Weekly Newsletter: August 5th-11th, 2024

This week was full of hiking. 🥾 We hiked to see waterfalls, wildflowers, alpine lakes, and several massive mansions! Keith also took another lap down Snowbird's Big Mountain Trail. 🚵 😄

Check out our new posts and videos 🆕 🎥 📝

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Keith and LindseyLindsey Huster

Hiking near mansions! 🥾🏡

Keith has ridden the Three Falls Trail in Alpine, UT several times on his various MTB adventures. This trail crosses over three small waterfalls, hence the name, and Keith was excited to share the views with Lindsey. So, we decided to take a weeknight to hike the Three Falls Trail, experience the trail at a slower pace, and enjoy the waterfall views together.

We parked at the lower "Ranch" trailhead to start our journey. This was a mistake for our original plans but I'll get to that later. The trail runs along a small ridge line as it ascends the mountainside. We were both taken aback by the massive, and I mean MASSIVE, homes that are being built in this area. As we continued to climb, we could see more and more mansions poking out through the tree line. The scale of some of these homes was hard to comprehend and each one was more beautiful than the next.

Unfortunately, due to Keith's choice to start at the lower "Ranch" trailhead, we didn't make it far enough to see all three waterfalls. We did however reach the first waterfall and Lindsey was even more impressed than Keith expected. The waterfall area was much bigger than even Keith realized since he typically buzzed through this area on his bike. Slowing down and hiking the trail allowed us both to look around and appreciate the true scale of the lower falls. Lindsey said that next time, we need to park at the upper trailhead and bring our bathing suits so that we can take a dip in the natural pools.

Window replacement 🪟 🆕

Well, it happened again! About two months ago, a golf ball struck and broke one of the windows of our home. 🤦‍♂️ It broke the same window that was broken by a different golf ball just a few years prior. The cost of replacement windows has nearly doubled in the past two years so we decided to take measures against any future damage to our windows.

This time, we once again worked with Glass Doctor of Utah County to replace the window. They did an excellent job the first time so we knew that we could count on them again. Keith also contacted ScreenMobile to get a quote for installing golf ball protection screens on all of our windows that face the golf course. The installer from ScreenMobile will be out next week to install the protective screens.

Snowbird Big Mountain (round 2) 🚵 😃

Keith met up with his friend Brandon to ride Snowbird's Big Mountain Trail again this weekend. This time though, they had a new rider joining the group. Brandon's friend Jeremy decided to take on the steep climb and 8-mile (12.9-kilometer) descent for the first time.

The group started their ride at the Albion Basin lot of Alta Ski Resort. Jeremy was excited to be up in the mountains and couldn't wait to tackle the descent. However, Jeremy would first need to tackle the nearly 5-mile (8-kilometer), 2,500-foot (762-meter) forest road climb up to the top of Hidden Peak. This climb is not for the faint of heart as Jeremy quickly discovered. Within just a few minutes, Jeremy was winded and pushing his bike. He continued to push his bike for nearly the entire climb!!! I can't believe that he muscled through this to the top. Most riders would have given up and turned around.

Keith has done so much mountain biking over the past few years that he sometimes forgets just how fit he has become. Trails that were seemingly impossible just a few short years ago have now become his standard routes. Seeing Jeremy struggle so much with the climb up to Hidden Peak quickly reminded Keith of how difficult some of these trails are and how much fitness is required to ride them.

Thankfully, Jeremy was able to make it to the top. After a short rest, the trio started the descent back down to Snowbird. This is where the effort spent to get to the top hits you hard. Jeremy's legs immediately started to cramp and he struggled to remain standing while descending. He said that he still really enjoyed the trail even though he was in pain for most of the ride. Overall, the crew had a great day out on the mountain. They were even able to enjoy a brief stint at Snowbird's Oktoberfest.

Hiking to Cecret Lake ⛰️🪻

Cecret Lake is anything but a secret to the Salt Lake area. Situated just below Sugarloaf Peak at Alta Ski Area, Cecret Lake is a beautiful high-alpine lake surrounded by striking mountain peaks. We visited this lake a couple of years ago with our friend Kelly but haven't returned since. Lindsey has been wanting to see the mountain wildflowers while they are still in bloom so this seemed like the perfect trail for us. Keith had also passed near this lake during his ride up to Snowbird's Big Mountain Trail so he knew that the wildflower viewing would be amazing.

We decided to hike the full route which starts at the Albion Base of Alta Ski Area. This starting point is well below the upper trailhead which starts at the nearby campground. The full hike consists of 1,200 feet (366 meters) of elevation gain over 2.5 miles (4 kilometers), one way. The specs for this route don't seem too daunting until you realize that the starting elevation is nearly 9,000 feet (2,743 meters) above sea level!

The wildflowers along the route to Cecret Lake were pretty but not overly impressive. Most of those flowers had already reached peak bloom a week or two ago. Fortunately, the views of the lake itself more than made up for the initial lackluster wildflower viewing experience. However, Keith knew that the return route down the forest service road would provide the prime wildflower viewing that Lindsey was looking forward to.

The return route more than delivered on the promise of wildflowers! 🪻 🌷 We found several vast fields of various wildflowers. The colors and scents were incredible and somehow made the already stunning mountain views even more impressive than usual. Unfortunately, we didn't stop to take too many more flower pictures. We sort of just wanted to enjoy the experience rather than trying to capture it.

We ended our day with a relaxing meal at The Gulch Pub at the Snowpine Lodge at Alta. We split a huge burger and a plate of nachos. It was a real struggle to stay awake after a long day of hiking and this huge meal. 😴

Upcoming posts and videos 👷‍ 👷‍♀️️

Lindsey has wrapped up the post series about our Gulf Shores, Alabama family trip. She is working on posts from her recent trip to Redfish Lake in Idaho. We also have several prior trips that we haven't yet shared so be sure to subscribe to our blog if you haven't done so already.

We hope that you are enjoying our newsletters. Do you have any summer vacation plans? How do you like to enjoy the summer? Let us know in the comments section below.👇 💬