Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

Although I'd never ridden it from our house until today, it turns out that an out and back from here to the top of Suncrest is only 22 miles. That means I can squeeze in quick ride with a nice little climb in just over an hour. Perfect when time is limited.

I felt slow, but I'll be doing this ride a lot from here on out, so my legs should get stronger. 

I borrowed my brother's single speed and went mountain biking for a little bit this evening. Lambert park is the perfect place for no gears, because its never so steep that the trail becomes unrideable. Which isn't to say I rode everything. If I was a bad mountain biker a couple of years ago, I'm even worse, now. You'd be surprised at the type of  "obstacle" that can stop me cold. And it didn't help any that my brother's brakes suck. In fact, the last bike I rode with such crappy brakes was a cyclocross bike.

Still, it was fun. 

DEMON BABY!

Anyway, I got out for a run on the trails tonight. I'm still planning to shift over to riding so my knee can heal, but I want to keep running once or twice per week so I can maintain my running legs. As expected, my knee hurt, but I'm hoping that by riding primarily I'm on a two steps forward, one step back plan. In other words, I think I'll heal more slowly than I would if I stopped cold turkey, but I'll have more fun in the process. Maybe I can still do Speedgoat.

As for the run--I hit the trail at 9:00, so about half of the run was by headlamp. Up Battle Creek, over to Dry Canyon, back to the car via BST. The same route that's given me trouble on my last two weekend runs. No trouble tonight, though. I ran every step easily, and never walked once or even felt tempted to. Go figure.

Also, mileage is approximate, and I have no idea what my time was. Note to self--remember to charge the Garmin after each run. 

Another short road ride, finishing in just over an hour. It's funny how one hour seems so short on the bike, but not at all when running. Anyway, I've been fairly consistent this week, averaging at least an hour a day, so it's an improvement over the last while. It's a big change from the last few years, though. One of these days I'll dig a week out of my old cycling training logs for comparison.

As for the ride, I rode up AF Canyon to the cave parking lot, then flipped around and rode home via a loop through Pleasant Grove. I've heard the canyon is open to the top, so I'll head up that way as soon as I have time. 

More cycling. Another short ride, another trip up American Fork Canyon. This time I rode as far as the fork. I hear the road is open all the way through. If only I had time to ride the entire loop.

A couple of years ago, I set out for a scheduled 6-hour ride on a Sunday afternoon in early February. At the time I was living near Liberty Park, and my plan was to ride a loop up through Tooele and back through Lehi. But as I came around the south end of the Oquirrh Mountains, the head wind was so strong that I was afraid I wouldn't be able to make it all the way around the loop before dark, and winter is a bad time to be caught out in the cold. 

I passed a turnoff to Ophir, and because my photographer friend had mentioned the place before I decided to check it out and then retrace my route home. What I found was a beautiful little canyon with a beautiful little ghost town at the top (acccording to Wikipedia, there are about 28 people living there). I haven't been back since. Every time I plan to, something comes up. 

My most recent attempt was today. I asked a friend if he wanted to come along, but he ended up bringing a friend who was a bit slower. Slow enough that I didn't want to ride all the way to Ophir because that would mean getting back way later than I had told Catherine.

So instead we headed up a different canyon to Mercur, another ghost town. I was hoping to find another little gem like Ophir, but instead we found this:

Oh well--still a good ride. And as my friend said, we're probably three of about 100 people in Utah who have ever been to Mercur.