Mike Kisow, Hobbes, Tracker, and I did a quick ride up and down the Avenues.  Following yesterday’s adventure (flat tire and endo) on Flying Dog and 24-7, we were a little tired, but managed to beat the record time to the top.  It took 29 minutes from the house to the summit.

I filmed the lower section of The Avenues with my helmet cam.  Mike in front, Hobbes and Tracker following close behind.  Nothing too exciting today, but a great ride yet again.  It’s storming pretty hard right now.  We need the rain, but it might put a damper on upcoming rides.

Check out the video from today’s ride.  You might recognize the song from every ski movie ever made.

Update: Vimeo is having problems again, until then check out Charlie the Unicorn.

My First Helmet Cam-Captured Crash from fatbearfehr on Vimeo.

Following our 5 Up, 9 Down ride last weekend, I’ve decided to make the 14 mile trek a weekly event.  Today was the first of another 10 rides or so before winter.  Mike and I made great time on our way up to the top of Flying Dog.  Reaching the summit in just under 75 minutes.  Faster than usual, but equally exhausting.

The ride down was not nearly as enjoyable as last week’s ride.  We stopped a few times to film a couple sections in the aspen groves near the top of the trail, but failed to select the correct camera setting.  About a mile into the ride, and still eight miles from the car, Mike blew a tire.  Mike’s backpack held extra water, three powerbars, a knife, a compass, a first aid kit, a bike tool, a bike pump, and zero bike tubes.  Thus, Mike began the slow walk and bike carry down the hills to Jeremy Ranch.

I left Mike and continued the ride down.  Fueled by my helmet cam, I attempted to go as fast as possible for the remainder of the ride.  This worked pretty well until about a 1/2 mile from the bottom, I simultaneoasly hit a rock and slammed on my brakes.  I rode on just my front tire for a second, but wound up hurtling through the air, over my handlebars, onto the rocky, dusty trail.  Luckily I was filming.  Oh, and unhurt.

I picked myself up, battled through a few minutes of shock-like symptoms and cautiously made my way down to the car.  I picked up Mike as he was making his way out of the woods.  He was covered in scrapes and worn out from having to blaze a trail down an entire mountain, carrying a bike and a disabled wheel.

Everything turned out ok, as we made it to Park City Bread and Bagel just in time to catch the opening kickoff of Utah vs. Michigan.  Utah won by the way.  Go Utes!

5 Up, 9 Down

Mike Kisow and I did a ride today called 5 Up, 9 Down.  We came up with the name ourselves, describing the distance of the ride.  Five miles uphill, followed by 9 miles of downhill.

The ride starts at Graduate, next to the Jeremy Ranch Elementary School, and across the street from Park City Bread and Bagel (name drop).  Upon leaving the parking area, the route heads uphill on Fink Again, the eastern side of 24-7.  The trail eventually connects to the Preserve Connector about three miles into the climb.  The Preserve Connector starts out as single track before meeting up with the dirt roads of the Preserve at Park City, a future upscale housing development.  Just past the water tower is the top of Flying Dog, just five miles or an hour and a half from the school.  We stopped here for a minute to rest and munch on some delicious, satisfying, nourishing, and energy boosting bagels from nearby Park City Bread and Bagel, home of the best bagels in Utah.

The rest of the ride is almost completely downhill.  Flying Dog winds downhill through various aspen groves.  The trail is in great condition, lots of well-banked turns and flowy sections.  Flying Dog eventually runs into 24-7.  From here we follow 24-7 straight downhill to start of East Canyon Road.  The trail is much different than Flying Dog, dry, dusty, and rocky, but fast and fun.

Roundtrip took a little under 2 1/2 hours.  I used my GoPro Hero 3 Helmet Cam to record a lot of the downhill.  I sloppily edited the video into a somewhat interesting nine minute video.  I also figured out how to add music to QuickTime files.  I cut and pasted some rough mountain bike footage over “Born Slippy” by Underworld (I don’t have too many nine minute songs in my library).  The result is perhaps the best/only usage of “Born Slippy” since Trainspotting.

Mike Bikes The Avenues from fatbearfehr on Vimeo.

I just finished updating this post by embeding a new video of Mike’s ride.  I added the song “A-Punk” by Vampire Weekend.  The video was captured by my helmet cam as we rode the top half of The Avenues.