summertime stuff

Since we've been mixing things up a bit lately (i.e., still hiking and MTBing but varying the days and start times), we though we'd see what MTBing at Round Valley would be like on a Saturday morning.  We did the same early start (up at 6 a.m.), noticing less traffic on the interstate than there had been July 3rd but more than there would have been on a Sunday morning at that time.  The bike path was not in heavy use and the cool (59 F) temperatures were great.  When we got to the Quinn's Trailhead, however, we were shocked to find it full of cars, even without any Little League or soccer games going on at that time.

Park City Trail Series runners

As we got out on the trails, we started seeing race route signs and, soon enough, started seeing lots and lots of folks out there trail-running.  We learned that it was the second race of the Park City Trail Series, a progressive series of trail races throughout the summer, apparently all out on the Round Valley trails.  The first one was a 5K in June; this one was a 10K; there's a 15K in August and the series finishes up in September with a half marathon.  It looked like a lot of fun.  We timed our ride quite well with all those runners too, since part of the course was up the sagebrush switchbacks of Rambler; if we'd been coming down as they were going up, it would have been a bit of a nightmare.  But instead we largely had the trails to ourselves.  The recent midweek rain had packed the dust and sand down a bit and with fresh legs I climbed My Nemesis, Sweet Sixteen and the Staircase pretty well.

Pretty sure my helmet is on crooked

There was someone hanging out in our regular picnic spot on the Guardsman Pass road so we drove over to Brighton and set up our cooler and chairs in the parking lot there.  The afternoon was spent back at home, watching le Tour de France and the running of the bulls in Pamplona.  We rallied, though, and went up to the Snowbird Cool Air Concert Series to see the Young Dubliners.  I'm a little embarrassed to say that neither H nor I were familiar with the band ... but a whole lot of other people were and the crowd on the plaza deck was way bigger than any other we've seen for these free concerts.  It was a lovely evening with good music and great people-watching - Snowbird's first Dirtybird obstacle race had been that day and there were lots of muddy participants limping around with grins and beers - and just an excellent summer day all the way around.