Wasatch Dirt Thread

[Canada1]

Between my work schedule and desire to avoid people I think I have completely ruined any chance of sleeping past 8 am the rest of my life.

Late evening works pretty well too.

[mall walker]

in the foothills anyway, midday is the time, if you can take the heat. saturday I went from the zoo to bobsled and back down dry creek at 2pm and saw 3 humans and 1 coyote. it was 95 and full sun but still... just now I took an hour for lunch and bummed around shoreline, might have passed 4 bikers coming the other way. it's busier at 7am. there was even the faintest touch of moisture, which I am sure has since evaporated.

[muted]

in the foothills anyway, midday is the time, if you can take the heat. saturday I went from the zoo to bobsled and back down dry creek at 2pm and saw 3 humans and 1 coyote. it was 95 and full sun but still... just now I took an hour for lunch and bummed around shoreline, might have passed 4 bikers coming the other way. it's busier at 7am. there was even the faintest touch of moisture, which I am sure has since evaporated.

no thank you.

[evdog]

Late evening to night ride works great for me in Socal. A couple times now even with covid hikers I've had the summit of one of our busiest instagram hikes to myself at sunset. Kind of mind blowing, actually.

[Canada1]

Lately I'm seeing a ton of groose. Last night 8. Does anyone know anything about birds and what is putting so many onto the trails right now? They're always there, but now they are out in numbers I haven't experienced before.

[ridinshockgun]

Late evening to night ride works great for me in Socal. A couple times now even with covid hikers I've had the summit of one of our busiest instagram hikes to myself at sunset. Kind of mind blowing, actually.

Everyone is willing to get up early, no one is willing to miss dinner and cocktail hour. This is true on most super popular hikes and outdoor attractions.

I've done several of my favorite backcountry rides this summer on weekday evenings due to over crowded trailheads with covid hikers and had the entire trail to myself on nearly every one. Unfortunately the waning daylight in the evenings is putting an end to that pretty fast as we move late into August.

[Dantheman]

Fortunately this translates to the fact that if you combined the dirt from all the brake bumps in LCC you'd barely have enough to fill in one of the big ones on Silver Queen.

Hah! I can't wait until my brain can handle LCC riding again.

Late evening works pretty well too.

Yeah, I was mostly on the evening program last year and it was great.

Unfortunately the waning daylight in the evenings is putting an end to that pretty fast as we move late into August.

I've been meaning to buy a light setup for years for just this reason. Everyone who does it seems to love night riding.

[evdog]

Lately I'm seeing a ton of groose. Last night 8. Does anyone know anything about birds and what is putting so many onto the trails right now? They're always there, but now they are out in numbers I haven't experienced before.

Covid grouse. Everyone's a hiker now.

[alewi11]

Everyone is willing to get up early, no one is willing to miss dinner and cocktail hour. This is true on most super popular hikes and outdoor attractions.

I've done several of my favorite backcountry rides this summer on weekday evenings due to over crowded trailheads with covid hikers and had the entire trail to myself on nearly every one. Unfortunately the waning daylight in the evenings is putting an end to that pretty fast as we move late into August.

Get yourself a couple $30 Chinese lights and it opens up a ton of options. Even on the weekends, you can have stuff like the Crest all to yourself. I rarely do my whole ride in the dark. Just having some lights to finish rides, makes it so you can avoid the masses.

[muted]

I went OTB on the spine at night once. Depth perception was trickier than I thought, ha. That hurt.

[mall walker]

Get yourself a couple $30 Chinese lights and it opens up a ton of options. Even on the weekends, you can have stuff like the Crest all to yourself. I rarely do my whole ride in the dark. Just having some lights to finish rides, makes it so you can avoid the masses.

any specific light recs? I was looking at the name brands but idk if I wanna shell out $150 or whatever. I have a sweet headlamp I could pair with, but would want something mounted on the bike...

[muted]

A really bright headlamp with a supplemental smaller handlebar light for more depth perception is better.

[jtran10]

I could never figure out how to make the headlamp situation comfortable with a bike helmet. The handlebar light mount is no issue.

I have a pair of these but haven't used in a while https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[evdog]

I've had a few lights similar to this one: https://www.amazon.com/hkbayi-SolarS...g-goods&sr=1-4 Aside from a 10 yr old one where the wire finally came loose the light heads have been really good. The battery is the cheap part.

I also have a couple Magicshines. These were the original cheap-o lights that the other cheap chinese brands tried to copy, but they've upped the quality significantly in the last 5 years. I have some of their batteries that are 10+ years old that still hold a good charge. The MS batteries work with the cheap chinese light head above. https://www.amazon.com/Magicshine-Wa...-goods&sr=1-12

I use either of those on the bar these days and a usb-chargeable light on the helmet. Something like this: https://ridepdw.com/collections/head...19790890762297. Not the brightest but works great. Had it for 5 yrs now.

[alewi11]

A really bright headlamp with a supplemental smaller handlebar light for more depth perception is better.

I do this as well. Something like this on the handlebar https://www.amazon.com/EBUYFIRE-Rech...8078103&sr=8-6
And something like this for the helmet
https://www.amazon.com/WindFire-Head...078221&sr=8-23

I recently saw a pretty clever helmet mount on Pinkbike I plan to copy https://m.pinkbike.com/photo/18848861/

[evdog]

The grip mount looks pretty ghetto. I'd be embarrassed to ride around with that on my helmet, to be honest. And I doubt it would work well. Most helmets have a ridge in the middle that would make it near impossible to mount that so it would be stable. My current and previous helmet are both TLD, can confirm that ridge exists.

Get one of these mounts. https://www.amazon.com/Stupidbright-...QYKVZM5QBXH0WM

They work with any light that uses one of those rubber bands to mount. It has a velcro strap for temporary mounting. Or if you're like me and want a permanent mount you can glue it on. Due to the center ridge I took a dremel and cut out some plastic but it has been very solid. I trimmed off the sides the strap attaches to as well. Go pro mount in front of it.

A light mount that would attach to the go pro mount would be even better. If anyone knows of one that would work, post up!

[alewi11]

The beautiful thing about night rides is nobody's out on the trail to see your ghetto light setup. I actually have that mount you linked to as my current setup. I kinda hate it but maybe I should spend some time trying to dial it in. Many of the Amazon lights come with those as part of the light kit.

[evdog]

Yeah, I didn't like it when it was strapped on. Light would bounce too much. It is very solid once glued on.

[mar123]

the evenings have been nice...

[brutah]

^^^That photo is dope!

Finally got back on my bike after two weeks off (broke my derailleur) and a month of not riding in the Wasatch(spent the prior 3 weeks in steamboat). Felt fucking great rolling around the PC trails. Not nearly as blown out as expected either.


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[Dshack89]

It shockingly rained pretty good around 2ish today in PC...made ricochet so much better (and that's already a sweet trail).

I'm heading out of town tonight for 3 weeks, so you are all welcome. I'm sure the forecast is now going to do a 180 and be 70s with rain every other night.

[Boissal]

the evenings have been nice...

Sick. Upper Ag frk? Looks like Solitude choss. Unless people are sending it hard at Hellgate.

It shockingly rained pretty good around 2ish today in PC...made ricochet so much better (and that's already a sweet trail).

I'm heading out of town tonight for 3 weeks, so you are all welcome. I'm sure the forecast is now going to do a 180 and be 70s with rain every other night.

Long term forecast has a big trough moving in with upper 60s temps by Sep1. Dreamy.
BTW, I second the Strava callout, no love for Insurgent?
It's one of my favorites, out there, so much jank! Ricochet is just too fast for me...

[snowaddict91]

It shockingly rained pretty good around 2ish today in PC...made ricochet so much better (and that's already a sweet trail).

We must have been right behind you. Got sprinkled on a few times up on the crest but was pretty surprised to find wet bushes down lower and puddles on the pavement! I had a few moments up high that the breeze started to remind me of fall. It is coming.

[mar123]

thanks yall....The pic is around the soli/ central satch area

We rode Canyons on Thursday and Dropkick is still an absolute blast...although there were a couple ropes strung up across the trail, one you can easily ride under at the entrance and further down towards the bottom you can ride over the other rope... not sure what its all about but someone mentioned there was some construction/cable/chairlift stuff goin on during the day at the end of the Dropkick trail...guessing the workers strung up the rope and didn't want bikers spewing out by the chairlift while they were working? Just a heads up if you ride the trail

Insurgent is a blown out pile of moon dust, still fun but also ridiculous. More peeps need to get on the Canyons DH and burn it back in, if steep and tech is yer game.

[criscam]

Not much dirt here. Beats the dust I guess.



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