the last time the season, for reals

Although we thought that this was the last time we would go MTBing for the year, it turns out that we actually had one more time in us.  The little storm that brought snow to the higher elevations really didn't touch Park City's lower trails and with the weekend being so beautiful, we just had to get our tires in the dirt one more time.  We checked the trail conditions and, upon finding them classified as "mostly dry," headed up Parley's Canyon.

We had delayed our departure a bit, letting the temperatures warm up to around 45 F.  It was windy, however, as windy as it's been for any MTB ride I've been on, and we planned our kits accordingly with long sleeves, tights/knee warmers and heavier socks (plus long fingered gloves for me).  As we headed down the paved bike path towards the Round Valley trails, we had a full-on headwind (which OF COURSE did not stick around to be a tailwind for the return trip) and it was chilly.  Some hill-climbing would be all we would need to warm up.

Managing to not ride off the side of the bridge

It turned out to be a quite nice day for riding.  Once we were on the dirt in the foothills, the wind wasn't much of a factor and the temperatures warmed into the low 50s, which was very pleasant.  Mud was not an issue as the trails were completely dry.  I managed to stay wheels-down for the entire ride and felt like I climbed the Sweet Sixteen switchbacks pretty well.  We started coming across quite a few people in that middle section - both sides of Rambler are popular - but we were all polite and well-versed in trail etiquette. It also turned out to be a good critter-viewing day: in addition to the boring old cows and horses, we saw a donkey, bison and zebra (residents of a ranch on the outskirts of Park City) and we got close to a winter-coated ermine twice on the paved bike path, on both the outbound and inbound portions.

When we got home, H decided to wash our MTBs one last time before putting them away for the winter.  And it was a good thing he did: starting Monday afternoon, a lovely little storm moved into Utah, bringing 12-17" of snow to the higher elevations.  The ski resorts have started to get excited - we skiers have started to get excited - and I think this time,  this time, that was our last MTB for the season.