Love at first sight

Well, maybe not first sight. It's more like if you had a crush on a girl in jr. high or high school, didn't see the girl for 15 years, and then saw her again and fell in love. Yeah, kind of like that.

I used to ride the "3 forks" network of trails back in my teens. My friends and I would drive down from the West Valley City ghetto and ride those trails more than any other. Back then, mom and pop were filling the gas tank for around $1/gallon and I had nothing but time, so distance didn't seem like a big deal. We'd pretty much stick to the lower trails because it never occurred to us that we could ride our mountain bike for more than 5-10 miles at a time. The thing I remember most was that the trails were amazing. That, and the hot pots were a good excuse to go skinny dipping.

For the past 10 years or so that I've been riding again, I've meant to go check out these trails, but I was either too for away, too busy, or maybe I was just afraid that the trails wouldn't live up to how I remembered them from back in the day.

This weekend, I had hoped to make it up to the Evanston Icup race, but couldn't pull it off. Instead, I got up early and headed to Diamond Fork to check out the trails I had been dreaming about for the past 15 years or so. They didn't disappoint, in fact the trails are better than I had remembered. They are so good that if you gave me the choice of riding the ridge trail system or the 3 forks trails tomorrow, I'd pick the 3 forks. Granted, my opinion may be affected by the fact that it had just rained and the trails were in perfect condition. And the fact that I rode 25 miles before I saw another person on the trails. Yes, I think I'm in love. If I were still playing in a band like back in the college days, I'd write a love song about these trails. Shoot, I wrote a love song about my favorite fishing lure back in the day, so writing a love song about a trail should be a breeze.

If these are your secret local trails and you're afraid I'm letting the cat out of the bag, don't worry. You're just about the only person who reads this blog, so your secret is still safe.

In other news, I was down in Sandy for a follow up apt. with Hoopes Vision (I'm seeing better than 20/20 6 months after laser eye surgery), and I decided to do some riding in the Corner Canyon area. I felt like pushing the pace, so I gave the Clarks TT another go. I went out a bit easy at the beginning to save myself for the steeper sections at the top. Crossed the finish line at 11:04, which is almost a minute faster than my time back in May. I think I have a sub 11 in me, but it will probably have to wait till next year. After descending Ghost, I turned around and TT'd Ghost. I think it's a good short TT for race prep, although probably not deserving its own website. It actually makes you think about bike handling instead of just pushing hard.


It looks like the AMC stage race is attracting some pretty big names (click on "Elite Men"). The promoter just sent me a press release that identified the likes of JHK, Jeremiah Bishop, and Ryan Trebon in hopes that the big names would attract more racers. What really surprised me is that some reason the press release didn't list me. Don't they know who I am!?!?