Fall in Utah

Fall is my favorite time of year.  For those of you who don’t know me, I enjoy riding my bike.  When I’m not at work printing your scrapbook layouts, I’m on my bike.  When I’m not on my bike, I’m thinking about being on my bike, or racing my bike or planning a bike ride.   You could say that I’m obsessed about anything related to bikes or biking.  I eat food or I don’t eat food, so as to make me a better biker.  Food tastes better after a big bike ride.  Most of my friends are bikers.  People I hang out with ride bikes or work at bike shops.  I could talk about frames, handlebars, wheels, etc. for hours and hours and not get bored. Ok .. so I think I’ve established that I’m a bikeaholic.

Back to Fall being my favorite time of year. I live in Provo Utah located in the heart of the Wasatch Mountains.  These mountains are covered with a mixture of pine, aspen and scrub oak.  Every year in late September the leaves change.  First the scrub oak starts with a sharp orange and red, followed by the aspens green to yellow.  Combine that with cyan and light green needles of the pines and you get a symphony of colors that truly are breath taking.   The trails that I usually ride on in the summer turn from dusty brown to a carpet of yellow and red.  The temperatures are mild and the scenery is spectacular.   Sometimes I’ll come around a bend on a dark and shaded trail covered with leaves and come upon a single scrub oak being lit up by the sun, just screaming “look at me, look at me!” I stop and gladly oblige.
I’m with my kids this weekend and we had big plans to hike to the summit of Mount Timpanogas today. This is about a 6 hour hike that I enjoy doing about once a year.  This is the best time to attempt it.  The problem was that yesterday we all did a 5 k run for a neighbor that had been diagnosed with cancer which left us all tired and sore.  I just couldn’t bring myself to roust my kids out of bed this morning to go hike on sore legs.  I wish I could sleep like a teenager, but like most mornings I was awake by 6:30.  I hung out for as long as my addiction would allow and then packed up my bike and headed for the high country.   I put together about a 35 mile loop thru some of the most beautiful trail in the area.  I brought my camera along hoping to capture some of what I experienced.  I don’t think I quite got it, but I’ll keep trying for future blog posts.  Now, as I sit at my computer and type this I feel tired and content, full of endorphins and the beauty that the world has to give.

Now what will be my next bike adventure?
-Kenny