good day for a ride

It seemed like it had been ages since we'd MTBed in Park City, although really it had only been a couple of weeks.  It was absolutely gorgeous when we rolled in to Round Valley: bright sunshine, clear skies and temperatures around 58 F.  We'd waited a while for things to warm up before we headed out; Park City was in the 30s when the sun came up that day.

 Spectacular day

Although the Quinn's Trailhead parking areas were pretty full, this was for youth soccer and lacrosse games and the trails themselves were not that crowded in the morning.  There were quite a few dogs and walkers but only a few MTBers and trail runners.  The trails were in pretty good shape too: there were a couple of wet and muddy spots but for the most part everything had dried up from the deluge northern Utah had gotten a few days earlier.  The dust was tamped down (or washed away) too so we didn't so much look like Pigpen as we rode along.

Our route this time was the usual start to 7170; the P-Dog Loop (up PorcUClimb and down Down Dog) to Matt's Flat to Rambler; Rambler/Ramble On/Rambler to the Round Valley Connector; around the backside to climb Happy Gilmor and Tin Man (25 minutes of climbing) to Rademan Ridge; and down Rambler.  At this point, my legs were a little fatigued - the stretch of Rambler etc. around to the RV Connector is rockier than our usual trails - so I went right, along the Round Valley Express, bearing left on Valderoad, pushing my MTB up Hammerhead Hill, then riding across 7170 to the road down and out.  H instead rode up the sagebrush switchbacks of Rambler, then down the other side of Rambler to what we call Turn 8, where he turned off onto Kari's (or High Side, one of those) back to Matt's Flat to the way out.  Beautiful day, good ride.

Ride stats:  19.31 miles (this was H's distance as he carries the GPS; my distance was a couple miles shorter, most likely); 2: 03 hours; 9.4 m.p.h. average speed; 26.5 m.p.h. top speed (again, H); 1,390' elevation.