riding on the fourth of july

When the Fourth of July falls smack dab in the middle of the week, there's not a whole lot you can do with it.  It's a "school night," so we knew there wouldn't be any late night revelry a la the Real Salt Lake home game, and we didn't plan to take any time off around the holiday.  Plus, the cooler-than-normal temperatures that northern Utah has had since last Friday have departed and Wednesday was ushering in some serious heat.  So we went MTBing over in Park City.

Smoke from the Dollar Ridge wildfire

We didn't really know what to expect crowd-wise but thought that it might be busy with folks taking advantage of the midweek free day.  I guess other people like parades more than we do, however, because there was hardly anyone at Round Valley and we thoroughly enjoyed the dearth of other riders on the trails.  We didn't get riding until close to 10 a.m., at which point it was 72 F, warmer than recent rides but still not that bad, all things considered.  We could see smoke from the Dollar Ridge wildfire off in the distance: the heat, bone-dry conditions and gusty winds surely weren't helping that situation.

Riding the dry and dusty trails

Despite deciding to turn back on the Rambler switchbacks up to Rademan Ridge (someone had gotten hurt and there were paramedics attending her, having gotten in on dirt bikes and ATVs), we put together a nice 15+ mile course with plenty of climbing (up My Nemesis, PorcUclimb, Kari's and High Side, the Sagebrush Switchback portion of Rambler, etc.).  PorcUclimb continues to be my hero trail but I also went up the Staircase without issue, despite some continuing fatigue in my legs from Sunday's hike, and descended Rusty Shovel better than I had on Saturday.  H had his fastest overall speed for the ride of the season and I feel like I'm riding pretty good (for me).  When I get new tires - my current treads are rather worn - maybe I'll be brave enough to try another trail system.