Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Millcreek Pipeline

I met Raul and Matt after work for an evening ride up Millcreek Canyon. Starting from the park-and-ride on Wasatch we rolled the pavement up to Elbow Fork. Well, at least Raul and I did. Matt was craving 1-track and left us at Rattlesnake Gulch to ride the dirt up the canyon. Raul and I jumped on Pipeline at the top and met up with him just above the switchbacks down to Birch Hollow. He flipped a U-turn and we rode back down and out Rattlesnake Gulch.

The trail was in fantastic condition which surprised me as I expected a fair amount of rutting due to impatient riders hitting it too early. I guess the people who ride Millcreek are more disciplined than those who frequent Corner Canyon or the Salt Lake Shoreline Trail as there wasn't a rut to be found. Either that or Pipeline sees so much traffic that any early season ruts have already disappeared or the soil is such that even when wet it doesn't produce much mud.

What also surprised me was how few riders, runners and hikers we encountered while riding down. For such a beautiful day and given the popularity of Millcreek I had expected much more traffic. Speaking of which, we ran into (figuratively speaking of course) Andy and Rhonda Hypio and Ken Costa. All three were looking lean and fast. Speaking of fast, Matt was ripping up the trail tonight. For a self proclaimed "rec rider" he sure can ride fast!

Unfortunately I left my camera in the car (which fortunately wasn't the victim of a smash and grab unlike the car that had, at some point in the not too distant past, frequented my same parking stall as evidenced by all of the glass on the ground) so I came away from the ride with no pictures. That's a shame as the canyon looked absolutely amazing.

Oh, and I rode the single speed which was awesome.

2 comments:

Team Rico said...

It was dead on Sunday too

IamMatt said...

Id agree. The trail was in pristine condition other than the location of where trail maintenance happened just shy of church fork. Talk about bumpy on a ht.