Well todays ride was written up in two different guide books/ websites and was pretty close to home so we decided to do it. The ride started from Jeremy Ranch, just across I-80 from Park City. We headed down the East Canyon road through cattle grazing territory for about 4 miles to the trail head for the Mormon Pioneer trail. This was part of the route the original mormons took when they came to the Salt Lake City area. It was quite a nice trail, about 4 miles, 1400 feet of climbing up a dry creek bed. The trail surface for the most part was hardpacked. There was a nice ladder ramp over a 2 foot deadfall and an alternate log ride line that we didnt take about half way up. Pooh bear stopped and said he saw a couple moose that move off into the brush. I started to chalk it up to hallucinations again but as we stood there and watched this downed tree he insisted was one of the moose, it moved. We saw his tail and ears move, then finally got a good view of her head and did confirm it was moose, very cool. We hit the intersection of the Great Western Trail and made a bit of a navigational miscue.
There was a giant sign for the Great Western Trail Head right next to a nice single track so we assumed that was the trail we wanted. The guide book's elevation profile showed it as a climb out of this intersection but this went down, so after about a mile and 400 feet of decent, we stopped and realized we screwed up. So back up we went, bonus mileage we call it. We found the right trailhead blocked by a couple of phone service trucks up a short gravel road. So up we went. Pooh bear had the climbing legs and I think cleaned the 400 foot climb. Howie road a fair amount of it and walked more than I rode. We got to the top and it was quite a spectacular view although there was a fair amount of haze in the distance towards Salt Lake. After a stop for the required pictures
we headed down towards our next climb, down 400 feet then back up 400. We had a few fits and starts of climbs that didn't materialize but we finally got to it. The guide book said this would be a hike-a-bike and it was. The trail was very rutted down the middle and very steep. If anybody had legs of steel they were still screwed as any ridable areas were full of baby head sized rocks. We walked up about 300 of the feet then hit a ridable section then a last push up to Mt Baldy. As you might surmise, it was free of any trees or for that mater shrubs. It provided a 360 degree vista, pretty spectacular.
We had a fairly loose decent before another bit of climbing. Up and down and across bench cuts we went on a fairly loose trail. We had a bit of discussion at one of the trail intersections, but ended up making the correct choice. We arrived at the final decent, a bit of double track then some switch backing single track and benchcut run above the Jeremy Ranch development and back at the truck, 5 hours, 21 miles and 4000 feet of climbing later.
There was a giant sign for the Great Western Trail Head right next to a nice single track so we assumed that was the trail we wanted. The guide book's elevation profile showed it as a climb out of this intersection but this went down, so after about a mile and 400 feet of decent, we stopped and realized we screwed up. So back up we went, bonus mileage we call it. We found the right trailhead blocked by a couple of phone service trucks up a short gravel road. So up we went. Pooh bear had the climbing legs and I think cleaned the 400 foot climb. Howie road a fair amount of it and walked more than I rode. We got to the top and it was quite a spectacular view although there was a fair amount of haze in the distance towards Salt Lake. After a stop for the required pictures 
we headed down towards our next climb, down 400 feet then back up 400. We had a few fits and starts of climbs that didn't materialize but we finally got to it. The guide book said this would be a hike-a-bike and it was. The trail was very rutted down the middle and very steep. If anybody had legs of steel they were still screwed as any ridable areas were full of baby head sized rocks. We walked up about 300 of the feet then hit a ridable section then a last push up to Mt Baldy. As you might surmise, it was free of any trees or for that mater shrubs. It provided a 360 degree vista, pretty spectacular. 
We had a fairly loose decent before another bit of climbing. Up and down and across bench cuts we went on a fairly loose trail. We had a bit of discussion at one of the trail intersections, but ended up making the correct choice. We arrived at the final decent, a bit of double track then some switch backing single track and benchcut run above the Jeremy Ranch development and back at the truck, 5 hours, 21 miles and 4000 feet of climbing later.
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