the Graham Cracker House

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Memorial Day weekend means going on a bike.  This has been a tradition in my family for years. Bjorn and I upped it this year with TWO bike rides over the weekend.   I'll let him tell about Saturday's:

Last year, whilst looking for an adventure, we took our bikes to millcreek canyon (i believe there is a blog about it somewhere nearby).   We loved the trail so much that we decided to go again.  Last year we went over the july 4th holiday and the upper half of the canyon had just opened, having forgotten that altogether, we drove as far as we could and figuring that it can't be too much farther to the pipeline trailhead, we unloaded the bikes and started riding.  We rode about half a mile before Coleen decided walking the bikes was a better idea.  Soon after it was time for me to walk both bikes and about a mile and a half-ish from the car we made it to the trail (conveniently coleen was convinced it was only a 1/2 mile up canyon ride).
The pipeline trail is a 14 mile overall, down hill cycle trail that hugs a very steep canyon wall 9/10ths of the time.   It has some steep rocky bits and a lot of fun winding turns.  There is a set of switchbacks about halfway that requires skidding the rear tire to make or you can get off and walk.  Coleen took the entire ride like a champ she even did the crazy whoops perfectly until we got to the last 1/10th which is very steep, very technical, and has many rocks, steps, and minor drop-offs. this part of the trail is called rattlesnake.
I found it exciting and adventurous, it was an absolute blast.  Coleen found it, well, less enjoyable, and my bike brakes found it hot (turns out that hydraulic disk breaks are prone to heating if used constantly, they started turning colors so we stopped and let them cool for a bit).  It was a great  way to spend a few morning.

click here to view pictures

Monday rolled around cool and damp with not a whole ton of sun shine-y promise.  Still, people were counting on us!  We had committed to go.  Our group of 10 met at the parking lot to the entrance of Provo Canyon, and 2 more members met us at the top of Bridal Veil Falls.  It was a somewhat  trecherous ride up.  Definitley cool weather, a lot of rain, some hail, and a bit of wind.   Luckily most of us have ridden the trail before (many times before) so we knew how quick the trip could be, and weren't as bothered by the hail and wind.  Some did threaten to turn back, but we all made it to the Falls eventually.. Happily, just moments before our arrival, the sun began to peek out over the clouds! We played around the waterfall, hiking up and down and soaking up the sun.  The trail down was quick and sunfilled. The Provo River Trail is beautiful!  I love riding through the trees next to a roaring river (the highest I've ever seen the water this year).  Thank you, nature.