Mid Mountain Strikes Back...

So I was riding on my favorite trail in Park City, the Mid Mountain Trail, this past Saturday and the ride was amazing! It was warm, for Park City, but I had brought enough fluids and food so I felt good the entire ride. I did the full loop which is around 23 miles with an elevation gain of 2400 feet and thanks to information from my Garmin Edge, I burnt almost 1700 calories. The ride takes you up to the 8000 feet elevation point at Park City Mountain Resort and continues along that contour until you hit The Canyons Mountain Resort, at this point it's a fast downhill to the resort and a road ride back to the parking lot at PCMR. All was going well, I had stopped at the Red Pine Lodge at The Canyons to eat lunch, hydrate, and stretch out. This is the halfway point milewise so it's a good place to stop, but things turned ugly fast after leaving Red Pine Lodge.

There is still a good amount of snow in that area and as I was descending towards the canyons the trail wound under a very large snow bank. The trail was muddy underneath it but seemed stable enough and I remember thinking "Aww, I can ride this!" There was a puddle about four feet wide and three feet long that looked solid enough and I didn't even think to inspect it as I started riding through it. As my tire hit the puddle it dropped into the hidden, three feet deep mudbog that the puddle was concealing! My front wheel disappeared, i went over the handlebars and Pete Rose'd head first into the mud! I was covered in mud but what was shocking was how cold the water was! Coming from snowmelt, the water was ice cold and took my breath away! I just laid there for a second shocked over what had just happened, then got up and wrang myself as best as i could dry. This part of the trail is in a pretty remote section of the Canyons but of course, just my luck, there happened to be two Canyons workers within earshot and, worst of all, sight of my ordeal! After laughing for a few minutes and stating the obvious "You just ate SH$!", they asked if I was ok and I gave them a muddy thumbs up! Well, the rest of the ride was uneventful, except for the mud drying in a thick crust on my legs, arms, jersey, helmet, and face! I got home and managed to get some pics before hosing myself and my bike off. The faces of the other drivers as I came back into Salt Lake was one of the best parts of an awesome day!