MSP – In Deep

This teaser is REALLY SICK. seriously.

msp IN DEEP teaser

Mountain Biking Near Salt Lake City

On Saturday I hooked up with bros, Ron Mason and Topher Blair, to enjoy a nice wet trail ride. Although it did rain on us a little, most of the trails were in good shape. And it was a real pleasure to experience Utah mountain biking in these lush & humid conditions.

Topher cruisin’ through the wasatch rain forest.

Ron gaining the ridge. Nice and cool up here, pretty flowers too.

Hauling ass back down to road. A super fun ride that is a solid workout too. Tophers altimeter thing claimed 4000′ overall of climbing and around 20 miles. We started at the at the Mnt Dell golf course on U65, rode on the road to the Mormon Trail at the state park, which we rode to the top of Big Mountain Pass, then we took the Great Western Trail back towards Parleys Summit and down the gas line trail. Moose Creek is another option down to U65 (a more technical DH trail). Here is a great resource for mountain bike trails in utah. and don’t forget to check out ‘huck n roll’ for all your mountain bike gear needs.

Shades and Comfi Shoes

Two essential pieces of gear for an enjoyable trip: Sunglasses and comfortable shoes. For our trip to Peru I was psyched on my Salomon XT Wings trail running shoes and Smith Super Method sunglasses. Both are available at backcountry.com

Machu Picchu – the crown jewel of the Inca Empire

There were bigger Inca cities back in the day, but nothing matches Machu Picchu when in comes to location.

Talk about epic, “the lost city” sits in the saddle of these high altitude jungle peaks. Getting there was interesting. Unfortunately we didn’t hike the Inca Trail, we took the train to Aguas Caliente and hiked from there.

Sandy crossing the river before we started up… staight up. It’s only an hour hike from the river, but it’s an hour of steep stone stairs. We only saw 2 other people hiking the steps that morning, which was nice because Machu Picchu draws a steady flow of tourist. The Average is 1,000/day, with a limit of 2500.

After getting to Machu Picchu, we followed a trail leading to the Inca draw bridge. I had no idea what to expect, but it sounded cool. We came around one corner of the trail and I saw this one huge cliff:

Notice the tiny ribbon of green in the middle. Thats the trail! here’s a closer look:

Yeah not much there… Unbelievable. The bridge is on the near side of the cliff.

Beyond the bridge the trail has not been restored, that would be hairy job to say the least.

The city plan is immense, there are hundreds of structures. It’s difficult to fathom how Machu Picchu was built. It must have taken many lifetimes for thousands of Incas.

Saqsaywaman

Pronounced kind of like “sexy women”, Saqsaywaman was once a massive Inca fortress. It is still huge, but today only about 20% of the structure remains. The follow photos are shot from right to left.

Next to the ruins is this statue of Saint Cristobal who watches over Cusco.