69.53 miles. Maximum 25 mph, rating: 7 Map
We packed up camp and ate bananas with our fingers freezing. I put on gloves and hood, and regretted having no leg warmers.
We got on the road about 5:40 AM. We had a good road last night coming into Montello, but it deteriorated from there to the Utah border. Then it changed to tar and gravel, a fine surface for cars, but rough and tiring for cyclists.
It didn’t take long to warm up. Long, long stretch of desert. We reached Utah in 12 miles, and got in 30 miles by 8:30. We stopped in dry washes for snacking. It got hotter and hotter. At 40 miles, there was a historical marker about Ogden and others. There were also trees and a spring, but we didn’t want to risk refilling the water bottles.
We turned north and hit a wind. Drafting Dave helped cut the time, but it still took till 12:45 to reach Rosette at 62 miles.
Utah desert was no better than Nevada. We saw salt flats to the east, and once, through a gap in the mountains, the Great Salt Lake to the east and south. Throughout the day, a number of military jets flew over, doing maneuvers at the nearby bombing ranges. The Grouse Creek mountains to our west didn’t ameliorate the climate.
Wildlife: Jacky saw a lizard, I saw a jackrabbit. That was about it. Pretty sparse.
There was a Utah road construction project south of Rosette. The first vehicle we encountered stopped; they asked if we were okay. We speculated that we were a topic of conversation on their radios.
I guess it’s true when they say ears have no nerve endings. I didn’t even know mine were sunburning until great crusts formed and began peeling off! After that, I was careful to sunscreen my ears as well as nose and lips.
It was hot, there was no tailwind, the road was difficult – we were slow. Even with eight large bottles full of water when we left Montello, we ran dry. I went ahead to get water. At the top of a hill is Rosette, instantaneously out of the desert and into green lush farmland, under the spell of the Raft River mountains to the north. The change is invisible from the bottom of the hill. Greatly relieved, I sought out a house with people in the yard, begged for water, then went back to Jacky.
There were several buzzards south of Rosette, flying, circling, sitting on the fence. They were watching and waiting for us, but we out-lasted them. A hard day! Much worse than the dreaded 40-mile desert at Fallon.
My source of water was a man and his three kids working in their yard. Very friendly. When the two of us got there, they gave us great fresh peas from their garden. They had just spent two weeks in Canada.
We stayed at Park Valley. We just didn’t have enough left for another 40 miles into Snowville. Everything in Park Valley is the Palmer Twin’s (sic). The Mormon culture produces far less don’t-give-a-damn than we saw in Nevada.
Park Valley has an excellent (ie clean) café, a store, gas station and a motel, all run by the Palmer twins. The woman we dealt with was very nice. We ate fish sandwiches, showered, and napped until after 7 (first day in mountain time zone).
We watched eulogies for Sir Lawrence Olivier on McNeil-Lehrer, and watched Jimmy Stewart in Flight of the Phoenix. I thought the German engineer’s line to Stewart was perfect: “Why do you act as if stupidity were a virtue?”
I have had a cyst on my butt forever. It’s not been a problem with the kind of riding I do at home, but sitting on it all day, every day, makes it sore. The skin is stretched tight across a bicycle saddle; you can’t just shift to one side and sit somewhere else. It hurt so much today that I decided to get it removed at Logan, if I can. I’ll be sore for a while, but better in the long run.
99.00 miles. Maximum 34, rating: 7 Map
Big change in the weather. Sprinkling a little outside the Palmer Twin’s motel. Still couldn’t see stars – too cloudy. Reasonably good time to Snowville. Found $2.50 in coins on a freeway ramp near there.
9:30 AM, Snowville: Cool and cloudy today, even a few raindrops. Some desert, possibly the last we’ll see.
Wildlife: a deer in the sheep meadow, three deer further along, a pheasant flying across the road, another deer demonstrating how running really should be done.
We met the road construction people on their way out into the desert and waved goodbye.
We ate a third breakfast in Snowville – we use lots of energy doing this – then headed out into the strong crosswinds and rain. The terrain to Tremonton is mountainous and we were slow. The rain was warm and moderate, and jackets sufficed to keep us warm, if not completely happy. Got there about 2 PM. Ate again. Walked to tourist info place and got a camping brochure.
We went on to Logan, despite Jacky's fatigue and obvious willingness to stop. Uphill, against the wind, but the sun came out, very high in the sky even though it was 4:30 or later. There was heavy traffic from the Morton Thiokol plant. I was tired and discouraged. Logan was worth the extra push. The Cache valley was really spectacular. I finally understand the allusions to the land of milk and honey. I have never seen this part of Utah before, but it’s really wonderful. Cache valley cheese comes from here.
We checked into a Westin hotel with a waterbed, and decided to stay over a day. I went to the Logan hospital to see about removing the cyst on my butt. The doctor staffing the emergency room didn’t want to remove it, said an ER wasn’t the right place for minor outpatient surgery. I told him our story, and it was a quiet night, nothing going on, so he agreed to cut it out. The cyst was the size of a small marble, and just about as hard – no wonder it hurt to sit on it all day! The doctor was skeptical that it would hurt less to sit on the wound than on the cyst, but I think after a few days it will be an improvement.
As it turned out, I needed one pain pill first thing on the mornings of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and that got me through.
Got Dave's bit of surgery done, ate Mexican food at 10 PM.
Long, long day!
2.71 miles locally, rating: 8
Slept fine on the waterbed. Mike returned our call at 5:30 AM. We wandered down to Main and Center and ate breakfast with the local house painters and truck drivers. The Mormon temple is a huge building dating from the 1800s. Errands: laundry, groceries, prescriptions, oculists, postcards.
Rode a few miles to see how sore my butt was going to be. Sore.
Ate lunch at a Taco Time. Came back and napped, then spent 1½ hours at the library. Dave read the Wall Street Journal and Bicyling. I read and scanned a book on Utah and a wonderful reference called Day by day in the 40s. Enough to make one a history buff.
Left with too little time for a real meal. Ate at McDonald’s. Then walked up the hill (naturally) to Utah State for a concert. All the gray-haired ladies in Utah are trim and in good shape. Beethoven’s Op 18, #3, György Ligeti (weird modern Hungarian), and a Shumann piano quintet, played by the New World string quartet with a snobby looking ‘Mr. Tocco.’ Nice town. I could imagine living here.
53.13 miles. Maximum 35, rating: 7 Map
Before we left home, I debated the wisdom of riding through Logan canyon. It looked like a lot of climbing. I decided to do it anyway, because even if it was difficult, it would be a fairly short grunt, and it made sense in the context of the rest of the route. Also, one of Beth’s Utah maps had a picture from Logan canyon on its cover, and it looked nice.
Logan canyon is really pretty. It started steep, with a headwind, then became easier. Chilly and shadowed, similar to Niles canyon. Lots of picnic spots and campgrounds (Cache national forest).
By 8 AM, RV and boat trailer traffic got heavier. The wind died down. After twenty miles, it got steep.
I mostly didn’t need the granny gear until the last two or three miles, where the canyon ends and we climbed over the top. There were a surprising number of deer killed along the road, but we saw no live ones.
Bear mountain (nearly 8000') was a bear – with a frustrating false summit. Then we did the wonderful downhill to Bear lake. It’s beautiful and blue and half in Idaho. Surrounded by mountains, the lake is turquoise blue, warm, with sand beaches and gradual slopes. No wonder it’s popular.
I got passed in the canyon by two pace lines of bikies. Their support van was marked Recyclers. We chatted with them at the tee-shirt store in Garden City, a small tourist-oriented lakefront town. A Church of God group, a dozen teen-agers and one old fart. Going from Medford, Oregon to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina by way of Colorado and Indiana. Sleeping in churches. Going on to Kemmerer today. Pretty strong riders, but what a terrible waste to ride coast to coast in a pace line, staring at the wheel in front of you!
Ate a good lunch in Garden City. We tried for camping at Rendezvous state beach, but the campground was full. We went on to Laketown to see if there was a motel (there wasn’t) and discuss options. My butt was sore, and I wasn’t eager to do a 100-mile day by going on to Kemmerer.
We had just decided to ride a few miles east and stop at the side of the road when a woman came out of the country store (Nancy from Salt Lake City) and asked us the usual questions. The conversation led to an invitation to camp with her and some of her family and friends at a private lot on the shore.
We went for a swim in lieu of a shower. The lake was warm and shallow. Then we walked into town to eat at a good-ole-boy café. We're too yuppified to enjoy the cuisine of the heartland. We strolled around the town and watched the children playing, before walking back out to the lake.
We sat around and talked with our hosts for half an hour or so, then turned in. A better conclusion to the day than one might have expected. Good people!
Bumper sticker:
Of all the things I’ve lost,
I miss my mind the most.
