Pre-Thanksgiving Ride

Mark and I got out for a ride this afternoon before he heads to Idaho for Thanksgiving. It's been a while since we've been on a ride together so it was good to ride some prime Corner Canyon dirt on yet another unseasonably warm November day.

Me cranking up Ghost Falls (photo by Mark).


We went up the Creekside trail - it's a surprisingly nice climb. Then up Ghost Falls where one bobble denied me the ascent without stopping. Meanwhile Mark was keeping up his single-speed skills even while on the geared bike by staying in the middle ring.

With the Thanksgiving theme, I'm thankful there are so many ways to pursue cycling, as we demonstrated on this ride. Few things more consistently bring out the kid in me than cycling. It's just fun to goof around on the bike.

Next we climbed up the dirt roads heading to the top of the Jacob's Ladder trail. Tony caught us on the climb on his rigid single speed - nice work! (I just had a little panic that I got his name wrong - if so, I apologize - set me straight in the comments.) At the top we got this lovely view of the Salt Lake Valley:



Folks, we are breathing that filth! Makes me want to climb every ride to get out of that soup. I wasn't excited to plunge back into it, but down we went.

Jacob's was a sweet descent - it's in good condition and has such good lines. On a little hump where the trail takes a slight left turn I got some air and kicked the rear end right for a tiny tail whip. I don't think I'd tried to do one of those before and it was a fun little stunt that I'll practice more.

Mark rolling down Jacob's.


We pedaled up the road and flew down Clark's. It's in excellent condition - hard packed with no mud, just a few loose rocks. We only encountered one group of people (mountain bikers) going down - sweet! But it was chilly.

We took the Silica Pit trail then tried the stairs trail. I couldn't make it up the stone stairs. I tried to go slow and finesse them - denied. I tried to hit them fast and just bash my way up - fail. I had a nice fall since I couldn't clip out and landed on a branch that jabbed me in the butt. Only a flesh wound. I know there were guys who made it up these stairs at the night ride. dug was telling riders you rock your way up. I'm not getting it. I'll keep working on the stairs.

We finished off with the Gas Line trail, a few jumps on the dirt road and dropping lower Corner Canyon. Just a nice ride that got me feeling happy.

I'm glad I have cycling to give me a boost, a shot of joy. Cycling is my Prozac. (There's your quote for the day.) It's definitely one thing I'm thankful for.

P.S. I added What Dreams May Come to my list of Very Odd Movie Gems.