Squaw Peak

In my BYU days, I used to ride up Squaw Peak on a regular basis. At the time I thought it was a long ride to go from my apartment to the top and back, so it was always a risk to leave the apartment in the spring wondering if there would still be too much snow to ride up. I remember one particular ride getting caught in a rut on the way down and nearly taking a high-speed fall onto the snow-asphalt mixed surface.

This year (and apparently last as well) Brad K "organized" a group ride up Squaw Peak to celebrate the new year. There was quite a group that showed up! I heard mutterings of 10 degrees (F), but I don't think it was really that cold. I'm guessing more like 25 at the top, maybe colder down lower. You'd think we'd all get cold, but it wasn't a problem.

It was a blast, but for me one of those days when things just don't go right.

I'd been putting off Stans'ing my front tire on the SS for a while, but last night knew I'd better. After about 1.5 hours of trying, I gave up (the rims are pretty wide) and used the split-tube method. This seemed to work, but by morning my tire had about 10 psi in it. I didn't have time to do much about it this morning, so I pumped it back up and hoped for the best.

Getting ready to ride, I found I'd forgotten my helmet -- oh well, snow is soft. We started riding and I quickly realized I had left my camera in the car. A few minutes later I found my water bottle had been leaking and I had no more drink. I looked down at my new Forerunner GPS and it was not displaying my HR, so I changed some settings and got it displaying, but that reset my clock, a little annoying. From there the climb went well except I did a lot of walking. I think there is some skill to riding/climbing in snow that I don't have. One guy had a Pugsley that seemed to go quite nicely over the soft stuff.

The descent was super-fun. We were bombing down, endos galore, and having a great time. Then I got a flat. Pulled out my spare (a road tube) and CO2'd it up -- bang! It popped (too small). Holley gave me a tube and his pump. The pump was slow going, so someone else gave us a CO2, but that CO2 didn't work because his inflator seal was cold or something and the gas just leaked out. Meanwhile, the guy pumping got the job done, but then the valve stem broke off when he was removing the pump. At this point, there was nothing left to do but run down to the bottom, which really wasn't so bad.

At the bottom I found a cannister of Carbo Rocket waiting for me (a prize for last place? :) It has a pretty simple set of ingredients, which I've always favored. Will be fun to try.

I also had a thermos of hot herb-tea waiting in the car, so I had a nice ride home.