Just got back from Utah last night. Spent a week there in Huntsville - a little town near Snowbasin resort. We stayed in a small log 'cabin' - (5500 sq. ft and with all the amenities). The place was phenomenal and we really appreciated how spectacular it was. Had a freakin great time with family and friends living it up - 3 families/11 total people. Partied like aging rock stars.

The cabin is near a nice lake reservoir, so we spent a couple of days playing on the water with the kids. Its was hot as hell a few days, so the lake came in handy.

We packed a lot of guns n' ammo, and took the kids shooting one day. Pretty funny seeing my young nieces managing a 12 guage and an M1A and a bunch of pistols. I find shooting a little tedious except on rare occasions, but it was cool to see them and my buddies young girls (youngest was 7) plugging away. We'd all watched 'SuperBad' the night before so there was a lot of 'Check yo'self fool' and 'Jigga jigga yayah' statements being thrown around before and after emptying a mag. Good shit.

Anyhoo, the major plan of activity for the trip was riding. We arrived Saturday afternoon, so we just settled in the rest of the day with a nice dinner, cold brews, whiskey shots, music, some hot-tubbing and a little ping-pong. Or as the Chinese say... ping-pong....

Snowbasin only runs their lifts on the weekend, so we figured we better take advantage and ride the next day. Since they are only running on the weekends, you can guess how developed the trails are....not so much. It was fun, but certainly not overwhelming. And definitely not a destination spot in and of itself. It turned out the free stuff in the surrounding area was way better - more on that in a bit.

The next day we drove down to Park City - about 65 miles away and went to The Canyons bike park resort. It's not too big of a place but was just about the right size for a full day of riding. I'd never ridden at an 'official' park before, so I was stoked. I took the M9, which for me, was probably overkill. There was definitely a few things I couldn't nut up for. We did ride some of the expert trails, but spent most of our time on a couple of the intermediate trails. It probably didn't help our frame of mind when the lift operator mentioned the two guys who both broke their necks there a few days prior.

I wanted to practice jumping some of the smaller and intermediate tables. Just what the doc ordered. Me, my son, my brother-n-law (who I've been friends with before he met his wife - my wife's sister), and my other long-time good friend spent the day wearing ourselves out riding. I was really stoked that my kid had a great time too. It's been a struggle to get him motivated and interested and while he was intimidated, he found some stuff that worked for his skill level. I think he came away inspired. In fact, on the looooong drive home, he asked, 'Do you know what we're doing next weekend? Riding!'

While we were playing, the wives and kids did some zip-lining and hiking. The 7-year old, who is an athletic and fearless firecracker expressed an interest in riding - more on that in a bit too.

I don't have any of my own vid, but here is an interweb clip that shows some of the trails at The Canyons:

Took a day off but had an opportunity to sample the local stuff the following day. We got dropped off up at the trailhead of lower Green Pond trail and off we went. Wow. What a fun trail. Super-flowy, small jumps (but only if you wanted them to be jumps) and just a beautiful area. We got a little spun out and ended up climbing a significant section of Maples trail. While climbing we were all thinking how fun it'd be to go the other way. We got our wish as we soon realized we'd made a wrong turn and needed to back-track. Wheee!! So fun. Found our way again and transitioned into Icebox Canyon trail to finish the ride. It was awesome too. More tree coverage and next to a creek for a decent stretch kept the dirt nice an loamy. The awesome thunderstorm we experienced the night before helped out as well. We didn't really get our fill - we only rode a little over an hour, but now we knew about this treasure and looked forward to more later in the trip.

Friday was our last full day, so we fought through our hangovers, woke up early and got dropped off at Snowbasin where upper Green Pond begins. It started abruptly with a somewhat unwanted climb, but got very good thereafter. My son joined on this ride and was pretty stoked by the time we got to the bottom. Yay!

We then headed back to the cabin, quickly gathered up the tribe and drove back to Park City - this time with the AM bike, which for me, was a better fit. The wives and kids wanted to check out the town (which is super cool btw) while we got our final fix at The Canyons. This time, my buddy rented a small full-suss bike for his 7-yr old girl, and as I expected, she killed it. She'd never even ridden a bike with hand brakes before. He broke her in on a beginner trail and they went up the lift for round two. She wanted to ride the intermediate trail... and did. Awesome. My bro-n-law and I did some more runs till they closed down, and just before our muscles locked up in protest. He acquired some minor injuries from a couple of crashes, but nothing severe. Plus, chicks dig scars anyway. We then met up with the tribe at the local brew house for some coolies and dinner.

We ended the trip that night back at the cabin, discussing all the highlights, and thankful for the good times we had and for the opportunity to enjoy it all with each other.

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"it can go full porno alley"

- Kimba - One love, many bikes - 2020

Shit I thought after that rant there would be at least one picture.

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We'll ride it till they pave it. -Clyde

Been mountain biking in Park city many times, love mid mountain trail , haven't tried the downhill stuff yet Sounds like fun. There is great motorcycle singletrack out of Heber and strawberry reservoir area. There's also some really good singletrack in the Mount Nebo area both for dirt bikes and mountain bikes. Viva Utah! heading there in two weeks.

Sorry Tom; I am picture challenged (and lazy). Obviously, I make up for it with descriptive prose and pure f*@kin awesomeness.........or not.

Have fun racerbill. I wish we'd had another week to explore. That place has to have many treasures.

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"it can go full porno alley"

- Kimba - One love, many bikes - 2020