After a VERY early morning flight Tuesday, we arrived in Salt Lake City before 10am. A quick UBER ride up through the mountains and we arrived at our hotel with an AMAZING view of the Park City mountains. This was from our balcony. Imagine looking out at this every morning...
Obviously, with temps in the low 70's and almost no humidity, the Beautiful Mrs. K and I were completely energized! So we took a selfie. Actually, we took a lot of selfies.
Yet another selfie. But that's not all we did. Even though we look like we're cute tourists enjoying the fresh mountain air, we were actually there for a reason: Work.
We were in Utah for The Big Gear Show. It's a trade show for outdoor brands, lots of which are bicycle-focused. We wanted to take a look at trends in the industry, as well as some specific brands that we were interested in. We had an eye on E-bikes, one of the fastest growing segments in cycling. It was an eye-opener, both for how good some of the new E-bikes are, and how bad some of them are. It's important to know the difference!
The NBDA (National Bicycle Dealers Association) were there and were a big part of the show. At one point they highlighted South Side Cyclery, and gave our store a 1-year membership as a scholarship award. We were flattered and humbled. Thank you!
Once the two days of meetings and appointments at the show were over, we had a day and a half to ourselves. Obviously, we were going to make the most of this. I mean, like, Deer Valley and Park City? We're mountain bikers, right?? So we rented some bikes and bought lift tickets and off we went. Riding the lift up to Silver Lake, we caught some awesome trails below us. This photo is of a killer fast section into a berm that we actually rode THREE TIMES. Oh yes, we rode the Green flow trails. Imagine 4 miles downhill on a trail similar to the new Bluffview jump line and you kinda get the picture.
Halfway down one of our runs, the Beautiful Mrs. K was ALL SMILES.
We eventually made it around to checking out the more XC-oriented Mid-Mountain trail. It was more or less undulating, so it was flat-lander friendly but seriously overgrown. You can tell where the heart and soul of mountain biking lies here, and it's not really XC.
One last look at the lift station and the beautiful surroundings before we headed back to Deer Valley.
Walking around Park City later in the day, we ran into a group of St. Louisans! Actually, half of this group now lives in the mountains of the west. We stopped for a drink and had a great time. They had a week of riding together and were talking about their last day to come. It was so nice to randomly run into people we knew 1500 miles from home!
A homage to the 2002 Winter Olympics was erected about 100 yards from our hotel. Of course, we couldn't let this occasion pass us by. Of course, we took a selfie.
Friday was our last day in Utah. Our plane didn't leave until quite late, so we took the awesome FREE public transportation and checked out the massive slide at the Park City resort. These goofy little carts are actually quite fun. No joke, you go downhill on these things at like 20 miles per hour for a couple minutes. You have a funky brake handle that actually works, but Deanna and I told ourselves we wouldn't use it at all and let it fly. She got caught behind a total sandbagger, but I had a completely free run. Probably good, as she tends to go a little overboard with things that go fast. We also strolled through old-town Park City, where they were setting up for a big art show before heading to the airport.
I think I'd like Lambert Airport a little more if the views were as good as those at Salt Lake.
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