Biking on Ski Terrain

Rather than making my head cold worse by racing the RMR, I decided to go exploring. I attempted to retrace a classic ski tour on my bike. I decided it's easier to travel on snow with skis, but it was neat to see the terrain in summer form. I wanted to ride from Solitude to Alta via Twin Lakes pass. I rode up Serenity and the new trail and proceeded up the service rode to Summit.

Near the top I ran into Anthony Colby who was looking at a map, rather perplexed. He was in town to do some Tour of Utah recon. I told him that I didn't think the course was coming up here. He said it was his day off and he was just chillin' on the mountain bike. It was nice to hear someone from Durango look at the Wasatch and say that it is "spectacular."

The road to Summit was pretty steep. Everytime I ride up that road I swear I'm going to get a triple. I'm going to follow through this time. At the top of the Summit, a nice trail continues to Twin Lake Pass. But it's a lot more rugged and rockier without snow. Although I think that a hike a bike to the pass would be possible, I didn't attempt it. Here is the view from Summit, looking at Wolverine Cirque, which holds snow. Funny to think that in only two months there will be new snow in the cirque.

I gave up on my plans to ride to Alta and ended up riding back down on the Sol Bright trail to Brighton and then back to Solitude.

I think though that I was inspired to make an attempt at a version of the Wasatch Classic. What about this route? Heber, Cascade Springs, Ridge Trail, Tibble Fork, Mineral Basin, Alta, Grizzly Gulch, Twin Lakes Pass, Hike a Bike, Brighton, Guardsman, Crest, Mid-Mountain, Powerline, Guardsman, back to Heber via Dry Creek. Lots of bail out options on this route.