Leaving Park City....:(

 

We had such a wonderful stay in Park City this Summer....Leaving was hard to do.  But at least we were able to get a glimps of the fall colors.....See you next year.  

Last weekend in Park City....

We headed back to Park City the last week of August to enjoy Labor Day Weekend and for Brad to ride in the Mountain Bike Endurance Race, Park City Point 2 Point...  We were excited for our good friends, John and Marissa Moss and their beautiful girls....We enjoyed a few hikes, shopping and also some of the great rides at Park City Mountain Resort. 

On Friday morning, Marissa, my sister-in-law, Sandy and myself had fun going to Midway and doing some shopping at there Swiss Days.....We have decided to make this a annual event....

Also, Sarah got ahold of my camera for a bit.....see if you can tell which pictures she took....just like her Mom. 

Part City Point 2 Point 2012 (4th time!)

Well, this was my 4th year of doing Park City Point2Point race and this year was epic for several reasons. First the weather, it rained a bunch on Thursday and again on Friday...but the worst part of the storms came in early Saturday morning about 5:30am and it rained, hard which forced Jay and the Team to postpone the race to 8:00am and also remove the round valley portion of the race which removes about 12 or so miles.

I must add as a note, I was not very pleased with myself on my race preparation...I own every thing you can own when it comes to bad weather cycling clothing, problem was it was all sitting in Las Vegas...a lesson that I'm soon not going to forget...don't count on the weather report!

So we all took off and the first 5-8 miles were slow going, without round valley to shake out all the riders, as soon as we got to the single track it was 30-40 riders deep trying to get a very muddy trail and it took some time for things to open up...by the time we got to Deer Valley the trails were improving and we had all self sorted and things were looking good...a big thanks to John Moss who was waiting at Silver Lake, he took my bike and did his best to clean off the mud which had made shifting a difficult proposition, John lubed up my drive train while I filled my pack and got a few bites of food down.

From there we headed out on Mid-Mountain over till we went up, and up and up all the way up around Shadow Lake...I won"t bore you with the details this year but this is where the race really starts to take it's toll on the body...but I must say I felt great this year, it was tough as always but I was able to work my way up this year without stopping or praying for a miracle of some sort to get me off the mountain.

 

 

From there I headed down the mountain to PCMR where Lolly, Sammi and John Moss were waiting and I really enjoyed the sweet downhill sections of the beautiful trails of Park City.

When I got into PCMR I was greeted by the group, I quickly changed kits and filled my pack and ate some real food and was ready to head up the mountain to hit Spiro, John was nice enough to join me at the section of the race,,,so away we went.

We made our way up Spiro to Armstrong over to Mid-Mountain...now this is were the party started...this is where all Hell broke lose...it started to rain and rain and then the hail came and it got cold...I had a cheap poncho over me that helped keep me dry...John had nothing and I was really getting cold with my arm warmers and all that I had on and again John had a short sleave jearsy and I was concerned for our well being and we were a good 10 miles in any direction...we stopped in the trees a couple of times but then we just got colder by not moving so we decided to keep moving torward the canyons, this is about the time John decided to have a flat tire...not good timing, my hands were so cold I could hardly get the tire off...my hands were gone.

But we got a tube in his tire and we took off again, the weather was breaking a bit and we were about 20 minutes from Red Pine lodge, this is were John headed down Holley's and I went up to the top of the mountain and finished the race course and made it into the canyons, by this time the sun was coming out and it was turning into a pretty nice day.

It was a difficult year to totally access my time and my overall performance compared to years past, but all I can say is I'm greatful for good friends to ride with and a loving family who supports me in some thing I love very much...with it being a different race course and a bad weather year, I guess I will be back next year to get my official minus 10 hour mark I need to do before retiring from the best Endurance race out there, and maybe I'll have some company (David Sneed) only time will tell!

 

 

Park City, Summer 2012

We decided last Feb to spend as much time in Park City as we could and just get out of the Vegas heat....Park City is one of our favorite places in the world, and it was so wonderful and relaxing to be there and to be able to hike and bike as much as we wanted.   It was also great to have family come up and visit us, we were able to spend quite a bit of time with Sammi and that is always a plus.  

When we first got to Utah, we spent the first few days in our old neighborhood for the 4th of July and to celebrate Brad and Sammi's Birthday's.   There was a huge fire on the mountain right behind our old home...it was really scary, but after two days, it was under control, but because of the fire and how dry everything in the area was, all fireworks were banned....

My dear friend of 43 years, Jenny, flew in from Seattle for a 5 day visit.  We wanted to celebrate our Birthdays.  We both turned the big 50 this year.  We had a great time and did a hike we will never forget (again, sorry Jen) we saw a great play, Chicago and had some great meals....It is a wonderful thing in this life to have such a dear friend.  

 

We hiked up to Bridal Vail Falls in the Provo Canyon.  That walk is so beautiful and the falls great....

Jenny and I also went to Sundance and had lunch in Bob's backyard...your know Robert Redford.  Well maybe not his accual backyard, but close.  We enjoyed lunch and a beautiful chairlift ride to enjoy the beauty of Sundance.  

 

 

 

We were also able to spend some time in Grantsville with Brad's family and do a bit of camping in South Willow Canyon...we enjoyed a few peaceful evening under the beautiful Utah sky's....

 

 

I was also able to talk my Sister-in-Law, Sandy, into a hike in Park City.  We had the perfect day and the wild flowers were perfect....

I loved spending all that perfect time with my wonderful husband of 28 years.....Hope to do it again next year.....