Late Fall Millcreek Ride

My brother from Arizona has been staying with us the past few days while he attends a Dental Continuing Education course in Park City. His class ended at 3:30 this afternoon so our plan was to ride to Dog Lake afterwards. However, the drive up Millcreek wasn't filling me with optimism as there was a lot of snow to the side of the road about 1 mile past the elbow. I was tempted to flip a U-turn and ride the Pipeline but my brother wanted to give it a go so we continued on. That turned out to be the right call as the Big Water, Little Water and Great Western trails were in good condition. We did have to navigate a few soupy sections but overall the trails were either dry or slightly damp and tacky. A few trees were down across the trail and there were a handful of slushy sections but overall it was a great ride. What really amazed me was how quickly the leaves had fallen from the Aspen trees. With snow on the eastern hills and the barren Aspens, combined with the dark clouds in the sky, it felt a lot like winter. Thankfully the temperature was still seasonable otherwise it would have made for a cold descent!