almost perfect

Sunday was nearly as perfect weather-wise as you can get, especially in mid-August.  The monsoons had brought rain earlier in the week so I had wanted to push MTBing to Sunday, in case the Round Valley trails needed extra time to dry out.  I needn't have worried as they hadn't gotten wet at all, other than a few sprinkles that just served to puff the dust up.  Those storms had brought a cold front through, however, which meant that the air was cleared of all the wildfire smoke and it was noticeably cooler.  It was a little breezy (which is why the day was only almost perfect) but otherwise ideal for MTBing in Park City.

We weren't quite as early as we have been the last few times and thus were surprised to find the trails as empty as they were.  All the traffic seemed to come out after 10:30 a.m., and with it the bad trail manners: one guy, coming downhill, didn't get out of H's way when H was riding uphill, and pushed him off into a sagebrush; and a girl, coming downhill on the Staircase, stopped when she saw H riding up - but stopped in the middle of the trail, leaving him nowhere to go but into the bushes.  Aside from those minor annoyances, it was a terrific day to be out.  Even the six buzzards perched on the parking lot fence - and the one buzzard who circled right overhead as I started my first climb - couldn't dampen our good mood on the day.