AdamFehr.com Blog

Bill, Hobbes, and I rode The Avenues tonight.  I played around with the helmet cam again, this time filming Bill as we rode down the trail.  Bill, aware of the camera and me riding not far behind, was moving a little too quickly and crashed a minute into the ride.  Check out the video below:

Helmet Cam Follow and Billy’s Crash from fatbearfehr on Vimeo.

The rest of the run down the Avenues was uneventful.  The three of us then followed Moose Hollow Trail down to Hidden Cove Road.  Upon reaching the Hidden Cove Connector, Bill and I stopped in time to see a couple moose hanging out in the middle of the trail.  We stood and watched for a minute, when suddenly the bull moose started charging towards us.  Hobbes, finally noticing what was going on, ran directly at the moose, scaring the bull and cow back into the woods.

After a brief argument with the neighbors about leash laws, Bill and I headed away from the moose, down the road and into my backyard via the water tank access road.  Pretty crazy bike ride.  It took a little while for it to sink in, but we figured out that Hobbes actually protected Bill and I from a charging moose.  I guess Hobbes’ misplaced agression actually paid off for once.  Now I just need to convince him that magpies are not a threat to anyone’s safety.

Having failed in yesterday’s inaugural helmet cam session, I decided to grab some new batteries and do some downhill filming.  Charli decided to come with me today.  She has done some biking in Moab, but not much in Park City.  Because I couldn’t think of a better ride, we made a run up The Avenues.

We left the house and made our way up to and past the Woods of Parley’s Lane.  Hobbes and Mogul successfully avoided a run-in with the porcupine and the skunk.  From there we climbed both the lower and upper sections of The Avenues.

Once again, the helmet cam experiment failed.  This time due to a full memory card.  Someone forgot to clear the videos from the day before… I’m an idiot.  However I did manage to get some great clips of the exhilarating uphill climb.  Exciting stuff.

Charli did really well, successfully negotiating everything but the steeper switchbacks.  Not bad for her first time on the trail while riding Bill’s bike.

From the end of the trail, we mad our way to Moose Hollow Trail.  This overgrown, meandering trail starts off pretty steep, before becoming a bit more rideable towards the end.  It would have made for some good helmet cam footage, but I guess it wasn’t to be.

Upon reaching the end of the trail, we followed Hidden Cove Road back to the Hidden Cove Connector.  We caught the trail home, thus completing the Hidden Moose Loop.

The Outdoor Retailers Trade Show was held in Salt Lake this past weekend.  All of the top companies were there.  Unfortunately, I had to work.  One of my employees, Sam, was fortunate enough to get his hands on a couple GoPro Hero 3 Helmet Cams.  I got a great deal on a package containing a camera, helmet mount, wrist mount, handle bar mount, mounting plate, and multiple sticky mounts.

New helmet cam in-tow, I grabbed my bike and Hobbes and went for a ride.  I filmed a couple quick runs on on the water tower road behind my house.  After a couple adjustments, I made my way up The Avenues, filming some uphill clips on the way.

I was forced to turn around when the distant thunder and lightning turned to rain and hail.  I turned the helmet cam on and raced down the lower section of The Avenues.  I reached the bottom of the trail and checked my helmet cam only to find that the battery had died just a couple seconds down the trail.  Awesome!

I’ll have to try again tomorrow.

It took a little while to get out of the bagel shop tonight.  Having eaten two bagels today, I had plenty of energy to burn on a quick ride with Hobbes around Jeremy Ranch.  I left the house just as the sky started getting dark.

Hobbes did a great job during the climb.  Successfully negotiating the “gauntlet,” a 100 foot section of the trail that passed by a skunk and a porcupine.  Thank God he didn’t chase either one.  I can’t imagine how awful it would be to have to pull quills out of a dog covered in skunk spray.

Twenty-some minutes later, I was approaching the top of the Avenues when I decided it was too dark to climb any further.  The ride down was a little sketchy in the heavily wooded areas where visibility was pretty low.

I made it down safely and headed east towards Moose Hollow Trail.  Visibility was a little better as Hobbes and I made our way to Hidden Cove Road.  It was completely dark out as we started up the Hidden Cove Connector, passing a local moose hangout spot.  Even Hobbes was scared.  He led the way for a minute before dropping back next to my back tire.  We made it back to the trail behind my house.  And were back home just a little after 10 pm.  Fun ride, but I’ll start a little earlier next time.

Bill and I went for a quick ride in Round Valley.  We got a late start, but managed to do an interesting ride starting from the Meadows Drive trailhead.  We followed Lah Dee Duh uphill before running into the trail heading up to Rademan Ridge.  After a decent climb, we reached the top of Rademan ridge.  The ride down was steep and technical.  Challenging, but not much fun.  The run-out to the car was less steep, but a lot rockier.  Overall, not much of a ride.  Bill was riding with about 20 p.s.i. in his front tire.  That had to suck.

I haven’t been doing a lot of biking lately.  I’ve been working a lot though.  I think today is my 21st consecutive day.  Last month I biked for 21 consecutive days while working none.  Weird.

I left the house and made my way to the Woods of Parley’s Lane.  Right before reaching the road, I turned right and followed the unnamed trail down until I reached Hidden Cove.

Ignoring local leash laws, Hobbes and I followed the road over to the lower half of Moose Hollow Trail near the start of the gated community with the same name.  We followed the trail as it winds down towards East Canyon Road.

Hobbes’ chasing of a moose marked the halfway point of the ride.  The ride home was uphill, but not too grueling.  The only glitch coming when I misjudged the depth of a roadside ditch and flipped over my handlebars onto my chest, cutting my leg just below my knee-pit.

That’s all for today.  Work tomorrow, but maybe some time to ride after that.

I finally had time to get my bike into the shop.  The people at White Pine Touring were extremely quick, putting a new wheel on my bike in just a few minutes.  Barely enough time to pick out some knee pads and give bagels to the staff.

I stopped by my parents house, grabbed a helmet, and made my to Round Valley.  I parked on Meadows Drive, climbing towards the water towers at the top of Eagle Mountain.  Upon reaching the road, I turned back and rode down the trail, past my car and out towards the start of Lah Dee Duh.  From here I followed an unfamilar trail out to the quarry and abandoned truck overlooking Trailside and Silver Summit.  From there I’m not sure exactly what trails I followed, but I spent a couple hours exploring the area.  I believe I found some fun stuff on Rademan Ridge and Cammy’s Trail.

It was a pretty good ride.  My bike held up just fine.  My new kneepads went unused.  And I wore Hobbes out enough that he was barely keeping up.

I’ve been spending a good amount of time working at the shop and pursuing various networking activities.  Unfortunately, this whole “owning a business” thing has cut into my biking time.  And my skills must have been a little rusty, because I finally took a pretty good fall while riding The Avenues today.

Bill, Hobbes, Mogul, and I made good time from the house to the top of the trail.  We also made good time down the first section of downhill.  Bill made good time on the lower section, while I was making good time until I went over my handlebars 3/4 of the way down.

I’m not quite sure what happened, but in the process of negotiaing one of the most exciting and hilly parts of the trail, my brakes locked up and I fell 5 or so feet to the trail below.  I prayed for a broken-bone-free landing as I sid to a stop.  Almost everything turned out ok, the only exceptions being my road-rashed and bloody nose, some scrapes, a swollen knee, a scraped up helmet, and some bloody bike gloves (which look a lot better with a little red anyway).

The biggest casualty of the day was my front rim/wheel.  I’m still not sure what happened, but the wheel became disformed somewhere between the uphill right-hand turn and the face grind.  Either way, the wheel no longer bothers to spin.  So for the second time in as many months, I am in the market for a new front rim.

Check out the pictures from the end of the ride:

Hobbes and I went biking again today.  This time we decided to head back to The Avenues.  We kept a pretty good pace on the way, reaching the end of the trail in 32 minutes.  In the last month and a half of biking, I’ve managed to shave almost 20 minutes off my time.  The ride down was still awesome.  The Avenues is definitely one of the best trails I’ve ridden in the area.

Upon reaching the fire road at the bottom of the run, I decided to follow something resembling a path directly downhill towards the houses in Hidden Cove.  Unfortunately, the trail branched off several times before disintegrating to almost nothing.  The angry dogs from the houses below convinced me to turn around and head back uphill.  So, no new trails discovered today.  But a good, almost two-hour ride nonetheless.

Check out the video from today’s ride:

No wait, that’s a different video.  A really creepy video.

After a morning meeting with the landlord of an unnamed local business complex regarding a potential lease for an unnamed local business, I spent the rest of the day mountain biking in the Jeremy Ranch area.  Stopping twice for a delicious bagel sandwich for breakfast and satisfying cranberry-turkey sandwich for lunch at Park City Bread and Bagel.

Feeling satisfied and full of energy from our delicious Sunrise sandwiches from Park City Bread and Bagel, Bill, Hobbes, and I did some exploring right before our incredible lunch at Park City Bread and Bagel.  We left from Park City Bread and Bagel, making our way west along the Millennium Trail to the Gorgoza Pond.  From the pond, we climbed the switchbacks through the aspens towards the top of Pinebrook.  The trail was a bit dusty due to the lack of rain in recent weeks.  It was also pretty rocky.  We climbed for a while until reaching a fork in the trail and a sign marking the start of the Pinebrook Pointe Connector.  From here we had four choices: 1. Continue climbing to the top of the ridge above us,  2. Head downhill on the Connector to the condos below,  3.  Turn around and head back down the dusty, rocky trail taking us to the car, or 4. head uphill 10 feet and make a sharp right heading straight down the face of the hill above the pond.  Because Park City Bread and Bagel closes at three, we went with Option 4, the most direct route down.  The ride down was short and fast.  Hobbes went for a swim and we made our way back to Park City Bread and Bagel for the best lunch in town.

Gorgoza Pond and bike trails, near Park City Bread and Bagel (via Google Maps)

I had an amazing lunch at Park City Bread and Bagel.  If you’re in the area I recommend ordering the Cranberry Turkey Swiss Sandwich on an Everything Bagel.  In my honest, somewhat biased opinion, you’d be hard pressed to find a better sandwich.

I went for another ride this evening.  Bill was off visiting an old friend in West Jordan, leaving just Hobbes and I to explore some more of Jeremy Ranch.  We made our way towards The Avenues again, but turned west into the middle of the Woods of Parley’s Lane development/monstrosity.  I followed an old bike path from a couple years ago (before the woods and trails were torn up and paved over… I sound like a dirty hippie).  The dirt road turned to pavement as I continued my way towards Parley’s Summit exit off I-80, just one exit from Park City Bread and Bagel.  A little ways before the top, I looked to drop in at the start of the old trail.  But the old trailhead is now a pile of dirt and asphalt.  I carried my bike down the hill and met up with the overgrown trail that parallels I-80 as it makes its way back towards Jeremy Ranch, the home of Park City Bread and Bagel.  The trail was still pretty fun and challenging in certain spots where lack of usage has created new obstacles.  Eventually I met back up with the old trail, just beyond the entrance gates to the housing development.

Highlighted old trail from Parley’s Summit to the water tower (via Google Maps)

In order to avoid the mosquitoes that were eating me alive (trying to get what’s left of my Park City Bread and Bagel no doubt), I decided to blaze a new trail uphill from the old trail.  Following the cleared path from the underground cable lines, I climbed as far as I could go.  Eventually, the hill became too steep and I turned around, heading back downhill as fast as reasonably possible while trailblazing.  A few minutes later I was back home, while Hobbes remained on the trail, growling at some of the neighbors that must have looked like moose.

All in all, a great day of biking and an exciting day of exploring. But most of all, a great day of eating, thanks to Park City Bread and Bagel, “the best bagels in Utah” (not to mention a great place to eat lunch when biking, hiking, skiing, snowboarding, working, whatever).

Oh, I almost forgot, Park City Bread and Bagel.

For the first time in over a month, Hobbes and I had some company on our ride.  Bill Kisow, missing in action for the past month, joined us for a quick tour of The Avenues.  It was a fun, quick ride.  Roundtrip took less than an hour.  I think we’ll do a run down Moose Hollow or 24-7 tomorrow.  Maybe Flying Dog via the Preserve Connector.  I don’t know.  I don’t know if we’ll have enough time.

As for the rest of the night, RJ and I went to the Salt Lake Bees game tonight.  They played the Tacoma Rainiers (the Mariners AAA team), it was two-for-one night, and Thirsty Thursday.  The Rainiers lost, but it was a fun game anyway.  We then tried to catch the free Roots concert at the Gallivan Center downtown.  The city was a zoo and the parking sucked.  Having already seen five other Roots shows, we turned around and went home.  Although it would have been nice to hear some of their new stuff live.

The Roots - Rising Down

I’m starting to get hooked on this whole mountain biking thing.  It’s been almost ten days since my last ride, and my mood was beginning to suffer.  After a quick ride up and down The Avenues, I’m feeling normal again.  Weird how much a little bit of exercise and adrenaline can help.

I wanted to document my ride today, but had zero ways of making it happen.  My camera has been out of service for over a month due to a cracked and now blank LCD screen, broken case, and some functional problem that remains undiagnosed due to the lack of a screen (I think my next camera will be an Olympus Stylus 1030SW.  It’s shock-proof, crush-proof and waterproof. Not sure if it’s ducttaped-to-the-handlebar-bike-wreck-proof though).  My cell phone was crushed by a golf cart or something last week.  My older phone’s picture quality is so poor, I don’t even bother.  And a helmet cam is still on my wishlist, yet to be fulfilled.

I guess you’ll have to take my word for it, but the ride went really well.  Upon reaching the end of the marked trail, I discovered a new path extending westward towards the top of Parley’s.  The new trail, cut sometime in the last two weeks, connects The Avenues to the Great Western Trail.  It is now possible for someone to ride from Kibmall Junction to Salt Lake City non-stop.  The trail also connects the Jeremy Ranch trails to those in Parley’s Summit.  Pretty cool.

The downhill took a little over 7 1/2 minutes.  Not the best ratio, but still worth the 30-45 minute climb.  That’s all for now.

Hobbes and I went for another ride today.  This time we successfully found the trailhead at the top of Moose Hollow Trail.  I negotiated some of the tight corners and overgrown areas and made my way to the second leg of the trail.  This section of Moose Hollow was in great shape with the exception of the occasional rut.  Hobbes and I kept up pretty good speed as the trail winds through the hills, down near the golf course, before finally ending near the start of East Canyon Road.

The whole downhill section took a around ten minutes.  And following a short swim for Hobbes, we began our trek back up the mountain.  We were back to the house by 7:30 or so.  Roundtrip took around and hour and fifteen minutes.  I imagine the trip from the new Southridge trailhead to East Canyon Road and back could be done in under an hour.  I was slowed by a tired dog and an irritating contact lense.

If nothing else, I learned to bike with sunglasses.  Dirt, dust, pollen, and contact lenses don’t mix.  My right eyeball is on fire and I had to ride the last two-plus miles with one eye closed.  So I guess you could say I learned two things: 1)the sunglass thing and 2)that you need depth perception to safely ride a bicycle.