and onto the wasatch back

Sunday morning, the air in the Salt Lake valley smelled like a campfire - from the area/California wildfire smoke - so we were glad to throw our MTBs on the truck and drive over to Park City.  It had been more than a month (!!!) since we had been on our MTBs; I hoped I remembered how.

P, taking a corner

Because we planned to watch the end of the Tour of Utah, we met P at the Park City high school parking lot, then rode the bike path out of town to the Quinn's trail head.  The air was pretty warm but every now and again we got a cool-ish breeze.  The trails were extremely dusty since there hasn't been any appreciable rain in I-don't-know-how-long.  There weren't many cars at the trail head, however, and we saw very few people out on the trails.

A, same corner but slower

To ease back into things, we took it relatively easy, not making P climb too much his first time out with us.  We did do PorcUclimb (still my new favorite) and Down Dog, and the top half of Rambler's Sweet Sixteen switchbacks, and did the long downhill on Rusty Shovel, among others.  It felt good to get back on my MTB although I do need to get new treads; I've never replaced my front tire and even my rear tire, which has been replaced once, is getting thin.

A breakaway right at the start of Stage 6

When we started back to town, we managed to time it just right to see the Tour of Utah riders heading out.  There was a neutral start in town and then, just before they neared where we were, the neutral zone ended.  By the time they hit that first corner, they were flying: a couple of riders out front already and the rest of the peloton whooshing by.

... and then here come the rest of them

After they had ridden out of sight, we rode back to our trucks, got cleaned up and had a quick lunch.  We jumped the free Park City shuttle and rode it into the old town.  Although we knew we were hours away from the finish, the crowds still seemed diminished from years past.  We whiled away the time at the bar in the No Name, talking to the bartender and keeping an eye on the bike race on our phones.  With just minutes to spare, we paid up and stepped back outside - where we were surprised to find that it had rained, dropping the air temperature by a good fifteen degrees, which was lovely -and up to the barricades. 

We watched Sepp Kuss, the Stage winner and the overall ToU winner, come charging up the hill to the finish line, less than ten seconds ahead of the next riders.  Then, after the rest of the riders came through, we grabbed another shuttle back to our trucks, using the time to make plans with P for the next weekend.  No bike race, true, but surely we can find something to do.

return to the (wasatch) front

After being away for the last five, it felt a little weird to stayed based in Salt Lake City for a full weekend.  We tried not to hang around the house much, however (the heat and the wildfire smoke, from both Utah and California fires, made it a bit uncomfortable), instead heading out to the mountains.  Our friend P had moved from Maine to Midway two weeks ago and we hadn't really seen him yet, due to our crazy schedules; we asked him to come over to the Wasatch Front for a hike and a bit of Tour of Utah watching.

Note: Usually I detail the Tour of Utah pretty closely here but we just didn't keep up with it this year, although we did watch the finishes of the last two stages.  Our travel and work schedules just got in the way.

We picked P up at a lot at the intersection of Wasatch Boulevard and 9400 South in Sandy, then drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon (nicely paved now) to Snowbird.  The drifting wildfire smoke had even infiltrated all the way up the canyon, which massively curtailed the views: we couldn't see the Oquirrhs at the other side of the Salt Lake Valley and, from the top of Hidden Peak, we couldn't even see down into Heber.  Thus, not so many photos for this hike.

Thanks to P, an actual photo of H and me together

Deciding to throw P right into the deep end steep-wise, we went up the Peruvian Gulch trail from Snowbird base (very steep, right from the start), then connected with the Peruvian Ridge trail (very steep, right at the end).  There were a few other hikers out, but not many.  We saw pikas and marmots and were able to spot some past-their-prime wildflowers (elephant heads, Lewis's monkeyflower, paintbrush, coneflowers,  gentians), still hanging on despite the hot and dry conditions.

P and me and the smoke-filled Heber Valley

At the summit, we paused for a bit to see what little we could see, then walked down to the tunnel and the Peruvian chairlift for a ride down the hill.  We had plenty of time to go back to the car to change out of our hiking stuff, eat our packed lunches and then walk back up to the finishing area for the last bit of Stage 5.  The crowd didn't seem as big as it sometimes does and we were able to get spots at the railing a little way from the finishing line, with a good view as the cyclists came barreling down the chute.  American Sepp Kuss handily won the stage, nearly 40 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.

Mineral Basin

Another sign that the crowd wasn't as big as years past: it took us hardly any time to get out of the parking lot and onto the road heading down the canyon.  The smoke grew thicker as we re-entered the valley.  None of us wanted to linger out in it so P headed back to Midway, with plans for MTBing and more Tour of Utah for the next day.

Hike stats: 3.76 miles; 1 hour 48 minutes; 2.1 m.p.h. moving average speed; 2,670 feet climbed

2017 tour of utah - stage 7

Stage 7 (8/6/17) Salt Lake City, 73 miles and 5,450 feet of elevation gain.  For the first time in a while,the final stage of the Tour of Utah was not in Park City, but right in downtown SLC, revisiting the fun (for fans) and very difficult (for riders) circuit around the Capitol.  Eleven laps means eleven climbs up the top of State Street.  Just look at that awesome elevation profile:

We got our exercise done in the morning and then headed up to town midday, parking in my work garage and then walking up towards the festivities.  There was a little debate on where we should watch but we soon decided to park ourselves about halfway up the State Street hill where we could sit on the curb in the shade.  There weren't that many spectators at first but as the race wore on, more and more people filled in around us and it looked to be packed up at the top closer to the finish line.

Here they come, first climb up the hill

After a while, a group of four girls (teens to early 20s) and one boy showed up and sat behind/around us.  The girls all seemed to be girlfriends and/or sisters of girlfriends of Elevate-KHS Pro Cycling racers and the one guy was actually one of the riders: Jose Alfredo Rodriguez Victoria, a 20 year old sprinter who had podiumed on Stage 4 and then DNFed once the sprint stages were over.  The conversations we overheard were hilarious and there was much shrieking when the Elevate riders came through with the peloton.

Peloton still all together

Although it wasn't as hot as it had been, this final stage was still brutal.  On the first lap, the cyclists charge up that hill, and then get slower and slower as the race goes on.  The peloton splinters and riders start getting dropped off the back.  For the most part, there was a group of about 10-18 riders consistently out front, with everyone else just trying to hang on together.  On the final climb, everyone who was able to picked up the pace once more and pushed on to the finish line.

The very last rider on the very last climb 

on the very last stage of the 2017 ToU

H and I debated trying to make our way up there for the finish and the podium presentations, but ultimately decided to stay put, continuing to applaud as the final cyclists dragged themselves up that hill, minutes after the race was won.  After that, it just seemed reasonable that we stop by the Beer Bar on our way back to the truck, so that's what we did.

Yay beer!

Stage podium:  Marco Canola (Nippo-Vini Fantini); Brent Bookwalter (BMC); Gavin Mannion (UnitedHealthcare).  General Classification: Rob Britton (Rally Cycling); Gavin Mannion; Serghei Tvetcov (JellyBelly).  Team: BMC Racing; United HealthCare; Caja Rural.  Sprinter: Travis McCabe (UnitedHealthcare).  KOM: Jacob Rathe (Jelly Belly).  Best Young Rider: Neilson Powless (Axeon).  Most Aggressive: Manuel Senni (BMC).  Fan Favorite: Pier-Andre Cote (Silber).