Alpine Loop #5 For 2008

I was planning to take Friday afternoon off work and go on a Fathers & Sons camp-out with my youngest child, and only son, Kade. But he got sick Friday (had fever and slept all day) so I decided to see if I could get in a ride Saturday. Jolene had a morning mountain bike ride setup so I needed to stay home to make sure Kade was OK. But Mark A. had e-mailed out an invite for a ride Saturday around 11. We talked and I arranged to meet him at the mouth of American Fork Canyon to do the Alpine Loop.

I arrived and met Steve (Mark's brother) - with Mark rolling in right behind me. We chatted for a bit and then headed up the canyon. As usual for Saturday, there were a lot of cars, and also a high number of bicycles. We climbed the lower canyon at a pretty mellow pace. But where it turns steeper near Mutual Dell, the effort went up to keep the pedals turning. Mark and Steve are strong climbers and I was able to stay with them until after the Timpooneke turn off. Then I started feeling Thursdays Alpine Loop ride in my legs. I trudged along OK, but didn't have much zip. I rolled into the summit a few minutes behind Mark and Steve. I told them I wasn't up for Cascade Springs today, but they were welcome to go for it. We decided to go down to Sundance.

With all the traffic, we took the descent mellow - and it was still very enjoyable. Swooping through the curves and taking in the beautiful scenery.

At Sundance we stopped to get some more liquids. Mark and I scooped water from the stream and dumped it onto our heads to cool off. Mark said a woman passing by looked totally disgusted upon seeing me do this. I don't know what she found offensive: me splashing "dirty" stream water on me, or me contaminating the stream with my "dirty" head. With urban types you never know what weird misconceptions they have about nature.

Mark and Steve want the full Alpine Loop experience so they went down with me to Provo Canyon so they could climb back up over the top. I has tempted to join them because it's such a fantastic climb, but I got cooked enough from the climb up the other side so we parted ways and I just went down Provo Canyon. There was another cyclist who descended with us and he and I put together an 2-man pace line. I thought about going down the Provo Canyon parkway trail, but I didn't want to go slow, even though the highway is noisy from all the cars and not as scenic.

I made it back home, ate a late lunch then worked on the brakes of the van - getting it ready for the long drive and from STP.