Snowbasin remains my favorite place for lift-served mountain biking. Trails are by and large rather rocky but the Needles Gondola provides a quick trip 2,800 vertical feet up the mountain, which means long, long runs back down. The trails feature a fun mix of ridges with sweeping vistas, open mountain meadows and thick aspen forests. And it's usually nearly empty. An all-day bike lift ticket costs a reasonable $18.
Today was busier than normal, as it was the Labor Day holiday, but there was still little traffic on the trails. Many folks from Ogden headed up to the mountain for a free concert on Earl's Deck with seating on the lawn. It made for a festive atmosphere.
We all rode up together, and telejon started hiking to the summit ridgeline while the rest of us headed out the Needles Trail, followed by a second lap on Porcupine. Those two laps comprised nearly 17 miles of bumpy singletrack and took much of the afternoon to complete.
We made it back to Earl's Patio 30 minutes before the show wound down. Telejon wouldn't stop raving about his hike -- he summited Mt. Ogden, taking in views spanning westward across the Great Salt Lake, and then descended past the top terminal of the Porky's lift. He hiked back up to the gondola summit station to ride back down to the base.
None of us will replace Ansel Adams with our photography skills today (Tcope and I were only using our cell phones), but here are a few:
- Tcope (photo: Admin)
- AmyZ (photo: Admin)
- The patio at Earl's Lodge (photo: Admin)
- Some locals hoping to catch first chair of the new ski season on Middle Bowl (photo: Admin)
- Tcope (photo: Admin)
- AmyZ (photo: Tcope)
- The Morgan Valley from what Bobby Danger calls "The porno deck" (don't ask!) (photo: Tcope)
- AmyZ and Admin (photo: Tcope)
- Admin (photo: Tcope)
- AmyZ (photo: Tcope)
- Tcope (photo: AmyZ)
- Admin, with Mt. Ogden -- the objective of telejon's hike -- is visible with the transmission towers in the background (photo: AmyZ)
