Cycling Great Basin National Park & visit to Papa and Grandma's

Made a late week decision to ditch the rain forcast here at home along with the race plans at five mile pass, and head for the rain forcast out in the west desert, where we could be hero's for taking the kids to visit a few of their favorite people and all the animals, eat a few loaves of homemade bread, watch some basketball with my dad, and maybe get a few rides in if the weather cooperated.

The ride down - Chesney held out longer than Brock, primarily so she could decorate him with stickers. Once her task was over she crashed too.

Heading up Snake Creek on the mountain bikes - you can see the storm brewing up the canyon.

May have to throw some hiking shoes and the climbing gear in a backpack next time up - those walls look like there's a couple weekends worth of exploring on them.
12.5 miles up, steady climbing, start in the desert sage brush and end in the quakie's at the snowline. Longest mountain bike ride Annie's done, and she still has the 12.5 mile descent. She could have done more.

At the snowline - climbed as far as we could go on this day.

The video below is probably the highlight of the post - 1-because Annie's in it. 2 - because Annie didn't get clipped out - and we all know what happens next, and I got it on the video clip. 3 - because it's also got Annie bombing her first real fast downhill - she likes to go fast.

Day two was on the road bikes, with the intention of riding to the top of the park, or as far as the snowline would allow. Annie went out on the town with Leslie for the Garrison Girls night out when we rolled in Friday night and met Chandra - a local happened to be an avid cyclist along with her husband Ben. Worked out that they were able to join us for the ride which was great, they were strong and good company to boot.

Ben, Chandra, and Annie finishing up the approach to the park...

View of Wheeler Peak from a pull off a little further up the mountain....

View of the road winding up the mountain and the base of the valley where the ride started.


Ben at the end of the line, climbed as far as we could go again, only to be turned back by the snowline before getting a taste of the top.
Guess it means we'll have to go do it again.....

The descent was good, did have some gravel on the road that kept your attention and the corners are sharp enough to make you scrub speed, or at least make me scrub speed - so maybe not quite as good as AF canyon, but still, it's something like 13-14 miles without so much as a flat or little roller to pedal up, it's straight down hill, the whole way - and a very worthy reward after the effort of the climb. Finished with some good flat road to spin the legs out on the ride back across the valley to Garrison (dad's house) - tried one good sprint effort at the end and there was nothing left in the legs, they lasted about 3 rotations before officially quiting for the day - they were cooked. Good weekend of riding and company - thanks to Ben and Chandra for the company on the ride, and Grandma and Grandpa White for letting the rats of the rug rule the roost for the weekend. More on the kids weekend later...