Rose & Butterfield Canyons

Today was all about the west side for a change. My son had a school program this afternoon so I decided to work from home. One benefit of working at home is that it's much easier to get out the door for a lunch ride. I wanted to check out conditions at Yellow Fork again so I rode to Herriman and then up to Rose Canyon. As I turned right at the 3-way stop to start the actual climb I started a new lap on my heart rate monitor. One thing I didn't do much last year was to time the climbs I ride on a regular basis. Today my time to the top was 14:25 at an avg hr of 176. The doubletrack is dry but the singletrack next to the creek still looks soft. Of course, it could turn to mud 100 yards up the trail for all I know but compared to last week it's in much better condition.



I had a bit more time so headed over to Butterfield Canyon to see how far I could climb before hitting snow. Turns out the road is clear for almost 3 miles. After that you're looking at this:





Read the comments on Team Rico's latest post and you'll learn that the secret of the SLC elite is burning 6x9's up Emigration Oaks. Yeah right, maybe I'm good for a set of 2x20's! Next week I'll post my time from the turnoff to the top of the hill where Bart lives. 9 minutes?! Maybe to the mailboxes!

Tomorrow evening I'm heading to Lambert Park in Alpine to hit the dirt with Kris, who kindly agreed to show me the trails. The last (and only) time I rode at Lambert was on the Frozen Hog course a week before the race. Let's hope I can ride faster than I did on the snow, ice and frozen ruts!