If you haven't discovered the maps featured under the Garmin Data and Stats on the right hand side of the blog, the entry from Wendover to Salt Lake is a great time to check it out. If you look at the map and change the view to satellite view, you can see the huge expanse white that is the Bonneville Salt Flats and then Great Salt Lake. It's a crazy piece of our planet.
In bike terms, riding that day meant 40ish miles across salt flats which looked alternatively like a moonscape of pure shimmery white or yellow sand and a huge shallow lake. Many of the flats were covered in water because of all the rain and storms that had come through. We passed through the flats just after dawn ... we had a 118 mile day and an early start so extra time was important - especially for slower riders in our stops-a-lot group.
We also had a wicked headwind that lasted for at least 60 miles, and then picked up again even harder the last 20 miles of the ride. Headwinds can be the hardest part of riding ... downright discouraging. To me worse than climbing mountains. To cope with the wind, a bunch of us formed up in a double paceline which had been perfected by a smaller group of riders the day before, including Bob from Seattle and Chris from Ohio - (you can see their blogs listed on the right side of my blog if interested in another take on this trip and photos - I just linked them onto mine). For non-bikers, a paceline is basically where you follow a rider in front of you closely enough to benefit from the draft. You rotate regularly to share the work ... the front of the line "pulls" and the back of the line "drafts". A double paceline is basically two columns that rotates clockwise, so you take a turn front left, a turn front right, and then fall back down the line as the paceline rotates every 1/2 mile. It's obviously important to be a very steady rider with good bike handling skills to do this safely. While I've done single pacelines frequently, doubles were new to me but really effective in an otherwise soul sucking headwind. Plus you had ever changing folks to chat with during the rotation which makes 118 miles go a lot faster.
Anyway, we made decent time given the winds. It was incredibly beautiful out there. After 40 miles the scene changed back to high desert and sagebrush. And as we closed in on Salt Lake City the snow capped Wasatch mountains rose in the skyline. For the last 40 miles we were pretty much running from an ugly black storm that slowly chased us into the city. Luckily we were moving faster than it was, but it was motivation to move along and avoid a drenching. There was nothing out there - no services, not even a bush if you had to take care of a necessity. Made for some entertainment for passing truckers, often celebrated by long honks. SAG vehicles stopped frequently for water, though official SAG stations were 40 - 45 miles apart - that's a long way for sag support.
Coming into Salt Lake I was riding with Seattle Bob and Gerard one of our ride leaders and we ended up not being able to get through and exchange and were forced off the road early. This turned out to be a good thing as we charted a better route the the frontage road by Salt Lake that went past the Kennecot Copper mine, which is a huge plant and looked pretty interesting to check out on any day when you hadn't been in the saddle forever.
A challenging biking day on already tire legs, but real teamwork made it a fun and successful day and I think helped pull the group together tighter.
And, one of the highlights of my day was the surprise gift of chocolate covered strawberries and cookies from Tracey and Neil and the 3 little Snyders waiting for me at the hotel. THANK YOU!!! Wonderful surprise and quickly gone.
The HOORAY REST DAY
Let's just say SPA. Many thanks to Gary King for the great recommendation of Kura Door Spa. I went with another gal doing the ride and had a fabulous massage and pedi, sat in the steam bath and otherwise recovered. Wonderful way to get the body back in shape for another 8 days of the (gulp) Rocky Mountains. Then we went for a nice lunch and to visit the Mormon temple and genealogy library. You'll be happy to know I did not convert. But I did look up some of my maternal ancestry at the library and found the 1930 census records for my maternal Grandparents which was very cool. Turns out my grandmother married at 17, they could both read and right and speak English. Pretty interesting look at those times by what questions are asked on the census.
Today we lost 5 wonderful riders who were just doing the first leg of the trip. But we have 13 more joining us I'll meet at breakfast. Looking forward to our next leg. It's another huge cue sheet which will mean some slow navigation out of Salt Lake to Provo tomorrow, 64 miles with hills.
Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016!!
9 years ago
