, wrong as we encountered very few folks out there.  What we did encounter was lots and lots of wind: strong, warm and blusterier than we've had in a while.

Just before heading up the Sweet Sixteen

H has gotten his legs/lungs back but although I cannot keep up with him on the flats and the downhills - he is braver than I have descending, plus his MTB's 29-inch wheels eat up the ground faster than my 26ers - I did manage to hold my own on the climbs.  I wasn't far behind on My Nemesis and held onto his wheel for the approach to Hammerhead Hill.  After that, my get up and go got up and went, in part, I think, because there seemed to be a headwind no matter which way we were going, and I climbed the Sweet Sixteen switchbacks rather slowly.  We both felt like we descended through the downhill portion of Rambler well; having the place to yourself allows a bit more freedom to let it ride.

I didn't get away entirely unscathed, however, and had my first crash since Moab in May.  I was focusing on the trail when a bird exploded out of a scrub oak next to me, surprising me.  I tried to put my foot down - this was in a section of trail that I usually ride with my left foot unclipped - but my biking shoe had gotten clipped in without me realizing it.  I couldn't get unclipped in time and just fell over into a sagebrush bush, feet still locked onto the pedals.  It scarcely counted as a "crash," although I did manage to scratch up my arm a little and it amused H to no end for the rest of the day, that a bird startled me enough to knock me off my bike.

H sent me this later that night, captioned "BOO!"

I was not so startled that time.