root for the home team

SLC has its own AAA baseball team, the Bees, who have been around in one incarnation or the other since 1915 and who are currently a farm team for the Anaheim Angels. Their home field, the Spring Mobile Ballpark (located at 77 West 1300 South) is a great little ballpark, we were pleased to discover during H’s work’s summer outing there this past Tuesday, with double-decker seats, an outside-the-outfield berm for lounging and picnicking, a mini-train for the easily bored youngsters and a stunning view of the Wasatch Front.

View to the southeast

The Bees themselves were less than stunning, having had a run of bad luck lately and losing 8 of their last 10 games. They lost 7-4 Tuesday night (so it was reported – we left after the 7th inning stretch), unable to muster enough offense despite some great defensive plays that roused the apathetic crowd out of its torpor. “Crowd” is hyperbole, frankly, as the stadium was less than half full. I would hope that more fans are going to non-school night games because it’s certainly a fun venue. Maybe the team just needs to start winning some games to draw folks back in.

The moon was just about to come up over yonder

Also, cheaper beers would draw folks in as well: $7.25 for local micro drafts. Yikes!

tour of utah - stage 5

Sunday's Stage 5 was the Queen stage, the last, long ride from Park City to Snowbird.  Ninety-six miles of grueling hills and fast descents - including the Alpine Loop (from Sundance to American Fork Canyon), Traverse Ridge in Draper and the 7-mile/8-12% grade climb from our house to Snowbird. Brutal.  Plus it was incredibly windy, making the climbs even harder and the descents more dangerous.

We'd heard they were closing Little Cottonwood Canyon Road around 2:00 p.m. - the race started at 11:00 a.m. in PC - so we headed up there around noon, clutching our raincoats as we looked anxiously at the darkening clouds.  Sure enough, the temperature dropped 20 degrees between Sandy and Snowbird, and we drove through a short but enthusiastic rain shower. 

Everybody polka!

The parking lots were already getting full by the time we got up there: not only was this race going on, but Sunday was the first day of Snowbird's Oktoberfest ... which runs through the rest of August, all of September and October.  We had enough time so we walked up to check out Oktoberfest.  After paying $6.50 each for beer and listening briefly to the lederhosen-clad polka band, we decided that was all the Oktoberfest we needed.

Levi's last charge

We took our places along the fence about 200 m. from the finish line.  Our positioning gave us a great view down the road as the riders made that last push, and we could watch them as they turned down into the finish area as well.  Spectators lined the road on both sides - making me extremely nervous what with the running alongside the cyclists - and cheered madly for everyone, even after the winners (Jai Crawford for the stage win; and Levi Leipheimer for the tour win) went by.

Final jerseys: David Tanner, Darren Lill, Levi Leipheimer,

Jai Crawford, Ian Boswell

We weren't able to get as near to the podium this time what with all the oodles of people, but we did get close enough to see the exhaustion and exhilaration on the riders' faces.  It's too bad that George Hincapie didn't get to finish but it was wonderful to see an old guy like Levi (because yes, in this sport 36 is old) holding his own against the young up and comers.  And it was great to see those young guys - sprinters like Alex Dowsett, powerhouses like Taylor Phinney and overall talents like Ian Boswell - the faces of cycling to come.

tour of utah - stage 4

Stage 4 was a criterium: a short course race held on city streets.  In this case, the course was one mile long and the city was Park City.  What was unusual about this crit was that it was hilly, really hilly: the cyclists went up Main Street for a half-mile at a 12% grade.  And they did it over and over and over again for 75 minutes.  Actually, they lucked out as it had been scheduled for 90 minutes but was shortened due to concerns about the heat. 

Charging up Main Street

H told me that several of the riders - the sprinters - were annoyed with this course.  Sprinters aren't climbers, you see, and the 2010 Tour of Utah had two mountain stages (2 and 5), two hilly stages (1 and 4) and a time trial - nothing that catered to them.  Still, this Park City crit offered some of the most exciting bicycle racing I've seen, what with the fast climbs, faster descents (at one point, the peloton came surging over a rise and down a hill altogether like a herd of buffalo) and sharp corners.

Hometown boy wins it

Park City was packed for this race. We parked at the high school and took a shuttle into and out of town (super-convenient and well-organized). We mostly stood by the start/finish line, right at the fence, and were in great position to watch the racers come charging up Main Street. The best part: Jeff Louder, SLC native, crushed the field and won handily with about a minute between him and the rest of the field. Levi Leipheimer hung in there and kept his yellow jersey for yet another day.

Bob Roll interviews Levi post-race

tour of utah - stage 3

The third stage of the Tour of Utah took place at 6:30 p.m. Friday night at Miller Motorsports Park in Erda/Tooele.  We got out there faster than we expected so we stopped in for a pre-race beer at the Tracks Sports Bar in Tooele, not something I would necessarily recommend.  I mean, I like dive bars but this wasn't a dive: it was kind of skanky, but not in a having-character way.  Still, beer.

Miller Motorsports Park is a huge and (apparently - what do I know from race tracks) sophisticated racing facility.  We wandered around the garage bays for quite some time, checking out the emaciated cyclists and their really expensive bikes. 

Levi's time trial bike

This stage was a time trial: a twisty, turny, flat 9.2 mile course. Although there is a grandstand overlooking the track, we couldn't find spots at the rail and instead opted to sit trackside, just beyond the finish line where we could see the cyclists coming.  My friend Jody from work and her husband, both avid road cyclists, met us there and we watched the race together.

Stage 3 jerseys: Ian Boswell (young rider), Paco Mancebo (KOM),

Darren Lill (Utah rider), Levi (overall), David Tanner (sprinter)

Young cyclist-to-watch Taylor Phinney won the time trial, giving him the stage win; Levi came in just two seconds behind him - pretty good for having 16 years on Taylor.

tour of utah - stage 2

Stage 2 was wild and woolly: a mountaintop finish on Mt. Nebo amid a hugenormous storm with rain and hail.  The racers started at Thanksgiving Point, just above Utah Lake, then went around the lake and down to Nephi, then climbing 4,000 feet above the lowest part of the ride for the finish.

Local yokel Jeff Louder (finished 18th)

H drove up to the finish from the other (Payson) side of the Mt. Nebo scenic drive, snagging a parking spot about a quarter-mile from the finish line.  He soon found that he didn't need any sunscreen, instead embracing his raincoat as the weather moved through, leaving temperatures in the high 50s by the time the cyclists got to the top.

Ian Boswell (3rd), Levi (1st), Francisco Mancebo (2nd)

Levi Leipheimer won the stage and moved into the overall racer leader (yellow jersey) position, despite some struggles with the higher altitude.  Poor George Hincapie went out of the race after a solo crash and yesterday's race leader, young Brit Alex Dowsett finished twelve minutes behind.

tour of utah - stage 1

It's going to be all cycling, all the time around here for the next, oh, five posts, what with us being Tour of Utah junkies and all. 

Stage 1, August 18 (also my dad's birthday!), went from Ogden to the U's Research Park in the foothills above SLC, touring past Snowbasin ski resort, through Morgan County, past East Canyon reservoir and through Emigration Canyon for a total of 85 miles.  The biggest hill climb was over Big Mountain for 2,000 feet of elevation in about six miles.

L to R: David Tanner, Alex Dowsett and Javier Megias

H was there for the finish.  The racers sort of snuck up on the announcers who'd gotten misinformation from a team car radio and thus were a little unprepared and surprised when David Tanner sprinted across the finish line.  Alex Dowsett won the stage - and also Best Young Rider and King of the Mountain ... but it won't last [SPOILER].

wheels on asphalt

In addition to the engine-powered speed demons, we also saw a bunch of leg-powered speed demons: the Tour of Utah has arrived!  This is a bike race (like a mini Tour de France), touted as the "toughest stage race" in the country, what with all the mountains and altitude we have here.  H is a bicyclist and through him I've become interested in the sport (as a spectator) so we were really excited to see some of the stages.

The prologue (preliminary time trial) was held in downtown SLC at the capital. We found a parking spot in the Avenues, walked down the east side of Memory Grove and then back up the west side, and arrived right on time for the start. Since it's a time trial, the cyclists go out one at a time, at 30-second intervals, and race the clock. The less-good guys go first and the best cyclists ride last, so we had time to walk around and look at the vendors (I had a daiquiri-flavored sno-cone) and the various cycling teams.

The better riders were camped out by their team buses, riding trainers and warming up. There are some pretty big names here (if you're a cycling fan), most particularly George Hincapie, a veteran of fifteen Tours de France, and Levi Leipheimer.

Big George, warming up

Big George was easy to pick out.  He's like 9 feet tall (not really but most cyclists are short and since he's around 6', he seems like a giant) and soooooo skinny.  People were swarming him, taking photographs and trying to shake his hand; he had his game face on and put up with it for a little while.

Me and my new friend Levi

Levi was harder to find but we did track him down as he was warming up with the Radio Shack team, and wearing a RS jersey, even though he's not officially riding for RS in this race.  When I sidled up to him for a picture, I wished him good luck and he thanked me.  He's a tiny little guy and has tan lines on his scalp from his bike helmet.

Taylor Phinney, the whippersnapper who won the prologue

There was a decent crowd but we were able to stand right next to the starting gate for both George's and Levi's starts, as well as move to the finish line for their finishes.  Neither of them won the prologue - some whippersnapper from Radio Shack did - but managed to position themselves well for the coming stages.  It was a beautiful evening for a bike race and pretty exciting to see these world class athletes competing in our new hometown.

wheels on salt

You ever see The World's Fastest Indian, that movie where Anthony Hopkins plays an old Kiwi who schleps his Indian motorcycle from New Zealand to Utah to try to set a Speed Week land speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats?  I saw it too but even better: H and I went out to the Bonneville Salt Flats for Speed Week ourselves.  We just did a day trip, which was plenty.  It's a long ride from SLC - over 100 miles each way - although 80W is straight and flat and there's really no traffic once you get west of Tooele.  And it's bloody hot out there on the salt, 90+ degrees with no shade and the glare reflecting off the bright white flats.  But the salt flats have a stark, otherworldly beauty that I'm really drawn to ... and dang, those cars and motorcycles are wild!

Stark and otherworldly - am I right?

We took a vacation day so we could go mid-week and the crowds were nonexistent.  We drove the little Subaru right out onto the salt, nabbing a parking place not far from the starting line.  There are three courses: the short course (4ish miles long), where the amateurs have to prove themselves; the combo course (5ish miles); and the long course (7+ miles, plus your vehicle has to go over 200 m.p.h. to even get on this course - it's where the big dogs run).

In 2006 on the BSF, this guy set a land

speed record of 323 m.p.h.

Despite the fact that all these people - mostly old, rich white guys, the only ones able to put the time and money necessary into these vehicles - are here to try to set records, whether personal or course or world, the atmosphere is really chill.  Spectators can stand right next to the vehicles at the starting line; you can walk up to the cars and 'cycles as they wait in line for their start; if someone needs a push or a part, there's always someone willing to help out.  People are friendly too, happy to answer questions from a couple of newbies.

This is Billy.  He would come within 2/10ths of a mile

of the record on this run - over 206 m.p.h.

We hung around the starting line for a couple hours, taking pictures, talking to folks, watching these crazy machines rush out of sight and over the horizon within seconds.  (By the way, the Bonneville Salt Flats is so big and flat that it's one of the few places on the planet where you can actually see the curve of the earth, so once the racers got out three miles, they disappeared from sight.)  We reapplied our SPF50 once, and donned long sleeved shirts and - miraculously - managed to not get sunburned.

Getting a push at the start

After a while we drove a couple of miles down the salt flats to where the pits were set up.  The pits stretch for three more miles along the race course (but back away from it so there's no danger).  We strolled about, looking at the crews working on their vehicles, and turning to watch every time a racer blew past the 2-mile marker.  We were soon able to tell who was fast - and it really wasn't worth watching if they weren't going at least 200 m.p.h., frankly.

The salt is really not that good for your Mad Max-ish Jaguar

These guys are nuts, going so fast, but they love what they do and they seem very supportive of each other.  They're pretty respectful of the salt too: I saw no trash strewn about anywhere; and at the starting line, most vehicles are pushed out by another non-racing vehicle until they come up to speed, in part so they don't spin their wheels and destroy the salt in their acceleration.  It's not something I want to do myself, and I'm not sure I need to go back to see it again anytime soon, but I'm sure glad we went to check it out.

bells canyon #2

Way back in April, H and I attempted Bells Canyon but turned around early due to icy and steep trail conditions.  I said then that we'd have to go back since we didn't make to either of the waterfalls or the reservoir way up at the top of the canyon.  On Sunday we went back and while we didn't attempt the reservoir, being further/steeper than we wanted to go, we did get to both the lower and the upper falls.

Upper falls

We parked at a different trailhead - the Granite Trailhead - and the initial ascent to the lower Bells Canyon reservoir was much less steep than taking the Boulders Trailhead as we'd done in April.  This was fine since the actual trail up Bells Canyon is very steep and rocky, called by many a "granite staircase."  The trail is mostly shaded, which was welcomed since we were working pretty hard, but there were breaks in the trees enough that we could see the awesome (in the original sense of the word) cliffs towering over us.

Snack spot, looking to Thunder Mtn.

At 1.7 miles we passed a spur trail leading to the lower falls, opting to continue to the upper falls first.  The trail got even steeper and fairly overgrown, but still followable.  The upper falls are at about 2.6 miles from the trailhead.  We continued up a little further and had a snack on a large granite slab where we could see out to the Great Salt Lake while behind us the canyon continued up to Thunder Mountain and the Bells Canyon reservoir.  At this point it was clear that there was no way we were going to attempt the reservoir, another 1+ miles and nearly 2,000 feet of elevation gain, plus at this point our guidebooks got very confused as to where the trail continuing up the canyon might be.

Lower falls

On the descent we somehow got off the trail we'd come up, following game trails or spur trails for a bit, but rejoined the main trail somewhere below the upper falls.  We had remembered to bring our hiking poles with us this time and were particularly grateful for them on this trail.  As we went down, we spied a couple of rock climbers on the Bell Towers - those guys are nuts, clinging to the cliffs like that.  When we got to the trail junction, we went down to the lower falls which are larger and more easily seen than the upper falls, and pretty darn spectacular.  It was getting hot at this point too and the spray from the cascade felt too good to want to leave.

the Bell Towers

But leave we did, H draining his Camelbak on the long, hot run out.  I'm glad we went back to Bells Canyon, something that had been in the back of my mind since the spring.  Now I can cross that one off the list.

not quite the fairest of them all

Back east H and I used to hit one or two fairs each year, usually the Cumberland County Fair, because it was practically next door to us, and the granddaddy of them all, the Fryeburg Fair.  We'd wander for hours, skipping the carnival rides but in and out of every barn with me patting every animal I could get my hands on, poking around the farm equipment, cheering from the stands during the draft horse and oxen pulling, and eating. Love the fair food: kettle corn, Italian sausages, Beale St. BBQ chopped brisket sandwiches (only available at the fairs), fried dough.  Mm-mm!

It's been Fair Season out here in Utah for a while now.  We missed the Tooele and Heber County fairs but decided to give our new home county a go.  The Salt Lake County Fair ran from August 11-14 out at the South Jordan Equestrian Park (2100 W 11400 S).  The day's program seemed packed with a 4H livestock auction, horce racing, pig racing, fiddlers, horse pulling, equestrian vaulting, cake decorating contests, clogging grandmothers and a Dutch oven cook-off, to name just a few.

The fair opened at 11:00 a.m..  We got there sometime after 1:00 p.m., paid $7 for parking/admission, and left not long after 2:00 p.m.  Folks, the SLCo Fair is TINY.  Smaller than the Cumberland Fair by a looooong shot.  There were hardly any animals, about eight food booths, some lady selling henna tattoos, a few carnivals games and kiddie rides, and a petting zoo (with a 1-year old camel!).  And that was about it.  I was shocked.  I really thought it would have been a bigger fair.  We did a lap around everything and called it good.  H thinks that maybe a more rural county might have a better fair - like Heber, which I'm game to try next year - and we're determined to go to the Utah State Fair in September ... but now my expectations are much, much lower for that one.  If it measures up to Fryeburg, I'll be happy.

So what did we do with the rest of our Saturday?  H got on his bike, I did some weeding and at 6:00 p.m. we went up to Snowbird for their final Cool Air Concert of the season, the Nate Robinson Trio.  What a lovely evening: sitting on the deck with a mellow crowd, drinking our own PBRs (coolers are allowed), watching the sun go down behind the mountains and listening to a decent local band play reggae.  A stop in at the Lone Star Taqueria for carne asado tacos and a chile verde burrito capped off what turned out to be a very nice day, meager fair-going notwithstanding.