The last four days have brought a wide variety of terrain … extremely rural to big city.
The early stages of last Saturday’s ride found me riding through mostly flat agricultural areas. Still plenty of mountain views and still plenty of tail wind. The usual pattern seems to be nice weather in the mornings … not so nice weather in the afternoons. My destination was the Painted Rock Campground at the Yuba State Park. The State of Utah Park Administration had decided that one small sign reading “Yuba Reservoir” would suffice to alert travelers of the turn-off for the campground. It was insufficient notice for me … I rode on for an additional 5 miles, or so, before determining (guessing) that I had missed the turn. The return trip was into a very strong headwind. After making the turn into the Reservoir, and riding about an eighth of a mile, there was quite a nice big sign indicating that the Painted Rock Campground was just to right. Nice. Indeed, the campground was nice … once the wind finally died down.
Sunday’s ride was really quite pleasant. Pretty country and light winds … no rain. In the small town of Levan, I asked a guy for directions to a good local café. As the conversation went on, we discovered that he knew Sue Fassett, who leads the Saturday morning group ride in Tempe. He had gone to high school with Sue, and his dad had been a teacher at the same school. Small world.
The remainder of the ride was rather uneventful, but enjoyable. It was quite strange riding into the urban area south of Salt Lake City. Not having been in a predominately Mormon area before, I was unaware that everything is closed on Sundays. There were very few people outside of their houses, very few people driving on the roads … it was ghost town. I was to stay at Mary Lou and Randall Thackerey’s house, so I called Mary Lou for directions. She gave me the street names, etc., and mentioned that they were located at the top of a hill. I think this “hill” is used by automotive designers as a “test hill” to see if their four-wheel vehicles can climb the most severe mountains.
It had been probably 20 years since I had last seen Mary Lou and Randall. It is funny how, even though quite a bit life has happened to us all, the personalities and characters have not changed. They live, as I mentioned earlier, high up on the side of a mountain … the views all around their house are amazingly beautiful. My too short stay was very enjoyable.
Monday found me working my way through Salt Lake City, up to Bountiful. Rather than ride through SLC, I chose to take advantage of the public transit system (Ride the Yellow Line). SLC has two rail lines, one (TRAX) that runs from Sandy to downtown SLC, then the other (FrontRunner) that runs up to Ogden. You access the TRAX rail cars by climbing up four fairly steep steps … keep in mind that my bike/panniers weigh around 80 pounds. It was not a scene of great agility and grace. The transit system did work, however, and I eliminated a lot of riding in heavy traffic.
Heather Fowler’s favorite aunt, who lives in Bountiful, graciously offered to house me for the night. This lady was a real treat to spend time with … she is a self-described “old lady”. This “old lady” is one of the most interesting people I have met in a long time. At 70 (I think that is what she said), she has an ongoing massage therapy practice, she plays wonderful piano, she gave birth to 16 children … on and on the interesting facets of her life were disclosed. Lest you think she is just an old frail elderly lady … recently she was clocked by a policeman doing approximately 105 mph. Her excuse … she had the sun roof open on her car and her Springsteen music playing. Amazing lady.
Today, I took the FrontRunner train up to Ogden, then rode the 48 miles up to Tremonton. Very pleasant ride along the foothills just east of the Great Salt Lake. This road is lightly traveled, and there were a steady supply of beautiful old homes. I did have a race with a storm that hit Tremonton about 30 minutes after I arrived.
Which brings me to great nervousness about the coming days. Weather reports call for thunderstorms through the end of the week ... these storms are coming from the northwest, which means headwinds. The next town of any size is about 105 miles from Tremonton. The next few days are going to be a challenge, to say the least.
The early stages of last Saturday’s ride found me riding through mostly flat agricultural areas. Still plenty of mountain views and still plenty of tail wind. The usual pattern seems to be nice weather in the mornings … not so nice weather in the afternoons. My destination was the Painted Rock Campground at the Yuba State Park. The State of Utah Park Administration had decided that one small sign reading “Yuba Reservoir” would suffice to alert travelers of the turn-off for the campground. It was insufficient notice for me … I rode on for an additional 5 miles, or so, before determining (guessing) that I had missed the turn. The return trip was into a very strong headwind. After making the turn into the Reservoir, and riding about an eighth of a mile, there was quite a nice big sign indicating that the Painted Rock Campground was just to right. Nice. Indeed, the campground was nice … once the wind finally died down.
Sunday’s ride was really quite pleasant. Pretty country and light winds … no rain. In the small town of Levan, I asked a guy for directions to a good local café. As the conversation went on, we discovered that he knew Sue Fassett, who leads the Saturday morning group ride in Tempe. He had gone to high school with Sue, and his dad had been a teacher at the same school. Small world.
The remainder of the ride was rather uneventful, but enjoyable. It was quite strange riding into the urban area south of Salt Lake City. Not having been in a predominately Mormon area before, I was unaware that everything is closed on Sundays. There were very few people outside of their houses, very few people driving on the roads … it was ghost town. I was to stay at Mary Lou and Randall Thackerey’s house, so I called Mary Lou for directions. She gave me the street names, etc., and mentioned that they were located at the top of a hill. I think this “hill” is used by automotive designers as a “test hill” to see if their four-wheel vehicles can climb the most severe mountains.
It had been probably 20 years since I had last seen Mary Lou and Randall. It is funny how, even though quite a bit life has happened to us all, the personalities and characters have not changed. They live, as I mentioned earlier, high up on the side of a mountain … the views all around their house are amazingly beautiful. My too short stay was very enjoyable.
Monday found me working my way through Salt Lake City, up to Bountiful. Rather than ride through SLC, I chose to take advantage of the public transit system (Ride the Yellow Line). SLC has two rail lines, one (TRAX) that runs from Sandy to downtown SLC, then the other (FrontRunner) that runs up to Ogden. You access the TRAX rail cars by climbing up four fairly steep steps … keep in mind that my bike/panniers weigh around 80 pounds. It was not a scene of great agility and grace. The transit system did work, however, and I eliminated a lot of riding in heavy traffic.
Heather Fowler’s favorite aunt, who lives in Bountiful, graciously offered to house me for the night. This lady was a real treat to spend time with … she is a self-described “old lady”. This “old lady” is one of the most interesting people I have met in a long time. At 70 (I think that is what she said), she has an ongoing massage therapy practice, she plays wonderful piano, she gave birth to 16 children … on and on the interesting facets of her life were disclosed. Lest you think she is just an old frail elderly lady … recently she was clocked by a policeman doing approximately 105 mph. Her excuse … she had the sun roof open on her car and her Springsteen music playing. Amazing lady.
Today, I took the FrontRunner train up to Ogden, then rode the 48 miles up to Tremonton. Very pleasant ride along the foothills just east of the Great Salt Lake. This road is lightly traveled, and there were a steady supply of beautiful old homes. I did have a race with a storm that hit Tremonton about 30 minutes after I arrived.
Which brings me to great nervousness about the coming days. Weather reports call for thunderstorms through the end of the week ... these storms are coming from the northwest, which means headwinds. The next town of any size is about 105 miles from Tremonton. The next few days are going to be a challenge, to say the least.
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