Sardine Peak Loop: Fall Edition

At the top of the Sardine trail, just before descending.

We took another early morning and quick ride on the Sardine Peak Loop.  This ride is beautiful in the fall.  I absolutely love this trail - the climbing is never too tough, and the ride down is absolutely incredible - it feels like you keep descending forever.  It honestly feels like you have a lot more descent than climbing, but conversely I always see a lot of people going the opposite direction and it never looks too bad (we start up the Coldwater trail, ride over to the Sardine Trail, then come back up Maples/Wheeler Creek).

We hit it hard and fast this day as we were hurrying to get back in time for the LDS General Conference - the first weekend of October and April every year we have an opportunity to hear from living prophets and apostles who give direction on how to handle some of life's greatest challenges and find happiness through Jesus Christ.  It is something I look forward to and enjoy.

Climbing the Coldwater trail in the fall leaves.

Coming toward the top of Sardine, just before descending.  The trail also splits off to the left to continue toward the Peak.

Bottom of the Sardine trail just before joining the Maples trail

Where Maples and Sardine meet - you can see a bridge just below the junction on the Maples Trail.

Sardine Peak Loop

I think this ride is my absolute favorite ride. It unfortunately can't be ridden as early and late in the year as others, isn't quite as close as some rides, but wow it is a blast. The views are some of the best from any trail, the climbing is great, and the downhill is some of the best of any ride I've done. It was about a 9 mile loop from the Snowbasin parking lot, with decent aerobic strain, not too technical. You basically head up the doubletrack from there to the Coldwater trail, took the spur to the overlook, then went over to Sardine Peak and dropped down to the Maples Trail and then back to Snowbasin. The picture above is from just below Sardine Peak, looking out toward Snowbasin.The Coldwater Overlook, and dropping down from the Overlook.These two pictures are shortly into the Sardine portion, just before you enter the trees.This is from the first lookout on the Sardine trail, looking back toward the Coldwater Overlook.View from a point where you've done most of your climbing, but you have a bit more left.This is cruising down the Sardine side. It feels like you have an endless amount of downhill coming down this part, it is well shaded, and an absolute blast coming down.

Sweet Snowbasin Singletracks: Wheeler, Maples, Coldwater, Sardine, and Icebox

Over 16.5 miles, breathtaking views, around 2,800 vertical feet of climbing, and some sweet descents for what I would term a borderline epic ride in the Snowbasin area. I flew solo on this ride starting at Wheeler Creek, riding up Maples, cruising up to the Coldwater Overlook, swinging over to the Sardine Peak trail for some more climbing and a lot of descending, then back down Maples and Wheeler, hitting Icebox along the way. This was one sweet, exhausting ride. Highly recommend this trail.

Maples TrailRiding through some of the more wooded portions of Maples. Coming across a bridge - you can see just before that a set of stairs that I had just dropped down - quite fun. This is also the bridge where a few years back I gulped down a few bottles of river water and had the ensuing nasty results!View over a beautiful meadow toward the end of Maples.

Coldwater Overlook TrailView from the trail back over the Valley.Climbing the last half mile before the Overlook, the trail is beautiful and well shaded.
This is the Coldwater Overlook - one of my all time favorite views as it looks down through Ogden Canyon and out over the city of Ogden.

Sardine PeakStarting the Sardine Peak ride you ride along this ridge a bit before you do some climbing. This is where the Sardine ride splits from Coldwater.Just before you reach ridge you will find a short trail that leads to this lookout - I don't think it is quite as good as the Coldwater Lookout, but still worth the time. Continuing from here you will cross two more trails that fork to the left and go on up to the peak - something I wasn't ambitious enough to try this day.Coming around the ridge on Sardine, this is a view over to Pine View Dam just before you start dropping down the switchbacks.These are two pictures cruising down Sardine - the trail is well shaded and a fast fun ride down. It was a blast going down on this.
This is where the Sardine Loop meets back up with the Maples Trail. From this point up the Maples Trail is much wider and quite a nice ride where they've done some additional work on it.
This is the view from Wheeler looking down to Icebox Canyon. There is a quick steep switchback out of Icebox right after you cross this bridge. I always love the wild technical downhills from this section. From here it is just a short fast ride back to the trailhead on Wheeler.

Coldwater Overlook - The Return!

Just a day or two before the 4th of July, Dad and I got a chance to head up this trail again. One of my absolute favorite rides all around - great ride on the way up as its not too easy and not too hard, fast and furious on the way down, and some of the best views in the area.

The Coldwater Overlook trail pictured here, is very green, with several switchbacks on up, and a steady grade.

You can find it at the end of the Maples Trail if you take the dirt road through the campground at your right. If you look carefully you will also find a shortcut trail instead of the dirt road, which gives several jumps on the way down, or just fun ups and downs.

Wheeler Trail to Coldwater Overlook

One of the rides that I've done for a long time is the Wheeler Trail and then the Maples Trail that connects to it at the Art Nord Trailhead. I found the Coldwater section one day when I decided to keep riding and ended up finding the Coldwater Overlook Trail that connects to the Maples.
You start in Ogden Canyon directly across from the Pine View Dam at the Wheeler Trailhead, and from Wheeler's you'll join to the Maples Trail, and then you'll go right up the dirt road through the campground until you reach the trailhead for Coldwater to start heading up.

This is one of my favorite rides, with a steady uphill most of the way, slightly technical but not overly so, and a fun return ride. It also has some of the best scenery on it. The very end of the trail takes you to this incredible vista down the mountainside and over the Ogden valley.

These pics are from my second trip up it with my dad - I discovered it about a week prior on my own, on a particularly memorable ride. I ended up not taking enough water, and ran out at the top of the trail. About halfway down I realized that I do need water on the downhill, so I stopped and refilled my bottle twice in the creek, where I also received a bee sting right in my face. A few weeks later I learned why you never drink from the creek when I had an experience with giardia!

Toward the end of Maples there is this beautiful meadow - I sometimes think to myself when I'm there that it has to be something like the grove in New York where Joseph Smith prayed and subsequently seen God the Father and Jesus Christ in 1820.