the three amigos...in the mountains.

yesterday was the big day. joseph drove out from oceanside just for this ride (or was it for rowene's birthday and a baby blessing..:) regardless, we were able to place one more brick in the wall of preparation for the death ride. some say in an endurance event your training should at least reach 3/4's the actual event profile. 3/4's would be 100 miles and 11250 feet of climbing.

today was not that day, but it was still intense and a lot of fun. we rode from alpine to vivian park up over the alpine loop. the first photo shows us at the flood still spilling over the road near the top of the climb.

at the top of the alpine loop there was a father, son, daughter and daughter all with specialized downhill/crosscountry bikes. dad had this sweet chest camera attached for trail video. they were kind enough to catch a photo of joseph and me at the top of the first climb. i can only hope for that type of family activity in 10 years..!

the death ride will involve 5 separate climbs with 5 summits. we pushed hard on the first climb and still felt good.






coming down the top of the sundance descent is gorgeous. my poor palm pre camera doesn't do justice to the beauty of the backdrop. majestic peaks in your full view as you drop down the canyon. distracting views. i believe some of the best views in the world. robert redford knows his real estate...

while my camera didn't do justice to the scenery, it did do justice to the posing taking place in the next two photos...


after all the posing we sped off down the canyon in a very quick descent to the provo canyon highway. from there joseph led us down the tunnel to vivian park where we re-stocked on water etc. lot's of people out at vivian on a saturday and while climbing back up there were a lot of people out on the river in tubes. it all looked great.

the first 2-3 miles coming up from the highway seemed to average 8% grade and was a good climb. very narrow, but manageable.

aspen grove i couldn't contain the need to try to capture the beauty again. you can't see the falls cascading down through this sheer canyon drop. but it was spectacular.



after nearly reaching the top--in a cruel move--we dropped 2000 vertical feet to cascade springs instead of escaping to the cars. the climb out from cascade was complicated by leg cramps, abdominal cramps, delays and a nice elderly couple from arizona.

this was the most difficult part of the day for me...aching back, cramps, and fatigue. through all that though, there was the gratifying burn in the legs that came through in good time and tempo.

in the end we all three road to the summit together three across the road and got one final photo before the descent to the windy alpine valley...

here are the stats from the ride. my GPS turned off for a minute or so and the descent numbers seem off. otherwise is looks pretty accurate.