I had plans today to go on a long ride. I arranged for Hyrum to stay home with Katharine while I went, and I told him I thought I'd be gone for 2-3 hours, plus the drive up and back... I'd leave after Daniel and Peter left for school (8:30) so adding the time for the drive, maybe I'd be back around 2? Hyrum drove Lily and Sophi to school cause he had to get his computer from Wayne's house. I planned to pick up Lily after school, who had to stay for SBO stuff. I told Sophi to find a ride. Corey took Churchill carpool in the van so I could use his car. All these logistics were in my mind as I went to bed last night and I was dreaming about them all night (not a very restful sleep). I woke up wide awake at 4, made myself lay in bed and rest until 4:50 then, even though I was going on a ride, I decided to go to the rec center and I did some upper body stuff. It was good. Hyrum left with Lily and Sophi, I got back before Corey left. I got Daniel and Peter off to school and I took Katharine to a playgroup at 9, and little things kept coming up, so I wasn't on my way up the canyon until 10. I enjoyed my drive up Big Cottonwood, I stopped at took photos at Solitude and of Brighton, it was all lovely. I drove over Guardsmans like I did yesterday, soaking it all up again, and then I parked at the Mid Mountain Trailhead by the Montage. I went west towards Park City, not the Deer Valley way, and within 20 minutes I was in the heavenly golden aspens of the Mid Mountain trail.
I was loving it and thought I'd do a small climb by going up Tommy's Two Step. That was nice, I wasn't watching the time, I was just being present.
I decided to go down Silver Queen. That trail intersected with Mid Mountain. I didn't know that section of Mid Mountain, but I knew Silver Queen went down to Jenny's, so I decided to just keep going. At the end of Jenny's I didn't feel like biking up, I wanted to go down more! So I did, and I went all the way to the base. 90 min in and that was fun. Unfortunately, however, now I was starting to feel "done", but now I also had to bike all the way back up to the car! I started biking towards Armstrong and considered my options... I could call Corey to come get me... I could see where the bus stop is and see if they go up to the Montage? I only thought of those things as I biked, I didn't look them up, and thus I decided by default that the fastest way to solve this problem was for me to own my choices and just bike back to the car. So up Armstrong I went (2 hours in now) and I went past HAM up to Mid Mountain. I sent a message at 12:30 to Hyrum letting him know that it didn't look like I was going to be back home at 2, since I was still on Armstrong. Sent another voice message at 1:30 that I was at Mid Mountain again, yay...
Message at 2:20 - I'm so done, but I'm not done... I think/hope that I'm close to the Montage but I'm not sure (I was on the unknown section of Mid Mountain). It was really pretty though!
I finally did know where I was at 2:50 and at 3:15 I was back at the car. UGH! 40 min drive home after I stopped by 7-11 for some electrolytes. SO, what I thought would be a get my fill of autumn ride really did give me my fill after 22.64 miles and 3308 ft of elevation. 4 straight hours and zero minutes of biking and I think I should be good for the rest of the season.
I was home at 4:30, and then I turned around and went to pick up Lily. She was so happy to be getting out of hiking the Y tomorrow cause she has work (she doesn't love to hike) but then today she had to go chalk the S at Skyline for Skyline homecoming, and that was a longer and steeper and more sun exposed hike than the Y would have been, ha, so she got stuck with a homecoming hike anyway. She told me how tired she was, and I told her that after my 4 hour ride, I felt for her, esp cause she didn't any of the pretty colors. I don't plan to get up early tomorrow. I'm gonna rest and we'll see how my legs feel tomorrow! I still love fall! But my take aways for the day are:
- Always park at the base
- For a long ride, remember to factor in that noon and afternoon sunshine = heat
- Go with Corey or a friend (they will provide common sense to help stop you from doing too long of a ride)
- Backpacks make you sweat more, but I'm glad I had the extra water
And when I was almost back at the car, going through pretty aspens again, I was thinking I should have just biked the 20 min to this spot, pulled out a blanket, layed down and stared at the sky for 3 hours.
Maybe I'll do that next year to get my fall fix instead of all that biking work!
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