This weekend it worked out to pull off double header bucket list items. Thank you Kathryn for being so supportive and letting me do this!

Part 1: Cascade Mountain and Provo Peak Hike

For years and years, I have looked up at the ridge leading up to Corral Mountain and Provo peak and thought I should hike that. I see it every day driving home from work, and the starting point is right at Camel Pass which is just below the Springville overlook. I’ve been to the overlook dozens of times over the years. Stan and Melanie even got engaged there!

Early this year, I decided this was the year and mentally committed to make it happen before the hiking season was up. When we had an open day this last week, I decided to make it finally happen. I started out at Camel Pass just below the Springville overlook and then went right up the ridge. Besides some really thick patches of scrub oak that I had to bush whack through, it wasn’t too bad. After making it to Corral mountain, I decided to keep going and continued on to Provo Peak.  At that point, I took the trail down to the road and then hoofed it back to the truck. All told, 12.5 miles with 4200 feet of ascent.

An example of what the hike was like.

Looking back down the ridge where I came.

Looking forward to Provo Peak.

Part 2: Tibble Fork to Sunset Peak Ride

While buried in snow in this winter (and loving it by the way), I found myself thinking about the upcoming dirt bike season. I then found myself browsing dirt bike videos and saw this one from the Dirt Bike Channel. The trail looked so awesome, something that I’d love to ride. I reached out to the guy and he let me know it was the top end of trail 057 up American Fork canyon. I’ve been part way on that trail many times, but never continued on to the end. I couldn’t believe it. So, I put it at the top of my dirt bike ride wishlist for the season.

Late this week, a friend from work and I were talking about how we needed to get the bikes out and go on a ride again. After consulting the calendar, this weekend was among the few and best options left of the season, so we decided to go for it! Never mind it was the day after I was doing the hike!

Wow, what an awesome ride it turned out to be. When we started, it was lightly raining and we got drenched between the rain and brushing up against all the wet bushes.  45 minutes into the ride, the rain let up and conditions were top notch with nice cool air and grippy dirt. We didn’t have any real issues either and we were able to do the entire ride that I imagined. We both ended very satisfied the ride and were not left wanting for more. All told, we rode for 5 hours and did around 38 miles of aggressive, overgrown, getting-constantly-whacked-in-the-face, single track. Oh yeah!

Here is a close up of the track going up the final push to the base of Sunset Peak. This is the section that is covered in the youtube video. Kyle from the video did it in 8 minutes. It took me 13. That said, he’s done it dozens of times he said, so I’m pretty happy with my run. Sure a lot faster than walking it too, which I wouldn’t mind doing either with different shoes on! This is beautiful country through here.

Here’s the view from the top. This is a fun spot being at the top of three large drainages. Take a few steps and spit and it’ll go down to Brighton and the Big Cottonwood Canyon, a few steps in another direction and it’ll go down through Alto to the Small Cottonwood Canyon, and few steps back and it’ll go down the way we came and on through American Fork Canyon.

Looking back to the way we came from American Fork Canyon.

Looking down at Brighton.

Turn around and you’re looking at Alta’s Supreme lift.

Timp was majestic. You can see how everything is still so green. And all the water crossings were still running.

When I got home, I got a kick out of this. Help! 🙁 I have a flat tire.  Haha.