Multiple Bike Rides

Our computer crashed last week so it took me a week to get everything reinstalled and up and working again. So no blog last week, but I'll play catch up today.

Here's the bike rides we did in the last couple of weeks:

Michelle and I are having mountain biking withdrawals because our bikes have been in the shop since Thursday morning.

Big Springs

Michelle & I went up biking to up Provo Canyon above Vivian Park at Big Spring Hollow. This is one of our favorite trails - Michelle says this is her favorite trail.

This was the coldest ride we've been on. I got my chance to try out my long sleeved biking shirt that I got for my birthday. Even with that it was really cold starting out - we had numb hands and numb feet - it's a good thing it started uphill.

I started out ahead going fast trying to warm up and then waiting for Michelle to catch up once it a while. When we got to the top of the ride, Michelle had made it the whole way without putting her foot down once!

Once we got to the bottom it had taken us under an hour (it's s short ride - less than 4 miles) so we decided to ride it again. This time I tried to match Michelle's feat of riding all the way up without stopping. I made it endurance wise, but I bounced off the trail on a rocky spot at one point and put a foot down. So Michelle has the distinction of being the only one in our family to ride up the Big Springs trail clean.

After we finished, I rode my bike downhill past Vivian Park, on the Provo River Parkway and to work. It was was definitely the easiest 11.5 miles I've ever ridden.

Michelle at the top of the loop after making the climb without stopping.


Michelle riding down the trail in the meadow.


Brian crossing a creek that comes down from the springs. It had rained the day before, but this was pretty much the only muddy spot on the trail.


Brian coming down the trail at the start of the meadow.


Michelle snaps a picture from the drivers seat of the car of Brian riding down the road to work



Tibble Fork Trail -

Michelle and I biked this last Saturday. We parked at a turnout where North Fork and South Fork split then biked up the road to Timpanookee Campground. The climb up the road was tough and not nearly as fun as on trails. (It also didn't help our egos any to have a bunch of road bikers whiz by us like we were standing still.)

At Timpanookee we got back on the trail. This was really fun for us because this was the first trail we mountain biked on together and where Michelle first fell in love with it. We hadn't been back to ride it until now. It was also interesting how much easier that trail was for us to navigate this time.

This was our first time riding down the Tibble Fork trail and I was a bit nervous because it's more technically advanced in some spots that what we are used to. It didn't help that we ran into a guy in a parking lot that told us he had several advanced rider friends who had broken different bones on that trail.

But when we got to the trail it was just fine - in fact it was a blast! I really really liked this trail. We did walk a couple of spots, but it was really fun! It's too bad that there isn't a more convenient way to get to it.

One of the flat, meadowy spot going down the Tibble Fork trail.


Michelle poses in front of pines during a rest stop coming up Pine Hollow trail.


PG to Orem Bonneville Shoreline Trail

This was a solo ride - I hope I can find my cell phone at some point so I can post pictures. This was an early morning ride up Battle Creek road across the BST and then up the dirt road at the mouth of Provo canyon. I had forgotten how fun this bench trail was - it's also nice because its a lot easier for me to do now than it used to be.



Betty, Area 51, Dry Canyon
This was another quick solo ride. This was my first time to ride up Lament on this loop. I'll probably almost always do it this way from now on.


Mud Springs Overlook
Michelle & I wanted to get a quick ride in before Pack Meeting on Tuesday. I went to to work early so I could get off early and we could go biking. We started biking at about 3:15 which we figured gave us an hour and a half to bike and be back for 6:00 Pack Meeting in plenty of time. So for the 2nd time in a week (previously the Tibble Fork ride) we were back on the same track near Timpanookee where Michelle did her first ride. Michelle had done a spin class at the gym the day before so her legs were really feeling it and she was having a hard time when we first started. But she did amazingly well especially considering here legs were already tired. We weren't sure what our plan was and decided on the Mud Springs trail and overlook partway through the ride.

After turning off the Mud Springs trail the trail to the overlook was a lot less used. At one point I thought we were close to the end and it was pretty rocky and steep, so we put our bikes down and walked the rest. This turned out to be a big mistake because it was a lot further to the end still and the trail was very rideable - so we probably lost 15 minutes by walking instead of riding.

After taking pictures at the overlook, Michelle looked at here watch and realized we only had 1 1/2 hours to get down the trail, drive home, and be to pack meeting (it was almost 4:30). Oops! So we hurried down the trail and drove home, getting home at 5:35. We ran around like chickens with our heads chopped off for a few minutes and I took the first car with the kids and go there just before 6 with flags & awards in tow - whew!


Looking down American Fork Canyon from the overlook.


Looking at Timp from the overlook.


Michelle and Brian at the overlook. It took us a few tries to take a picture of ourselves with Michelle's phone, but after missing our faces, turning off the phone, and accidentally taking video a couple of times we finally got it.



Aspen Grove to Mutual Dell

Another solo ride - this one was tough for me. The trail up from Aspen Grove to the Summit Parking lot was really steep. It branches off of the trail up to the Timp Summit, so when I asked the Ranger guy at the building which trail to follow to get to the Summit Trailhead parking lot it was kind of confusing because he thought I was talking about the Timp Summit and told me bikes weren't allowed. Eventually we understood each other and he told me where the trail branched off. I pushed my bike for the first part of the trail because it was loose rock next to a drop-off. After that the trail was steep enough it pushed me to my limit. The weird thing was that it never seemed super steep but it just consistently was steep and bumpy enough that it was really hard for me.

When I got to the Summit parking lot there was an elderly couple up there - Glen Smith & his wife. They were camping and Timpanookee and Glen's wife was dropping him off so that he could ride down. Instead of heading back to Aspen Grove I decided to ride down to Timpanookee with Glen. He was super nice and we had a great ride. At that point it was 6:15 pm and I needed to be to Mutual Dell for the ward chili cook-off dinner by 6:30 so I just biked down the main road and got there in plenty of time hoping that Michelle wouldn't mind driving me back to the Summit Parking lot after dinner where I could ride back to my car in Aspen Grove.

So after the dinner Michelle found rides home for all the kids but Adam and they drove me back up to the Summit Parking lot. At the top I found I couldn't get my bike back together because my rear brake pad had come off. An experienced cyclist who was up there was kind enough to look at it. He said it would require a bleed kit to fix, so Michelle ended up having to drive me down to Aspen Grove. Michelle took our bikes in on Friday morning to get my brake fixed and to get her bike tuned up. The shop was backed up and hasn't been able to fix them yet, so Michelle & I are both having mountain biking withdrawals. On Saturday night we actually went on a date to dinner - we haven't done that much since we started biking.