Waaaahsatch Crest

Jolene and I hooked up with the Hutchings clan and a few others to ride the Wasatch Crest trail this morning. It didn't look good at the start with bouts of rain sprinkles, but it turned out good. The rain made the trail damp and very nice to ride.

We headed up Puke Hill and I led the charge. I've failed on this climb a few too many times for my liking and Jolene suggested it's because I go too fast and expend too much energy on the first half and flame out on the final climb. So I reined myself in and rolled easy from the start. It worked, I made the climb without nearly dying on the final pitch. Jolene made it too - she's tough on the climbs. At the top the wind was blowing and hail (BB sized) pelted us for a few minutes - it wasn't bad unless it hit bare flesh.

We didn't get any more precipitation or have any incidents - just a good ride on one of the best trails in the State - I'll let the pictures do the talking:

















At the GWT at the top of Millcreek we met Mark - he'd come up from the winter gate on his single speed to meet us and ride down. We rolled down the GWT then Mark and I went up to Dog Lake while everyone else continued down. We met Ed (works with Mark) and his boys going up. We circled the lake and flew down. Mark was in front and shredded the downhill on his fully rigid SS bike - impressive.



We met up with the group at Elbow Fork and then took the Pipeline trail down. Mark Bailed out at Birch Hollow to get to his car while the rest of us continued on. The wind was blowing up Millcreek and coming around some of the points it gave you a real blast.



We took Rattlesnake Gulch down (first time for me). It was spicy, but I kind of liked it. I bailed on a few of the features, but made all of the switchbacks except one.

We went down the road and back to the van parked at Dan's then home. A fantastic ride - the early Fall scenery was beautiful, the weather was OK, the trails were in good shape and lots of downhill miles.