Quintessential Mountain Biking

I finally rode the quintessential Utah mountain biking trail - the Wasatch Crest. It was a little bit of an out-of-body experience for me - not because of the mountain biking but because of the crowd I went with. I went with about 30 people and only 10% of which I felt like I only kind of knew. Everyone else were total strangers. The two of the four people I knew there I hadn't seen in years, one I had never met officially but we were facebook friends, and the fourth I met last year and have seen him only a handful of times since. I kind of rode with the latter two and not at all with the former two. The precedent with this is that I didn't take a wing-man or wing-woman. I totally went on my own! That says how much I wanted to go do this ride. And it wasn't so bad. I made some new friends - one girl that I'm excited to go biking with (Jenn), and a couple of guys that were really cool.

As for the ride - it was beautiful! BEAUTIFUL!! At least what little of it that I saw. In a way I felt like Goldilocks on this ride, get this: At the very beginning, I was riding with some really new/slow folks, then I hooked with the three really fast riders which took everything I had just to keep up with them. Then I bagged them and rode with one of the guys I kind of know and that was just right!! Cuz I could go slow and look at the scenery, enjoy the biking, get a little rest, and look at some more scenery while I waited for him to catch up to me. He even took this picture of me while we rode together. The trail definitely had some pretty technical spots, but it was amazing and wonderful the whole 24 miles of it. And the pine forest parts of it (like the one in the pic) are my favorites because they smell soooooo good!! I love the smell of pine. I can hardly go on a hike or bike ride without exclaiming how much I love the smell.