Payson Canyon: proving grounds for the new saddle

Saturday Sean and I went for a ride. It had been awhile, and was well needed. Plus, I needed to break in my new saddle. It ended up being the longest (time-wise) ride that I've done (and maybe the longest mileage as well). All and all, the seat worked great. Pretty comfy. My pelvic bone on either side of my butt was a tad bit sore the next day, but I think that's to be expected when you combine the fact it was my longest ride yet and the first time that saddle has been riden.

We rode out to the base of west mountain and then down to Payson. After filling up our water bottles at a gas station there, we headed up Payson Canyon for about an hour of climbing. That climb just keeps on going and going. It's gorgeous.

Here's some stats from my computer:

Ride Time: 3:55 (just shy of 4 hours)
Distance: 62.8 miles
Average Speed: 16 mph
Max Speed: 37

And Here's a cool map that I put together of our ride. We started in Provo, went out to West Mountain, then down to Payson, then up Payson Canyon. The green line shows that path.

We didn't backtrack exactly the way we came. You can see the blue line is our way back once we got back out of the canyon, and it eventually merges back to our starting path as you near Provo. (Click on the map to see a bigger version.)


I'm not positive how far up the canyon we actually went so this map isn't accurate with that info. All I can say is that once we reached the canyon, we climbed for an hour and we had a decent pace set. As for everything else, the route on the map is pretty darn close to the exact route we took.