dog days come early this year

 After a couple of delightfully cool (in the 70s!) days, the heat rushed into Utah with a vengeance.  Saturday wasn't terrible - topping out in the low 90s - so in the morning, H got out for a road ride while Milt and I did our 4-ish mile loop up through the neighborhood and down through Dimple Dell.  Then it was yard work - mowing and edging and sweeping and weeding - until we couldn't take it anymore.  We'd obviously earned our beers so we checked out the dog-friendly patios list on DogfriendlySLC and headed off to the Brickyard Bar, formerly known as Lumpy's.

Desert dog likes the heat I

It's been completely renovated since the Lumpy's days and the patio has been tripled.  While H and Milton waited outside, I popped in to the inside bar and let a server know that we had a dog with us.  She came around to the gate to let us in and, before she had even taken our order was showing us photos of her dog, Winston.  Everyone was very nice, constantly checking to see if Milton needed more ice cubes in his water dish.  For his part, Milt alternated cooking himself in the sun and then cooling off under our table.  He also got to meet a tiny bichon frise (or similar) puppy named Tank.  Tank couldn't have weighed more than a box of kleenex.

Ted in motion

We had made arrangements to meet up with Ted for MTBing Sunday morning at 9 a.m. It's hard to believe that we didn't get to Round Valley until mid-June this year; last year, even with more snow and pandemic restrictions, we did our first MTB there a full month earlier.  It wasn't even that busy when we started out.  We warmed up on the double track, then headed to PorcUClimb and Down Dog.  Ted and I are pretty closely matched MTB-wise: he's fitter (and possibly lighter) than I am right now, and he's a good bike handler, catching H on the downhills, but I'm a stronger climber and have better endurance.  H kicks both our butts.

A in motion

From there, we took Matt's Flat to Kari's to High Side (maybe High Line? I dunno) to the top of Rambler, then descended Rambler through the sagebrush switchbacks.  That's where we found all the people; we need to remember to do Rambler early.  After coming out on Round Valley Express, we jumped on the new Big Easy trail.  I really like that one: it's wide for singletrack and not rocky, and the climbing is steady but not steep.  We connected back up with Ramble On and Rambler, making it back to the truck that way.  We only did about twelve miles but it was already heating up.

Desert dog likes the heat II

Back on the SLC side, we waited out the midday heat, then braved the partially shaded driveway to wash the bikes (making sure to capture any usable water we could to help the trees and shrubs) and drink beers (probably slightly scandalous to the neighbors but it was so hot no one else was outside).  Milton made up for the fact that he'd been locked in the house all morning by sunbathing: 99 F in the sun with the cement driveway not quite hot enough to burn.  I guess summer is here, y'all.