Mountain biking in E.M.

Confession time here.

I am a roadie. I shave my legs, I wear Lycra, and I enjoy riding bikes with skinny tires on asphalt.

That being said, I went mountain biking today.

By mountain biking, I don't mean I rode my mountain bike around town, I mean the lung burning, leg aching, climbing for what seems like forever, followed by a quick decent down winding singletrack through juniper trees kind of mountain biking.

My brother D'Arcy moved out here from Vermont a couple of weeks ago. and this was the first time we were able to get together for some brother bonding time. We decided to go check out the Mountain Ranch bike park here in Eagle Mountain. Since I found out about it a few weeks ago, I have wanted to go and check it out. So, we loaded the bikes on top of the car, and headed out. They are still working on the park, but there is a great section of singletrack already groomed. We climbed up for what seemed like forever - well above the confines of the park boundaries. We then had to pick our way through the juniper trees back down to the singletrack. 3 hours of riding and talking later we were back at the car, with only a couple of casualties. The riding was great today. I can't wait to see how the park ends up once they finish building it. It has the opportunity to be truly great. I doubt the weather will hold long enough for me to get back up there, but I will definitely be going back up the mountain next year. Here are a few pictures I took.

All loaded up and ready to go.

Up, up, up we go. D'Arcy up ahead.

See that white truck down there in the middle of the picture? That's where we started out.

From the top we had a great view of Utah Lake, on the other side of the mountain.

As I said, two casualities. This is the first. ..

It ain't fun until someone is bleeding, but why is it usually me? The second casualty.