The warmth of spring is slipping through the weather patterns more and more each week . The trails are starting to dry out and the beckoning call from your mountain bike starts pulling at your heart strings, urging you to lose yourself on the rolling mountain trails no longer blanketed with white sheets of snow. You heed it’s call, wiping away the light layer of dust she’s collected, exchanging it for a fresh offering of grease, lube, and TLC. You look down and next to you is your best friend: wide eyed, silly grin, and wagging tail. He knows that it’s bike season, and the stoke is high! He looks at you with those big eager eyes and you remember that there is no greater joy than sharing the trail with your favorite pooch.

We completely agree! There is no one better to share the trails with than your furry friend. With singletrack and puppies on the brain, we are super excited to introduce you to Kira, our newest Spread Stoke family member. She’s a 4 month old Border Collie/Australian Shepherd mix who makes us laugh and enjoy the outdoors on a daily basis. With the approaching bike season upon us, the anticipation of hitting the trails with our new 4 legged friend is invading our every thought. While Kira still has a lot of growing up to do before she’s ready to bike with us, she’s really enjoying watching other dogs hit the trails! To help you get stoked for mountain bike season, Kira would like to share her favorite selection of “Trail Dog” videos with you. Cheers to an epic bike season full of dirty paws and keepin’ it rubber side down.

Need some mtb accessories for your bestie? Here are Kira’s top picks for mountain accessories. 

Wolfgang Man & Beast:

Wolfgang was created to celebrate the unique relationship between a dog and his people. We offer American-made leashes and collars for your pup using only the finest American leathers and textiles, plus a distinctive collection of wallets, belts, t-shirts and hoodies for you. We build our products locally, transport them minimally, and they’ll be replaced rarely. SHOP HERE FOR WOLFGANG GEAR.

Ruffwear:

Ruffwear’s mission is to build performance dog gear to enhance and inspire exploration for outdoor adventures and their human companions. Save Up to 40% off Ruffwear outdoor dog gear! SHOP HERE.

Yesterday was good, here is a quick little clip from our first activity for the day.  The fishing has been pretty good for this time of year here in Utah.  Hope everyone has been getting out.

This time of year, Utah opens itself up to multi-sport adventure days.  You can ski, bike, climb, fish, golf or whatever you can do outside all in the same day.  This is the premise on which MtnRanks is built upon.  From the mountains to the streams and everything in between. 

Our second adventure of the day took us down to the avenues in Salt Lake City.  We loaded up the big bikes and went to hit the trails.  Usually this time of year, the famous DH trail Bob Sled, off the Bonneville shoreline trail, is a river with no lack of mud and usually some snow still tucked into a few turns.  Prepared for the worst and ready to get muddy, we found that the trail is prime and in the best condition it has been in years.  All the rain we have had has melted all the snow and left prefect tacky dirt.

So get outside share your mountain life and spread the stoke.

The Most dreaded day of the week, Monday right?  Well it doesn’t have to be.

It just takes a better state of mind and the willingness to change.  The crew here at MtnRanks is committed to making Mondays better for everyone.  We hit it every Monday on some sort of adventure so we can share it with you and inspire everyone that Mondays do not have to suck.  If you are stuck at work in your office at the very least we hope our images give you a moment of bliss to escape the mundane.

For this #mtnranksmondays we packed up and hit the road.  We haven’t received any snow in the Wasatch for some time now so the skiing is sub par.  We also were keen to get some shots of our new mens flannel shirts.  We saw the temps in Joe’s Valley (a popular bouldering spot in central Utah just outside Price, Utah) reaching into the upper 40′s.  So we loaded up the gear for a multi adventure day and hit the road.

Within 2 hrs of driving we were there.  First adventure cast a few flys on straight canyon creek.  This creek that winds down from joe’s valley reservoir is what dreams are made of.  Large boulders litter the creek, and the emerald green water cascades through them.  Saying its beautiful is a under statement.  Alas we did not land any fish, but the we caught the peacefulness of the landscape.

Adventure 2 for the day. Bouldering Joe’s valley is epic.  The landscape incredible, the boulders are perfect and the sandstone is so textured and grippy its almost cheating.  Joe’s is broken down into three areas left and right fork and new Joe’s.  This time of yer left and right fork stay shaded pretty much all day and still have a bit of snow.  New Joe’s however is the place to go.  Better concentration of routes as well and sun until later in the day.  We snagged a few routes and watched the sun set on this desert playground feeling, well, feeling Stoked.

For the last three years Utah has seemed to be on the short list from old man winter.  Its hard during these lack of snow winters to stay motivated.  Long high pressures dominate this once wintery wonderland.  Finding motivation to get out and do anything can be hard.  You just get in a slump and find yourself talking about the good old days and trying to remember what a powder day is like.  That’s when you just need to call a friend and go for a walk somewhere in the Mountains.

The Wasatch mountains always have something for you to do and good snow is to be had.  Today a few of us from MtnRanks decided to go poke around in Big Cottonwood canyon.  The moment we pulled into the trail head our spirits were lifted, we put our skins on and started to tour up through the woods.

The sun was shinning, the birds chirping and the comforting silence of the wild filled our ears.  No expectations, we just went a direction to see where we’d end up.  Happy to be outside, skiing was the last things on our minds.  Shooting some photos and enjoying the sun, we geared up and skied back down to the road.  To our surprise the snow was awesome, creamy and shredable.  So next time you are waiting on it to snow, maybe the snow is waiting on you.