Pioneer Day

Went to Vernal for Pioneer Day to try to burn down grandma's house again. It's still there. Brennen liked the small scale production much more than the sky rockets on the 4th. I only burned myself a few times during the show so I can't complain. Brennen did try to set grandma and Jamie on fire with a sparkler. It was my job to keep the sparks flying, not to watch the boy...

I couldn't resist the opportunity to ride my mountain bike and explore the McCoy Flat area more. It's been hard to find trails that aren't overgrown around here, so the desert single track was a nice change. I decided on Retail Sale and Fire Sale. Retail Sale is fast winding up and down ride. There are no major climbs or overly technical sections. Fire Sale on the other hand is a super techy riot! This branches off of Retail Sale and twists, drops and climbs its way back onto Retail Sale. I did a lap on each and would have gone back for another but was cooked. Literally cooked. It was 103 when I left with a consistant breeze. I took my camel back, 70 ounce bladder gone in an hour and a half. I've ridden for almost five hours from the corral trail head and yet to ride all of the trails in this area.




Stop by Altitude Cycles for a map of area trails and the latest trail conditions.

Retail Sale at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Geotagging Community

Happy Birthday

Last weekend was the big birthday bash for Brennen. Three years old! All of his little friends came over for a pirate party fully equipped with a treasure chest piñata, pin the eye patch on the pirate, dig for buried treasure and a treasure hunt. Of course there was pirate cake and ice cream too. The best part of the party, a bunch of kids having a really good time in the backyard.












Happy Birthday Brennen and Jamie!

Parade

We went to Vernal for the 4th for the ususal parade and fireworks. It's fun for Brennen because he has lots of cousins to play with. It's fun for mom and dad because there aren't nearly as many people! We get a chance to relax a little and let Brennen play.







It's even more fun for me when there are new trails to ride... The McCoy Flat area west of Vernal has some seriously fun desert single track. There a number of trails heading off in all directions from the 'corral', stop by Altitude Cycles in Vernal for a map. This will at least give you an idea of which trails to ride and where to start. There are a few other areas I have yet to ride that might be a better choice given the time. That said, time to ride! I choose the more adventurous approach and just started riding from the corral with the idea of taking all of the right forks.



The first trail, to the right of my car, was Cookies. Up and down, winding packed single track. This is the theme for the area.



The first fork lead my up Jackalope. This trail bounced back and forth between ridges climbing to someplace unknown. It eventually turned into Jacks, according to the sign, climbed some more and descended back to Cookies.



Continuing on Cookies the trails became Combo which crossed over the pavement (not the highway) and headed into the red hills.




I ran into Hoes and Milk from the other direction. Hoes looked more interesting and was right so off I went. To this point I was thinking these were perfect single speed trails... Hoes has some pretty good climbs, not pukers, but long enough I ended up in granny gear. The views from the top of trail were awesome! Hoes climbed up and followed the plateaus before dropping back into valley. Don't forget to stop and sign the register, it's in the ammo can.





I finally ended up back at the corral. Not because I'd ran of trails to explore, just water. Desert single track, it was warm.



Up highway 40 is another set of trails, Can You Moo and Upper Moo. This is where I've ridden in the past, Upper Moo is great. No one has ridden these trails since me last fall! I couldn't stay on lower trail it was so over grown and washed out. Didn't make it to the upper trail, so disappointed.



Don't bother with Moo, spend the day at McCoy Flats. Then try some of the other areas. If you bring the family, the Field Museum is pretty cool. At least Brennen thinks it is!