Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Bald Mountain

Our family spent last weekend relaxing in Park City. Except for some rain Friday night, the weather was absolutely perfect, making it a great opportunity to check out some new routes.

As I was falling asleep Friday night, I nudged my wife and said, "uh, by the way, I'm going to ride from Kamas to Bald Mountain in the morning." She was half asleep and I'm pretty sure she didn't know where Kamas nor Bald Mountain are located, but replied drowsily, "Okay, what time will you be back?" "Umm, not really sure....." "So, like 10AM? "Well, probably more like 10:30 or.....uhem (under my breath) 11:00. "Okay, good night." "Good night."

The next morning it was a chilly 45 degrees in Kamas at 7 AM as I started pedaling. It didn't take long though for the temp. to warm up as the sun made its way up into the clear blue sky.

The roughly 30 mile climb from Kamas to the top of Bald Mountain pass was long and mostly gradual. The last several miles before the summit ramp up to around 5-6%. I wasn't sure if it was the elevation that was getting to me or just that I was getting fatigued from the long climb, but I did notice those last few miles were difficult. I was glad to see this written on the road as I neared the summit.

The picture sort of got cut off on the left side, but it says "1 KM to KOM." This was still on the road as the previous weekend, they had the High Uintas Race Classic and this sign was to notify the riders that the check point to get the King of the Mountain or KOM time bonus was near.

Still a bit of snow on the side of the road....

At the top of the pass looking up at Bald Mountain

And here is a view of some of the High Uinta mountain peaks as seen from state route 150 at Bald Mountain Pass.

The ride back down to Kamas was pretty fun since it was mostly all downhill........except for the not so fun part when I ran out of water with about 13 miles to go (couldn't find one of my waterbottles while packing for the trip).

On the descent, I noticed the traffic was getting pretty heavy coming the opposite direction up the mountain. I didn't pass one rider the entire climb up, but probably passed 20-30 on the way down. I don't know why people start climbing so late in the morning. It gets hot, you take up the whole day, and then the traffic gets worse as the day progresses. With my early start, I had 30-40 cars pass me the whole climb, but I bet those coming up had 3-4X that many cars passing them.

Here's the route map in case you're interested. I highly recommend this ride.

2 comments:

Beth said...

Bald mountain pass is so beautiful. That's a serious climb. I Used to drive that route when I worked for L&L campground management. I lost my brakes going down the west side with 6000gallons of...
lukily I was able to jam the transmission in a low enough gear to keep my speed manageable. Needless to say, I will never forget bald mountain. -brent

bjchild said...

funny you mention that experience as I thought of you and that job you had while I was on that climb...