all the ups

Those days of moderate temperatures have fled - it is hot-hot-hot in Utah right now!  We lucked out Friday overnight, however, and things cooled off enough that it was very pleasant MTBing in Park City Saturday morning.  We got a medium-early start and were on the trails a little after 8 a.m.  The Quinn's Trailhead parking was full-ish due to the Salt Lake Running Company's Park City Trail Series, doing their 10K race on the Round Valley trails.  Attendance looked to be down a bit from prior years due to COVID-19 but it was great to see all the runners out there.

Dry and dusty out there

Feeling emboldened by our last time, we headed straight to Rusty Shovel.  I started out wobbly but finished the climb stronger than I started it; it is steeper towards the top but not rocky, so I don't panic so much.  H did the climb in fifteen minutes and I apparently did it in twenty, my time a minute less than last time.  From there, we had to do a last-second reroute because of the runners coming up Rambler so we went across Matt's Flat to climb what we call "My Nemesis," even though it isn't anymore, then went down Round Valley Express all the way to the paved bike path.  After getting to the far trailhead, we climbed Happy Gilmor and Tin Man - much more fun to ride up than ride down, in our opinion - then went down Rambler, crossed the RVE and climbed back up Rambler via the sagebrush switchbacks.  Then, because we hadn't had quite enough climbing, we did the P-Dog loop: up PorcUClimb and down Down Dog. 

I don't know whether it was due to the not-yet-hot temperatures or my legs are finally getting into shape or I was just able to focus better, but that ended up being one of my best rides yet this year.  I felt good on the climbs and I did some of my best descending on Down Dog.  It was a good ride.

Ride stats: 16.82 miles; 1:52 hours; 9.0 avg. m.p.h. (H); around 1,300' elevation