Corner Canyon Conditions

I rode CC today, the only trail that is rideable is the upper CC road. Everything else is still covered with snow drifts or contains sections of deep mud. But the good news is CC is drying fast. I'll post in this thread as soon as something is rideable.

For those that don't know, there is also a Bogley Strava group you can sign up for. It allows you to see where others in the group ride each day (I ride CC almost every day).

Following Strava will also give you an idea which trails are rideable and how to connect them together. One of the first trails that will be rideable is Rattler, and you can make some fun loops by combining it with the little known Quail and Saddler trails among others.

The pictures were taken 1.5 miles up the CC road where the connector cuts over to Rattler. I tried to ride down Rattler but quickly turned around when I kept encountering deep soft/slushy snow drifts followed by deep mud.

Please don't ride muddy trails.

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So this morning I rode from the EQ up to Aqua Duct and was getting ready to attempt Rattler when the front passed over and I was caught in a wicked hail storm. The good news it some of the trails were rideable, the bad news is those same trails are now back under an 1" of snow and it's still snowing.

The one-way trail from the EQ up to the lower road CC is open and now a 2-way trail. The old one-way down trail is gone as they dug it up to up in a pipeline. I understand the new trail (old one-way down) will be paved up to the 3-way (left to Canyon Hollow, Right to Coyote Hollow) and follow over the top of the new pipeline. The trail will become a 2-way. I'm not sure if the upper dirt trail will stay or go. I'm guessing it will stay but might become a horse trail.

The lower CC rode is currently a huge mess as they dug it up to put in the new pipe line and now it's just a mud bog. When I hit the lower CC rode I went east and rode to the water tanks and than up to Gas Line. That route is always dry before other options, but later in the year it gets to sandy to be fun riding.

It was 50 degrees and sunny when I left the house and 30 degrees and snowing when I got home. You gotta love Utah weather.
:2thumbs:

Great info Shane! Yeah that dirt road was tore all to hell and a mud bog. I was thinking last night that the trails below that dirt road might be close to dry, but hard to put a loop together with the stuff in between being muddy and the upper stuff slushy. So I went over and rode the Quarry trail at the base of Little Cottonwood.

Honestly I'm hoping we get some more snow to keep my fat bike going for a while longer. I think we will get in a funk with part of the trails being muddy and the other half slushy. Hopefully though there are enough lower trails dry at the same time to get a decent ride in.

I'm wondering if the trails will be rideable tomorrow morning from coyote > bst > potato > ann's > canyon > silica and back. Thoughts?

FWIW- attached is a map that shows what lower CC trails are currently opened and closed because of construction.

Brock's from Peak View down to it's intersection with Canyon Hollow is also currently closed because of construction. That section is easy to bypass as you just ride the upper CC road from Peak View down to where Canyon Hollow intersects the road.

:stud:

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Originally Posted by accadacca

I'm wondering if the trails will be rideable tomorrow morning from coyote > bst > potato > ann's > canyon > silica and back. Thoughts?

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I'm guessing "NO" right now. One problem is the warm weather is making the snow too soft/slushy for even the fat bikes. Maybe if it freezes and you ride early before they thaw.

Things are really melting out fast. What was 3' snow drifts on Monday are now completely gone. I guessing in a week I'll be able to put together some fun south facing loops. I would have been able to do it today if it didn't start snowing again.

Lower trails from Ann's, which is frozen right now.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...62e5b52b95.jpg

Corner Canyon is rideable if you hook things up correctly. I made it to Ghost Falls without getting into snow or mud. My suggestion is to start at the Orson Smith Trailhead and ride up the road to the BST trailhead and than up Rattler. There are a couple very minor sections of snow and mud but nothing that is going to rip the trails up.

The Upper Corner Canyon Road is rideable.
Rattler is rideable (provided you approach from the BST Trailhead)
Quail Trail is rideable
Saddler Trail is rideable
Aqua Duct Trail is rideable

You can also put together a short fun loop using Quail, Saddler, Aqua Duct and the CC Road. The loop can be easily ridden in both directions. It sure beats not being able to ride. I use this loop a lot in winter to train as it is usually the first rideable loop in CC.

Another loop I use to train that drys out early is >> up CC Road >> Up Aqua Duct >> and than down the bottom section of the Orson Smith downhill. This loop is also currently dry.

FWIW- I now own about two dozen Strava fast times of the year in CC. Mostly because I'm probably the first guy to ride many of the sections this year that was not riding one of those fat pigs.

Please do not ride muddy trails!

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Coolness! I've never ridden out of Orson Smith or most of the trails you mentioned. Looks like I will be hitting those trails next week! :2thumbs:

@Iceaxe I'm looking to ride tomorrow night and try that loop you rode on Saturday. It should feel good to be back on my skinny tire. :2thumbs:

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Originally Posted by accadacca

@Iceaxe I'm looking to ride tomorrow night and try that loop you rode on Saturday. It should feel good to be back on my skinny tire. :2thumbs:

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Just a heads up, it's supposed to snow tomorrow morning. :cry1:

I've ridden every day this week in Corner Canyon. Life is good. :2thumbs:

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Originally Posted by Iceaxe

Just a heads up, it's supposed to snow tomorrow morning. :cry1:

I've ridden every day this week in Corner Canyon. Life is good. :2thumbs:

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Yeah I saw a chance of rain and possibly snow. I'm just hoping they are wrong or it doesn't do much. I'm going to try morning or evening...hopefully. :ne_nau:

Dang! Pretty good rain. Might be hosed for a day, maybe two.

Any idea on conditions? Rideable sometime tomorrow? How much moisture fell?

I had the following routes planned based on @Iceaxe's rides, both starting at equestrian.

Option 1
Lower Corner Canyon
Carolina Hills
BST to Orson Smith
Aqueduct
Sadler
Bunny

Option 2
Lower Corner Canyon
Carolina Hills
BST
Rattler
North Ghost Falls
Gas Line
Carolina Hills
Lower Corner Canyon

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Originally Posted by accadacca

Any idea on conditions? Rideable sometime tomorrow? How much moisture fell?

I had the following routes planned based on @Iceaxe's rides, both starting at equestrian.

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You need to look at my route suggestions again because you have some problems, also not all my Strava tracks are trails I'd currently ride again in the near future as some hike-a-bike was involved

Lower Corner Canyon - OPEN
Carolina Hills - OPEN
BST to Orson Smith -??? BST doesn't go to Orson Smith. If you mean BST TH there are snow drifts you will have to walk over.
Aqueduct - OPEN
Sadler - OPEN
Bunny - OPEN

Option 2
Lower Corner Canyon - OPEN
Carolina Hills - OPEN
BST - Snow drifts, section of walking the bike
Rattler - OPEN
North Ghost Falls - Closed with snow drifts
Gas Line - Closed with snow drifts
Carolina Hills - OPEN
Lower Corner Canyon - OPEN


Orson Smith is the small park at the bottom of the Upper Corner Canyon Road. BST trailhead is located 1 mile up the Upper CC road.

Start at Equestrian Center (aka EQ, Andy Ballard). When you hit the Lower CC road turn east and follow the water tank access road up to Aqueduct (don't follow the CC road), turn north and follow Aqueduct north to Quail Trail. Turn east and follow Quail Trail up to the the Upper CC road. Ride up the CC road to the BST trailhead. Take BST to where it connects to Rattler, follow Rattler up to Ghost Falls.

If you want more bang >>> a great loop is BST TH up the CC road to the Rattler connecter trail, Take The connect over to Rattler and down Rattler. This route involves 5 minutes of climbing up the road and gets you a bunch of downhill. I do this lap all the time, in Strava it's listed under Rattler Hot Lap.

Still want more? From Aqueduct, Up Quail Trail, Down CC Road, Down Saddler, South on Aqueduct back to the base of Quail Trail, which is another lap I do a lot.

BST out to the new bridge looks really inviting, but it's not as about 1/2 way out the trail turns to mud and snow drifts. Give that trail another week to dry out.

It will probably be wet and muddy in the morning, but should dry out by afternoon if we don't get anymore rain.

If you want to ride tomorrow afternoon I could probably do it with you. I have some appointments in the morning but will probably be free after about 1:00.

Thanks for the tips. Here is the map and trail info that I was using along with your latest tracks. I figured north ghost and gas line might have issues, but thought BST from CC Road to Orson Smith would be ok. Now to look at your suggestions and make a route.

I would love to get together and learn some new loops. Could you ride tomorrow 4:30-6ish PM?

http://www.trailforks.com/region/cor...z=15&m=roadmap

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Originally Posted by accadacca

I would love to get together and learn some new loops. Could you ride tomorrow 4:30-6ish PM?

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Let's see where things are at noon tomorrow and I'll know if conditions are going to be be dry. The earlier the easier for me. And if anyone else from Bogley wants to show they can join up.

Ok gotcha. I'm going to take my bike to work and go straight over. Let me know how it looks.

I'd love to join in if you ride this afternoon. I need to learn the lower trail routes. I could be at the trailhead by 4 unless I find something majorly wrong with my bike, which hasn't seen the light of day since November.

Let's do this! Does 4:00 work? Meet at the Andy Ballard (equestrian center) trailhead?

I don't have lights so I'm done when it starts getting dark.

4 works for me. If I'm not there by 4, don't wait. It means I had bike issues (which I don't foresee).

I can make it happen too. Might be a few minutes late coming out from the west side.

Wondering if I might get kinda hot wearing fleece pants!

I'll be there. I'm easy to find on my bright orange bike.

I'll be easy to find because, well, I'm tall?

I will be riding a 10 year old Salsa. haha

I need to upgrade my ride! :ride:

Great riding with you guys and thanks Iceaxe for showing us some new trails! It was a gorgeous day!!

It won't be long until the snow melts on some other trails. Otherwise it will be back to the fat bike! Who knows!!!

Iceaxe had to bail a little early after his rear shock lost all the air. My front fork was really low on air! I'm hoping I can add some, because it didn't feel right. Too squishy!

This was tallsteve on top of Sadler!

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I'll be without my beloved bike for 4 or 5 days as it will take that long to get a rebuild kit for the rear shock. Apparently FoxShox rebuild kits are not a stocked item.

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Originally Posted by Iceaxe

I'll be without my beloved bike for 4 or 5 days as it will take that long to get a rebuild kit for the rear shock. Apparently FoxShox rebuild kits are not a stocked item.

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That sucks. Thanks for showing us those lower trails, Shane. It felt great to be back on dirt!

Soon as it drys out a little more I can show you some more fun trails and the bridge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPwxlPWfwEk

Bummer Shane. Yeah get it dialed now though for the season. I added 50 lbs to my front shock and that made a huge difference. I had way too much sag. I would love to do another ride and do some more trails. Let me know when you get your bike back.

I rode the same loop this morning that we did last night, except I jumped on the BST from the parking lot after coming from ghost and down rattler. I went all the way past the bridge and accidentally passed the orson smith turnoff. There is another trail that is shorter and goes west down the mountain from the bridge, but I wanted to try orson smith. So I went back and it was really fun! From there I went back up the CC road and down upper saddler and lower saddler, which at the bottom it weaves through some houses. Then I took a short section of paved trail to the EQ. Great ride!

There was a 15' long snow drift along BST that was rideable or you could easily walk across it. Then a few small patches here and there that were easy to avoid. The trail was frozen in the morning and might be a little wet in places later in the day, but I don't think it would be too muddy.

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Originally Posted by accadacca

I added 50 lbs to my front shock and that made a huge difference. I had way too much sag.

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50 pounds is a HUGE jump. I usually adjust in 5 pound increments. Also when you get a good setting you like write it down and check your pressures about once a month because even good systems do lose air through leakage over time.

To set my suspension I start a little high in pressure and than ride for about 15 or 30 minutes. If you are not using your full suspension travel you have too much pressure. Keep taking pressure out until you bottom out your suspension once every 15 to 30 minutes. Using that method you will get your pressures correct to where you are using your complete suspension all the time. It doesn't do any good to have 6" of travel if you only use 4" of it.

You can ride Corner Canyon with a pretty soft suspension, when I travel to somewhere rough like Moab I'll jump my pressures 5 to 10 pounds. If you write down good settings and have a good shock pump it's easy to adjust or change pressure in a couple of minutes and get them right.

Ignore all the crap people try to tell you about sag. You get the part I mentioned correct and sag will take care of itself.

This is the same method of setting suspensions we used when I was racing motorcycle's professionally, and I had some of FoxShox's best engineers helping set my bikes up at the time. You want to always be using the complete suspension travel, but seldom bottoming out.

:2thumbs:

Yeah gotcha. I've got an old Manitou front fork and it has two separate chambers for different reasons. The SPV chamber didn't have any pressure in it and the range is 40-175 lbs (per the manual), so I started with 50. I still need to fine tune it because it was a little stiff, but much better than the slop I rode with yesterday. I was riding a low rider on the front!

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Originally Posted by accadacca

I was riding a low rider on the front!

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Hahaha.... as I was riding my bike home with the clapped out rear end I was singing the Cheech and Chong lowrider song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alyx4QeRRdg

I went again yesterday afternoon and pedaled roughly the same loop we did Tuesday, albeit I missed the Saddler cutoff. No biggie. I just rolled down the road a bit more until I came to the Aqueduct road, then backtracked. The trails were surprisingly drier than the day before, enough so that I was sliding around more on the corners. Lot's more riders. The word of dried trails is spreading like wild-fire.

BTW, I ordered a new front rotor so my brakes won't be squealing like a banshee and a pair of baggy bib shorts (I LOVE bib shorts!).

I finally found the Bear Canyon suspension bridge yesterday afternoon. Very, very, cool! Also ran in to Iceaxe on my way back. Great afternoon of riding!

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We really needed this rain. The trails were starting to get loose and dusty.

Dang...

After rain this morning and sun in the afternoon, I thought the trails would be perfect in the morning.

Then the second wave of rain and snow came in. I'm thinking its a no go tomorrow on the skinny tire. Maybe the fat bike on the upper trails...

Took my fat bike out. Trails are much better then I expected. I was just going to try CC road. All the trails that are lower and sandy are ok. They just soak up the moisture with a few puddles here and there. Above the rattler/ghost turnoff on rattler gets a little soft in spots. The dirt gets darker in the trees and is more prone to mud. Somebody rode a skinny tire yesterday, must have been afternoon between storms. They put some ruts in a few places on the way to ghost falls on rattler, not too bad though.

I noticed that the tires on my fat bike just float over it. I tried to go in a few of the skinny tire ruts to smooth them out. My fat tires only have 10 lbs in them and they just flatten anything like a steam roller. Works great! I noticed too that the fat tires don't rut the trail like a skinny tire does.

I just got back after spending 6 days in the flat-lands of Houston. What's the CC conditions? I have no idea what the weather's been like here since I left. Would I be able to ride this afternoon?