Temple Quarry Trail is Surprisingly Fun

Last night I finally rode the famous Temple Quarry Trail, which starts at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon and follows the "river" up the canyon for 4 miles.  It's mostly a wide packed gravel road but has a few bursts of rocky sections that can be taxing on the way up, and one section of narrow windy track through some boulders.  The uphill portion is a good workout but not so vigorous as something like Vomit Hill in Big Cottonwood Canyon.  The downhill portion is an unmitigated glory ride, the wide track makes for a very forgiving speed path, the periodic erosion breaks make for excellent jumps (which at your downhill enhanced speed become even more fun), and the rocky sections (if you have a suspended bike) are nothing more than rumble strips at that speed.  Excepting for taking care not to frighten (or collide with) upward coming trail users and downward going hikers, you can almost scream down the entire descent with very little braking, my top speed ended up being 35 mph.  Which might not sound like a lot to you roadies out there, but is pretty good for a rocky downhill, I caught up to several bikers also going down, but the trail is not quite wide enough to pass at speed, so I stopped and let them get far ahead again, then blazed away.