Tribulus terrestris

Also known as puncture vine, caltrop, bull's head, goathead, devil's eyelashes, devil's thorn,  tackweed, and Texas sandbur, along with many names I have heard bicyclists call out as they roll to stop with this insidious thorn making its mark.

Yesterday was the first thorn of the season, no damage since I ride with liners and Slime on the mountain bike. But many out there don’t use these methods and have a miserable ride, often a very short ride.

I have included a couple of photos that I took along the Jordan River trail, south of Gardner Village. They show you the spreading pattern and a close-up of the diabolical thorn, when mature these thorns separate, leaving 2 of more of the thorns. They have the uncanny ability to always have the longest thorn pointing skyward ready to hitch a ride albeit it a short one most of the time.

Took the Jordan parkway with a short out and back to Decker Lake, I came up 3100 South past Redwood road around the cultural center using the new road. Joined the trail just east of the river and continued south. The trail is in pretty good condition to south of Gardner Village.

At 4500 south underpass someone has pulled down the conduit for the lighting, it is sticking out into the path enough you want to pay attention going either direction.

Be sure to look for the new trail connection south of Winchester road, it heads to the west and makes a pretty steep climb. Great for short burst cardio and when coming back down gives a nice elevated view of the area.

Yesterday I decided to ride the Utah Marathon route. For those that have ridden the Salt Lake Marathon this is not that ride. All the downhill for the Salt  Lake Marathon converts to uphill for the Utah Marathon.

The climbs from the start are not anything to worry about, at 2700 south and 11^th east they get a little longer, the Evergreen climb is just short of 1 mile and the last of it begins to show you the elevation increase.

Enjoy the downhill from the top of Evergreen to 4500 south, as you come around the corner and look up…. How bad can it be? Well its starts off not bad but with more than half way that all changes, all the way to Wasatch Blvd. 

The Blvd. is not anything after tackling 4500, a climb up to the trailhead for Parleys gulch. The Gulch,  gee it looks downhill mostly, ah that section that reverse’s up to the overpass for the freeway, lots of bikers slow here.

A short ride along Foothill Blvd, quick right at the top of a slight hill, left on Wasatch Blvd. and  you’re on what is sometimes referred to as Bonneville shoreline trail.  Around 1300 south you start a gradual climb that increases as you go through the golf course heading east.  Left turn at the top of this and a fast downhill to the mouth of Emigration Canyon, left turn and down past the Zoo and on to Arapeen Drive.

From here I took a different route because of traffic and construction, I returned to the route at Federal Heights Drive, from here the route is clear except the transition to 11^th Ave. I would expect going up Alta to Fairfax, up Virginia and left onto 11^th Ave.

Slight uphill and finally some well-earned downhill, just about to the finish!  I rode 36 miles while doing this and it took me 2 ½ hours of steady going, considering the traffic it was a good ride!

I learned if I am going to ride this event I need to ride a lot more hills, A LOT MORE!   Enjoy the riding, Dave.

Well summer heat  is here and I've been riding quite a bit trying get back in the condition. The local Salt lake Jordan Parkway trail going north from around 800 S. to 200 S. has construction presently. It could be several weeks to a couple of months before they get the pavement back into place, while the trail isn't impossible to travel on you will find scenarios where you'll have to take to the side of the trail to get around. Further north after joining the legacy trail the curved plank bridge you will want to pay particular attention to the screws, I was surprised to see how many of those in the middle of the bridge are standing up high enough to be a hazard.

Three weeks ago I rode the section of the Jordan Parkway from Camp Williams area to Saratoga Springs, there's a brand-new trailhead just before camp Williams that says veterans memorial and you turn left there and follow it down to the new park. The trail is on the north end of the park and makes a U-turn and heads south. For the next mile it makes a fairly rapid descent down to the river. From there it crosses a bridge and you are now on the east side of the Jordan River and you continue along following the trail. The trail gets a little lost down in a park and if you just go to the main road in the park and go south you'll find the trail of the far south into the park. Once you get to that part is not too much further to the model airport and then on to the Saratoga Springs pumping station.

If you are really lucky and the wind is coming out of the South the return trip is not terrible until that last mile and a little bit, some of the grades are quite steep, go early in the morning because it gets really hot.

Recently I rode out the Salt Lake Marina at Salt Air, a little heads up, they have applied Chip seal to the road from the KSL tower all the way to the Marina. This new surface while it makes the road look great and certainly adds to the overall vibration of the ride. I did find that water fountains at the Marina don't work, after doing a little checking around I found that the standup farm type faucet at the back of the restroom area is safe even though there's no sign telling you the water is safe to drink they assured me it was, and since I'm writing this article they must've been correct. 

Today I took the road bike and headed up towards big Cottonwood Canyon from there I turned and headed N. along Wasatch Blvd. I started a little later than I wanted and the temperature was already in the 90s by the time I reached that location and I can tell you there were a lot of riders out a surprisingly large number. The water fountain at the parleys trailhead does work but it's very difficult to fill a water bottle with the small stream, if you're going down to the Tanner Park. Their restrooms have a spigot and I fountain with a better stream where you can get water. You can also go across the gulch and find a water fountain there.

With all the fires burning everywhere be sure to pay attention to the trail conditions here and especially when mountain biking it's just way too easy to start a fire with the simplest little spark, everything is just tinder dry.

Well here it is spring and premium riding times for us. Over the last three weeks I've been riding the Legacy, Jordan and other surrounding trails getting a feel for the different bikes and I have.

The new transition between the Jordan Parkway in the South end of legacy has a couple of concerns that Mayor Becker should probably seek some restitution from the contractor. I'm not sure where they found the lumber that covers the bridge it certainly is not the same caliber of lumber used elsewhere on the trail going North. As short a time as it's been in place it's already started to curve and show signs of stress, so as you ride across it creates quite a vibration. I did take a minute to ride over to the new soccer fields being built just south of the Jordan motorcycle Park, I'm hopeful upon its completion there will be a path taking into that area from that Jordan, legacy junction. 

One of the better things about riding early in the season is the lack of the goat head thorns along the center of the trail. In the beginning of the legacy you did not see these now a couple of years later they're starting to track themselves northward. 

And like every new year trail courtesy is slow to rise to the surface. The trails are a great place to meet and greet people, take the conversations to the side of the trail, the same for bicycle repairs and looking at your equipment. For me I added a GoPro camera to the already large arsenal of gizmos mounted to the handlebar, it has proved to be a lot of fun and should provide some great movies and pictures in the following year. I had hoped to use it on the Salt Lake bike marathon but time constraints prevented me from having it on board in time to make the event, which by the way was a lot of fun, with the last mile or so climbing up from first South to South Temple on State Street, heard much groaning as I started up the hill, myself being one as well. I believe next year's ride will be much better organized and hopefully the trax line will be complete. 

Just a short note here about bicycle maintenance, if you're comfortable doing your own by all means take the time to do a thorough job. There are many good bicycle shops in the Valley that can provide you with that service should you choose to have it done by someone else, I would however recommend you become acquainted with what is required so that you can convey that information when you drop off your bike. Anyone that owns a bicycle should have some simple tools and without question a good quality tire pump. Every ride I go past someone that has either has a flat or soon will have one based on the condition of the tire with regards to the pressure.

There are many online help sites that can provide you with an enormous amount of easy-to-understand instructions from the simplest of repairs to the most complicated. One such link is: http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/fix/  

Weather can be a factor when riding so having the best information prior ride is as simple as the following link: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/forecast/wxtables/ if you enter in your zip code in the white box it will give you the option of looking at a table anywhere from 1 to 6 hour intervals up to seven days, it gives you wind, temperature, percentage of cloudiness, and the time of day that those will occur. I use this just about every ride so that I can ride into the wind for the first half of my ride and if I'm really lucky might just have a tailwind on the return, there are times when you get caught riding into the wind in both directions, welcome to Utah.

This last Sunday had to be one of the more spectacular days in the current 2012 year, with a mild breeze blowing out of the south east I decided to take a bike ride along the Jordan Parkway. I was surprised at the number of people out already on the trail at 11 o'clock in the morning.

After a short commute from my home North of the 1700 S. trailhead I rode along headed towards the South I made the choice take the loop down around Decker Lake, just about every nice weekend you will find the model boaters out there running their RC boats so if you have never seen it before then make sure to stop by.  They are very fast. But I was there for a different reason, the ride.   I  headed once around the lake and back to the Jordan Parkway trail and southbound once again. Good news for those that did not like the trail section from 3500 S. Curving along the river this section was rough from all the roots, smooth now!

Farther down the trail after crossing 3900 S. about 4/10 of a mile North 4500 S. you will find about 200 yards of dirt, it appears that they're doing some trail renovation there and  should be completed later when weather permits. If you riding a road bike or rollerblades this will be a section that you want to walk through. Continuing south you won't find much change in the trail system. One thing I found for sure was that the my conditioning was not as good as I had thought it was, so at the loop west of the Murray Park Willow Pond I made the turn you head back, 14.5 miles at this point leaving me slightly over 10 for the return.

On the way back I managed to spend some time pacing the River flow, about 4 miles an hour along the section just behind the Ox Bow prison facility. I was actually surprised to see how full the River was this early in the season and with more storms coming some of the lower lying areas could experience  flooding of the trail.

Late last year when using my Garmin with a heart monitor I found many heart readings missing.  After reading articles that elude to static from the clothing and a variety of other issues I just knew there had to be a better reason. What I found was causing the problem is when wearing technical shirts they remove most of the moisture rendering the sensor pad ineffective. I spent some time researching this and  found a product called ”Spectra 360” this is available from Amazon in a 8.5 ounce tube for just over six dollars.  You do not need very much this on the pads to work properly, this last time I applied it to one side and then rubbed the two together and had the same performance as if I had applied it to both.

Since using it on the last 4 rides I feel confident that the intermittent signal is now gone. My basis for that conclusion is found in the Garmin base camp software. When I download the information from the Dakota 20 no longer do I find lost heart rate information. Being able to compare the same ride and see the actual heart rate averages shows my conditioning as it changes. So if you're having trouble with your heart monitor and wetting the pads is not working for you get Spectra gel 360, you don't need to use very much I found. Any of the strap type heart monitiors could benefit from this, while my Polar was good it did become intermittent and I found moisting the strap again would help. Now its solid through out.

I noticed the other day that performance bike is opening outlet in the building that houses Office Depot in the West End. Rumor has it that the opening date is April 1. I know They Own Bike NashBar a well-known online supplier.

looking north on the dirt section

What a beautiful day yesterday was, I decided that I would take the road bike out for a ride and see how the Legacy/Jordan Parkway connection was coming. 

As you cross a section of Redwood Road going West you have looping section of new trail that goes across the new bridge turns left on to the trail from there you head north into a wetlands area with the plank bridge still yet unfinished but now it's passable, I'm sure that they don't really want you riding there yet but  many of us took advantage of the lack of warning signs . Gravel is being placed alongside the trail edge to complete the transition between the asphalt trail sides, once they have the barriers on the wetland bridge the trail should be complete, perfect timing for the spring activities.

Riding this time of year can have some concerns, one of those is the debris that comes from the overhead bridges at each one of the freeway overpasses. As they plow snow the collected debris alongside the road becomes debris down on the road below where you may be riding, an excellent opportunity for a flat tire for sure. I saw this on just about every overpass and I went under yesterday. 

One area to stay away from until the construction is completed is the North Temple corridor, major construction along this path and the fact that the sidewalk on the north side of North Temple is just short of passable, makes this a definite stay away from project. 

For those of you that ride road bikes I would recommend staying off those sections of the trail that are shaded during the day, I found snow and ice along many of these as I rode yesterday and can tell you that it's a very interesting ride. 

If anyone would like a GPS track I have many that take different routes across the valley would be happy to provide those in the format you may require, some of these include the Salt Lake City Marathon, Harman's MS 150 ride in Logan, and many others that are just pleasure rides. Well really they're all pleasure rides just that some seen less pleasurable after a few hours.