Thursday, October 23, 2008

The Mini Spine



The first person (excluding those who were with me today) who can correctly identify the location of "The Mini Spine" wins their choice of an old UST 26x2.1 Maxxis Ignitor or a pair of well used Time Impact cleats (for the older style pedal). The only hint I'll give you is that I had a sweet ride this afternoon on the Shoreline Trail between the zoo and Dry Creek. And no, I didn't ride it!

What I did ride, however, was the steep double track that climbs up Rattlesnake Gulch to the northeast of the zoo. This was my first time riding up to the 3-way junction at the top without putting a foot down. Mark A. was up in front of me which provided good motivation to keep the pedals turning. At the top I about lost my lunch and had to sit down for a few minutes to keep everything under control. Fox told me he used to ride that in the middle ring. That's impressive as today I was dying in the 22x34!

8 comments:

primetime formerly known as slyfox said...

its up red butt canyon

UtRider said...

I'm sure there are plenty of red butts in SLC but I didn't see any on my ride today. If you mean Red Butte that's a pretty big area - can you provide more detail than that?

StupidBike said...

I cazn likely give you a gps track. Go up the red butte dirt rode, all the way to the gate, turn left to single track keep heading down. At the 4 way, go straight, you roll a little, don't take the left hand trail go around the edge and voila, there it is.

I cleared that for the first time this year, mostly because I was following Bart and Ohran and Alex were on my tail

UtRider said...

Due to the extremely detailed location information and offer of gps data I'm going to declare stupidbike the winner. So what do you claim as your prize? Fox, since you could probably ride there with your eyes closed I'll award you whatever Bob doesn't choose as a consolation prize.

UtRider said...

Oh, and one more question: Did you ride it going up or down? In my mind it would be easier going down though either direction is currently out of my league!

StupidBike said...

rode it up, actually hiking it is harder cause that steep section above, when you remount and start from dead stop. Ouch, you can give the stuff to Sly, I don't need anymore slightly used bike parts.

Watcher said...

"Rattlesnake Gulch", eh? I never knew that thing had a name. We just call it the "Death Climb." We count "cleaning" the Death Climb as climbing to the 3-way junction, turning right, climbing to the saddle, then right again, and doing the 2 little climbs to the little summit (which we call "Death Climb Peak"- we have like no imagination) without dabbing. It's brutal... but if you're cleaning to the 3-way you pretty much got it.

UtRider said...

watcher -

I got the name from Fox. And I should tell you that my feeling of satisfaction at riding the climb was short lived now that I've learned there is more to go! To be honest I don't know if I could make it to the saddle. Seriously, I about puked when I arrived at the 3-way. However, now I have a new goal for next season when I'm in shape. I'll put that on my list for 2009.