new shoes

The western wildfires' drifting smoke is continuing to make it very smoky in the Salt Lake Valley.  Luckily, it is much less so on the Park City side of the Wasatch mountains, so we made arrangements to meet P Saturday morning at 8 a.m. at Round Valley's Quinn's Trailhead.  We hadn't realized that the National Ability Center was having its 2018 Summit Challenge ride then, so parking was a little crazy; we got redirected out to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team facility (sadly, no Mikaela Shiffrin sightings) and parked there instead. 

Voila: new tires!

With so many people doing the NAC ride out on the roads, the Round Valley trails were relatively deserted.  The weather was beautiful - sunny but with a cool breeze - and several of the folks we saw riding with their dogs (including two women on horses and accompanied by Nugget the corgi). 

The gang, post-ride

I was debuting new tires - I somehow wear my treads out quickly, despite not riding all that much: big chunky treads and wider tires (2.5 vs the 2.1 I had before).  H was very pleased with how the bigger tires made my little old MTB look.  The hefty treads gripped the trails great and I had no spin outs, not even in the looser stuff.  These bigger tires are a little heavier, though, so it will take me a couple of rides to get used to that.  Some of our climbs included the former My Nemesis, up the Sagebrush Switchbacks and the first eight switchbacks of the Sweet Sixteen.  Verdict: new treads equals good climbing. 

After our ride, we hung out in the parking lot for beers and snacks and talked with various folks rolling in, including a NAC rider on a fat bike with a sweet flask holder attached to his front fork; and woman MTBing with her very sweet rescue dog, Siskiyou, who just leaned against us while we patted her. 

When we got back home, the smoke had cleared out and it was a lovely evening, prompting us to walk to dinner (pizza), then stop for drinks with neighbors as the nearly-full moon come up over the mountains.  An excellent day (that also happened to be our seventeenth wedding anniversary)!