So yesterday I went down to Diamond Fork Canyon just south of Provo Utah to hit up a loop there. It starts at Three Forks Trailhead down in the valley, then heads up Cottonwood Creek trail for about 4.6miles of rather easy going single track. This section of the trail has snakes!!! See my youtube vids for my first encounter with a rattle snake (user name: iambquinn). The trail forks and I headed up Second Water Creek trail to Rays Valley Rd (hard road). At this point you can take the hard road north to Fifth Water Creek trail and back down to the trail head for a 15mile loop, or you can be a man and go up further to the Center Trail...yesterday I decided to be a man.
Me smiling getting ready to head up to the Center Trail (no the trail isn't this wide, this is the entrance off the hard road to the trail which was 100% single track and much of it over grown)
At 5.7miles I crossed the road and headed towards Center Trail which is not an up kept mtb trail. It proved to slow me down too, the choppy trail that was recently ridden by a single dirtbike left chunks of dried earth that kept my tires from rolling easily. After a fairly easy climb up to the first fork where you can choose to go to Strawberry Ridge, the trail starts it's series of 'up and overs' to the next creek and fork. For about 7.5 miles you go over a small mountain, down to a creek, then up over another, and repeat this a couple times. The climbs were somewhat tuff, quite a few rocks and long inclines with some hike-a-bike sections.
The mud clogged up the bike a few times and the clay like soil stuck to the tires and added a few pounds that are felt in a big way on climbs. I must say, I was shot and did not make it up some inclines like I normally do. My body was starving for food, and all I brought were two protein bars that did nothing for me. I thought I could finish the loop in around 2hrs, but my lack of energy and slow average speed drug out the ride more than expected. Eventually I made it to the top of the last hill and enjoyed a fun downhill to Fifth Water Creek Trail which takes you another 5+miles to the trail head with a nice moderate downhill flow that made it all worth it.
An interesting find way back in the mountains...still not exactly sure what it is???
All was good until a nice little rock drop off got the better of me. It was around mile 18 on the side of a steep hill when I came upon a short drop of about 7ft in a couple steps. The first two were over roots and no biggie, then over some rocks to a final small drop-off of about 1.5ft. The drops themselves were nothing to write about, and I did a hundred of them just like it down in Moab, but the run-off was what bit me. The landing is slanted to the left and hard packed with a fine layer of dirt and small loose rock which proved to be my deal breaker. As I picked up speed quickly coming down the rock and drop-off (can't break much on drops) my front tire slid out from underneath and my bike and I slid down the hill about 10ft or so, which was plenty far on that type of surface. Normally when you fall on a bike you feel nothing, it's after you get up something starts to hurt, but this fall was different, in a bad way. As I was sliding my thumb was being pressed into the ground by my grip and I could feel it getting bent the wrong way and immediate pain shot into the big digit and sent the message to my brain. I felt the instant throbbing and discomfort and knew it wasn't going to be a short lived event. The ole right knee got a nice little cut too, but my thumb just got worse and worse.
At that point you can do nothing but hop back on the bike and suck it up, so that's what I did for the next couple miles to the trailhead. By then my thumb was swollen and super stiff with no chance of bending it without help from my other hand. I figured it would be ok, but it just got worse. Anyways, my thumb hurts and I'll get over it, it's just so darn frustrating!!!
The day after, good thumb on the right:
On my way out I met a super cool dude at a camp ground I was checking out. We had a nice long talk, one of those conversations that takes turns in all sorts of directions and ends up being three times as long as you think it really was, but in a good way. Definitely the type of person I was hoping to run into on my travel rather than the typical citizen that doesn't have much unique to talk about. Hopefully our paths will cross again in the future so we can continue the conversation we had going.
So back in SLC and resting today. My stinkin thumb kept me from falling asleep last night, so after only 6.5 hours of sleep I've decided to take the day off and rest...much needed.
All in all the ride was OK. It would've been much better with some good food in my belly for some energy and minus the thumb deal. Three hours 24min total, 21.11miles, and prob 12-14 uphill. Do it again, probably not. The Center Trail is just not a mtb trail, but I'm glad I did it once.
Tons of pics on my smugmug site of the ride. Click on the pic below to get into that area, starts on page 5 I believe. A couple of vids on youtube also of some snakes and review at the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment