Northern Utah and southern Idaho

After our stay at Gooseberry Mesa we drove north to Provo then Ogden, Utah. Up north the weather is a little colder and moist, like summer in my hometown Seward!


You can tell that Buffett is enjoying the trip as much as we are!

In Ogden we found a couple good trails to spend 2 and a half hours on. This section was pretty steep and tricky, it took me 5 or 6 tries to ride through it without stopping. We'll be back in this town in September for the Xterra USA Championship race held in Snowbasin.

Behind me if you look close enough, you can see the trail climbing up along the mountain.
On a 60 mile road bike ride we got to see a historic site! This is the Golden Spike Historic Site in Promontory, Utah. In 1869 on May 10, a golden spike was driven into the railroad and completed the first transcontinental railroad that was built by Union Pacific from the east and Central Pacific from the west. This was the first direct transportation route from the east coast to the Pacific ocean and China trade.

Still on our bike ride we stopped by a rocket display at the ATK Aerospace Facility.

This particularly massive rocket behind me is a Reusable Solid Rocket Motor which is used to carry the space shuttle into space. It is 149 feet long, 12 feet in diameter, and weighs 1,255,978 lbs. When attached to the space shuttle, this rocket burns for only 122 seconds and has 2.6 million pounds of thrust, enough punch to zoom at 3,094 mph. When the burn time ends, at 24 nautical miles above the earth the rocket separates from the shuttle and falls back a bit then parachutes into the Atlantic Ocean. Then boats find it broken up into segments and take the segments back to the mainland U.S. where it is reassembled for reuse.

When we're not riding and looking at old trains and rockets, this is where we are! (At least some of the time.)
This is the Crystal Spring, a mineral water hot spring. A great reward for a cold swim in a funky 20 foot long outdoor pool filled with 64 degree water. And by the way, in northern Utah there's still snow on the mountains behind us.


After the hot springs we crossed the state border into Idaho. Dad and I went for a bike ride again through the hay fields with cows scattered here and there.

Gooseberry Mesa

We visited Gooseberry Mesa for a couple days after the St. George Triathlon to put in some fun rides. Gooseberry Mesa sits southwest of Zion National Park and from there you can see the ominous Zion mountains. This place had lots of amazing riding for different levels, beginner, intermediate, and expert and was somewhat well marked with green, blue, and black diamond signs for their respective difficulty. We took lots of pictures to show the scenery and how fun this place is!

The windmill at the head of the windmill trail that is part of the trail network of Gooseberry Mesa.

The cool thing about the windmill trail is that it edges alongside the cliff edge of the mesa so you get a vast view of everything below.

The cliff wall behind dad and me goes all the way around the mesa for a long way.

By the way, we're at about 5000 feet elevation.

One of the narrow turns on the cliff edge with rocks to hop over to keep it tricky!

Incidentally, however pretty these plants are my dad and I have had to pull out their needles out of ourselves at different occasions. I suggest you view them when standing still, and not on a moving bike.

The Bowls and Ledges trail is a black diamond ranked trail with great obstacle course riding!

The famous slickrock. I have never ridden anything like it before because there isn't any in Alaska. The mesa is built of this rock and most of it is covered in sand and shrubs but there are some bare areas that allow you to ride and climb at angles that are impossible to even try on any other kind of terrain.

More great technical mountain bike handling practice. This is why I don't ride road bikes more than I need to!

There is not much that I can say, but hopefully the pictures were able to show what I could not. Gooseberry is a real gem, and when I can, I'll be back!

SG Tri

The SG Tri had over 300 people signed up for the olympic distance race, including about 7 elites which are considered as professionals. There were many more entered in the sprint race happening at the same time so that made it a little interesting with the endless lines of bikers and runners! I'm guessing there were maybe 800 people racing all together today. The winner of the olympic distance race in 1:58 was Dan Springborn, a 30-34 age grouper. 2nd place was Weston Woodward an elite, in 1:59. And 3rd place was me in 2:02. I got some cool prizes, a heavy stone plaque that will make our RV lose one mpg, a medal for finishing that also serves as a beer bottle opener (much use that'll be since I don't drink beer or soda). And finally a 50 dollar gift card for Tri Sports which will help me to get a new race suit! Here's some more pictures of the day. Sorry for the blurry pictures, the camera wasn't working properly.

Me on my way to set up my gear in the transition area. The day was sunny and beautiful, perfect racing conditions!

The swim course was two laps of a 1/2 mile loop with people starting in waves 10 minutes apart. I was in the 2nd wave, after the male and female elites.

The 33k or 20.5 mile bike course wasn't too easy, there was a big hill climb 3 miles into the bike.

The aid stations and the famous volunteers who help to make the race happen!

On the run I didn't feel my strongest, but it still felt smooth. Could be my fastest 10k in a triathlon so far though!

In the transition area behind me, there are at least 800 or even a thousand bikes.

Awards ceremony, overall males.

St. George Tri

The St. George olympic distance triathlon was fun! I got 3rd place overall in 2 hours and 2 minutes. The bike leg was a little shorter, 33k instead of the official 40k distance so that would add a few minutes to my official olympic distance finish time. Still was a blast though! Due to internet connection problems I'll have to upload more pictures with more details shortly.

J.E.M Trail

On our long run last Sunday, we decided to take a picture and show how teamwork works...Find someone who doesn't have anything else to do but carry 15 pounds of water and fuel in a backpack and ride alongside the runners. Sure beats lugging camelbaks (which we use for runs over 10 miles) full of water when you're supposed to have a nice long sunday run.

A few days ago we parked at the J.E.M trailhead east of the small town of Hurricane, Utah. This area is just southwest of Zion National Park in Southern Utah. It was a beautiful and hot afternoon on the desert.

Then an abrupt change of weather came without warning the next morning....snow! It went from being 80 degrees yesterday to 36 degrees and snowing for a couple hours in the morning.

After the sky cleared up we went riding for about 14 miles on the J.E.M trail. Such beautiful scenery awaited us! The trail itself was well designed for the adventurous soul with smooth and winding singletrack across the mesa with some fun technical stretches great for practicing bike handling skills.

The J.E.M trail also edges alongside a canyon with the Virgin River approx. 60 feet below.

I will be posting some more pictures after the St. George Tri this Saturday.
After 3 weeks of training and no races, I'm ready to have some extra fun!

St. George, Utah

A couple days ago we rolled into St. George, Utah. This is the town that my next race, the St. George Olympic Distance Triathlon will be held in on Saturday the 15th. Utah sure is a beautiful state, with lots of canyons and slickrock formations that make for great biking and running trails.

We found a great hill to ride yesterday, steady climbing with technical slickrock steps. (Slickrock feels like sandpaper which helps for better grip on steeper climbs.)

Today we went running in Snow Canyon. Its an amazing place with sand and shrubbery meadows. Then the cliff walls loom over you the farther you go into the canyon.

Mom and Buffett jogging along for the adventure!

These rock walls used to be sand dunes, some 2,500 feet thick that eventually cemented into stone. Then water carved through the stones to make the canyons which left behind the rippling patterns on the wall behind me.

Another cool fact, this place was the filming site for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, among other movies.