Sun Valley, Day 3 - Fisher Creek

Saturday morning we rode the popular Fisher Creek trail.

The fire in 2005 burned the upper section, but it's still got good flow and the bottom half is forested.

The approach is up Fisher Creek Road. As double-tracks go, this one is pleasant.



The burned section looks stark and, well, ugly. Yes fire is part of the natural process, but I couldn't help pine (ha!) for what it was like before the fire.



The trail snakes down into the small valley below.



Then follows a creek up and over a low saddle.



Leaving the burned area it gets nice, real nice.



The trail bombs down along Williams Creek with fantastic flow. The speed here was a rush.



The trail enters this clearing then climbs up the last hill ...



for a fast descent down a drier but still nice forested slope.



Fisher is a fun trail to ride. It has variety and flow. I recommend it, but I was bummed out by the burned areas - visually and because the trail is dry and loose.

Next up is the Redfish Lake ride which wasn't what we expected.

Potato Mountain Loop Video

Still recovering, no post for Day 3 today.

But I did have time to compile this short video of the Potato Mountain Loop ride from Day 2.



Sorry for the shaky riding segments - I don't have a helmet cam so they were shot hand-held.

This video brings it back - wow, that was a great ride.

(Hint: Start the video then in the bar under the video change from 360p to 480p for better video quality.)

Sun Valley, Day 2 - Potato Mountain & Stanley Lake

Drove up to Stanley today (we'll be here the rest of the trip) and headed for the Potato Mountain (Little Creek Basin) loop.

Started with a climb.





It got steep and we had to push a ways. But it wasn't long and it was a small price to pay for the downhill to come.

It was a surprise to pop out into this big meadow.



There were several stream crossing, and other wet stuff like springs, puddles and bogs. I made it across this one.



The trail followed the stream a long ways.



The climb out Kelley creek was mellow and fun. This was a good ride, I think you can see it on our faces.



Driving out from the ride, the Sawtooths cannot be ignored.



We had some time and leg left so went over to Stanley Lake for a quick ride on a mellow trail up to Bridal Veil Falls. The falls were a bust, but the trail was kinda fun. Here's Jolene crossing the stream.



One last mountain shot.



Tomorrow should be Fisher-Williams and Redfish Lake.

Sun Valley, Day 1 - Greenhorn Gulch

We drove up to Sun Valley, Idaho today for a 4-day vacation of mostly mountain biking.

Arriving in Hailey around 2 PM we checked into the Bed & Breakfast, changed into cycling clothes and headed for the first ride: Greenhorn Gulch.

We'd heard Greenhorn Gulch was good, it did not disappoint. Here's how the trail started:



And after only 50 yards when I stopped to ask Jolene something she spotted this wildflower stunner (Watcher, have you seen this one before?):



At a trail split we went up Mahone Gulch (lots of gulches around here). It is a nice climb in a lovely alpine draw.





At another fork we chose Lodgepole Gulch. It was steeper and may not have been the best choice for a day 1 warm-up ride, but it was a fun trail and the scenery was surreal.



After gaining the saddle we dropped down and past another trail heading to Greenhorn Gulch.



Then climbed again to gain a higher saddle, but now it was all down hill. We thought about taking Imperial Gulch, as it's reported to be a fantastic downhill, but there was another significant climb to get to it and we decided to just go down Greenhorn. Which was very fun and put smiles on our faces. 15.5 miles of amazingly good mountain single-track.





Went back to the B&B, showered, had a good dinner and now I'm sleepy and ready for bed.

Tomorrow will probably be Potato Mountain loop.

Make That Five Canyons

As if Saturday's Four Canyons road ride weren't enough, today we hit up American Fork Canyon to ride some dirt. Gotta entertain the out-of-town guests. Jolene joined us for the ride.

My legs were pretty sore Sunday so I thought this ride was going to be misery. Happily the legs loosened up and I did OK.

We did the classic Timpooneke loop.

Here's the gang about to cross the road.


The top of Pine Hollow (this climb hurt more than usual).


The traditional Timp viewpoint (and I remembered to suck in my gut for once).




Terry was loving it. He favors the mountain bike over the road and he was tearing up the trails. The few stream crossings made him feel at home (Seattle).

Jason S. hasn't been on his MTB in years, and although a bit rusty, he rolled strong and seemed to have a good time.

Jason L. was riding good but had a near-dirt experience. We were riding down Joy (Deer Creek South Fork) just past Coitus Interuptus and I was a few yards behind Jason when suddenly he was flying through the air and his bike was spinning madly even higher. It was crazy how fast it happened. His bike came down and hit him in the helmet and he landed on a log. Amazingly he was unhurt except for a scrape on his forearm. He got up, checked for bodily injury, checked the bike and rolled off. His pedal hit the end of a log hidden in the undergrowth on the edge of teh trail.

The weather was perfect and everything is still vividly green with new batch of wild flowers coming on. The trails were dusty, but that's a small complaint.

Saw Elden and Lisa on the way back.

Arrived in good spirits back at the cars and sent Jason S. and Terry back to Seattle with grins on their faces.


Completing the play day we went to a BBQ at a park with some neighbors. Played water baseball, volleyball, bocci ball, and lots of water fights. Finished the day off with more fireworks. I love Summer!

Four Canyons

I didn't think I could do it.


I used to ride a lot with Jason S. and a bunch of guys at Linux Networx when I worked there a few years ago. Jason moved to Seattle. For his 40th birthday he wanted to ride the four big canyons - Little Cottonwood (LCC), Big Cottonwood (BCC), Millcreek and Emigration to Big Mountain. (Here's the route.)

I thought he was nuts. It sounded like a death march. But he's my friend and this was his day so I was going to show up, even though I fully believed I couldn't finish the ride. In fact, I planned to just poke up the canyons and head back down when the leaders came down.

Why was I so pessimistic about this ride? Because back in 2007 I climbed all of these canyons individually and they kicked my butt.

Yesterday at 6 AM we started up Little Cottonwood. I felt pretty good. After Tanners Flat I got into a good rhythm and motored along pretty good. Snowbird appeared more quickly than I anticipated and it didn't take long to get to Alta. I made it to the fee booth without ever going into granny (full disclosure: I have a triple).



I had fun on the fast descent although it was chilly at the top. We regrouped at the park-n-ride lot to refuel and dump clothing.

The ride over to Big Cottonwood was all-too-short. Time to climb again. I was leery of BCC. It doesn't have the sustained steepness of LCC but it's longer and goes higher. Storm Mountain came up quick, but wasn't too long. The flatter section up to Mill D was a nice break. The steeper section up to Solitude was a grind and I felt twinges in my legs so I slowed down to avoid carmping. The last pitch to Brighton was steep but thankfully short. We refilled our bottles and headed down - another funtastic decent.

At the bottom of BCC we met Jason L.'s wife who had our bags. We ate lunch then continued on.

The ride over to Millcreek was longer. It was nice to warm up the legs and chat.



Millcreek is deceiving. It looks so pleasant with the shade trees and babbling brook. But it's a tough beauty. The many short, steep pitches take their toll. I made it, but was forced into granny for Elbow fork and a few other steep rollers farther up.



Another good descent then a stop at Anne's house to refuel.

A bit more uphill on the ride over to Emigration. The three bridges to get across I-80 were interesting. We turned off Foothill to take the back-roads over to Sunnyside / Hoggle Zoo.

I spotted odd cloud formations all day.



Emigration is mercifully a mellow climb. And we had a tailwind. But my legs we getting pretty tired. Still, we made it up to the top of Little Mountain in good form, all things considered.



A few more bowed out and it was just Jason S., Jason L., Kevin and I going for Big Mountain. When I did this climb in 2007 I remember it being tough and the summit being yet another switchback away. Jason S. and I ground it out together while Jason L. motored ahead. We didn't talk much, just focused on turning the pedals over and toughing it out. Someone had painted the kilometers, and finally meters, to the top on the road and seeing "500m" was a relief, and "200m" even more so.

We made it.





The descent was nice, carving the switchbacks.

I was a bit concerned about the final climb back to Little Mountain. Would we be trapped like bugs in sink? Fortunately the climb is mild, but my legs were shot. We put our heads down and trudged up the last climb.

I had fun flying down Emigration. Near the bottom I took a good pull to get us out of the canyon. A bit more climbing to Donner Park (by the zoo) and we were treated to wraps, fruit, drinks and chocolate birthday cake for Jason.

I'm pretty proud I completed this ride. It had me intimidated. I was sure I'd get cramps and that would end it. But the CarboRocket worked it's magic.

Just for fun, Jason L. figure out that this ride contained three category 1 climbs and one HC (LCC) - this combination of climbs and distance is worse than all but one stage of the Tour. Of course we took way longer to complete it than pros would. But still, made me feel manly.

Here are the stats: 110 miles, 13,580 feet climbing, almost 10 hours (8:40 riding time).

Kevin's report.

Reducing My Carbon Footprint

I don't like carbon fiber on mountain bikes.

I've personally seen 3 broken carbon seatposts.

In 2007 a carbon handlebar snapped off (due to improper installation) while a guy was riding the Crest. He crashed so bad he had to be LifeFlighted off the mountain. (Read all about it, with photos.)

On a local group road ride a fellow broke his carbon bars while down in the drops and somehow managed to not crash.

The Busted Carbon blog shows a whole parade of broken carbon fiber components and frames. Mostly road bikes, but plenty of mountain bikes too.

I wasn't happy to see this photo - I hope my HiFi seat stay doesn't break like this guy's.


Carbon fiber composites have incredible strength for their light weight. But if the fibers are cut (from an impact say) they loose a lot of strength. Manufacturers put a thick protective coat over the fibers, but it's not impenetrable.

When carbon fails, it usually does so catastrophically. Metal will often bend first before snapping.

For me I'd rather go with metal and not have to worry about finicky carbon.

So tonight I replaced two carbon component from my mountain bike with good old metal parts.

Bye, bye carbon seatpost.


Hello Thompson aluminum seatpost.


So long carbon handlebars.


Welcome metal bars. These also have some riser and sweep back which I want.

I kept the carbon steerer tube cap. Not much risk there.

I'm keeping the carbon cranks for now. I don't think they're much risk, because my last name isn't Holley. I have a metal Shimano crankset I'll swap in someday.

(But these cranks do have a nasty habit of loosening chainring bolts. I've never had this problem before. Time for some Loctite.)


Corner Canyon Ride

Zipped over to Corner Canyon for a ride after work yesterday.

The Rush trail has been reworked and open for a while and I've been itching to check it out. I went up Canyon Hollow and down Rush. I really like the changes. More flow and more fun. Rush also makes me painfully aware I'm not a good cornerer. And I often clunk over bumps and jumps. So I'm glad to have Rush to help me get better - it will be a good skills improvement trail for me. The dirt is still loose, especially on the berms, but a good rain should make it hard and fast.

Next I mixed it up and went up Ghost Falls and down Canyon Hollow (thanks for the reminder, dug). I'd been down Canyon Hollow last year and liked it, now it's even better as the trail has worn in. And Ghost Falls is an entertaining climb, although I was constantly on alert for riders bombing down.

Saw lots of Sego Lillies in bloom in the sunny, open spots.

Saw more critters on the trail than usual. And I mean "on the trail." 4 squirrels, 1 lizard, 1 snake and a deer I would have T-boned if it hadn't bounded off the trail.

It was pretty hot and the trails are getting dry and a bit more loose, but it was still a satisfying ride. Viva la Corner Canyon!