Alpine Loop

Ride Summary:
We rode up Provo Canyon and up past Sundance to the top of Alpine Loop. It was awesome!

Ride Time: 3:26
Distance: 48.5 miles
Average Speed: 14.1 mph

New Max Speed: 44 mph
also, it's about a 3500 ft altitude change from the base to the top of Alpine Loop.

Extended Version:
Not having school or work certainly has its perks. Lately I've been doing a lot of biking and I'm loving it.

On Thursday Sean and I rode the West Mountain Loop (you all read about that here). Then on Friday Jason, Sean, and I went mountain biking up at Sundance and South Fork. Yesterday, the three of us rode the Alpine Loop. (Please see map below for a rough visual or click here). Let me tell you about Saturday's ride:

Basically we rode up University (notice all the "up's"), up Provo Canyon, then turned left and rode up to Sundance Resort (where we had mountain biked the day before). We filled up (ok, so that up doesn'st really count) our water bottles there and then kept going up Alpine Loop to the top. I think Jason said it's a 3500 ft elevation change from the base to the top. Honestly it was one of my favorite rides yet! It just felt so good and I felt like I was climbing really well. Sean even made a few comments about how well I was riding.

Here's a pic of me during part of the climb.
At the top of Alpine Loop you can either drop down into American Fork Canyon or go to Canyon Springs. Seeing as how none of us had ever been to Canyon Springs we thought we'd head that way. It was 7 miles so it would tack on another 14 miles to our journey.

We turned right at the top of Alpine Loop and cruised down what I think was about a 14% grade. It was amazing. I reached a new max speed: 44 mph.

After a couple of miles of fast, smooth, long curved downhill the road turns uphill. We zoomed up that and stopped to discuss. What we just road down we'd have to ride back UP and seeing as how we just climbed 3500 ft and weren't sure if we'd be able to fill our water bottles at Canyon Springs, we opted to turn around. It was a steep climb, but so good. We soon reached the top and then turned to head down to Sundance Resort, Provo Canyon, and back home.
By the time we got home we were pretty hungry, but we wanted to make sure we ate something healthy. After stretching out and showering up, we headed to the grocery store to pick up some supplies to make this:
The picture doesn't even do it justice. It was SO good. Thanks Dad for teaching me how to season a great steak.