Day 14: Provo to Price

NOTE: Yesterday's (Day 13) pictures are now updated properly for those who read yesterday's blog. Yesterday's pictures are here.

Miles: 78
Riding time: 5:31
Avg speed: 14.1
Max speed: 32
Total trip miles: 1023

Weather: Overcast, spitting rain, mostly headwind

between 10 - 40 mph
Alt change: 4500 - 7500 -5500'
Flats today:0; Total Flats 2;
Today's Pictures are here.

Last night's route rap was replete with route changes to get us around construction and a whole page of written gotchya-watches like: "Walk behind barrier on dirt road." "Do not ride on left shoulder against traffic" or "No shoulder 2 lanes tight behind concrete barriers". And Ed and his wife, who are from this area chimed in with helpful advice like "Utah drivers ignore bikers on a good day and go after them on a bad one." and "Don't even think of riding left of the white line or one of those motor homes towing a jeep will flatten you ."

Jim's alarm went off at 4:40 so we could get ready for 5:00 breakfast and a 5:45 load. When I got to breakfast, the area was already congested with riders trying to get their toast to pop, squeezing the last dregs of coffee from the urns and grabbing a spare banana for the road. The new folks were huddled in groups, wondering what they had gotten themselves into after their first day consisted of turns and construction detours and now the prospect of their second being concrete barriers with the narrow shouldered, rumble strip laced, truck infested US Rt 6 to take us most of the 75 miles to Price. Soon someone reported they'd just been out and felt the rain starting.

Just about then one of the Cleveland guys that I'd ridden with yesterday and given a PwP brochure came up to me and said that the light went on while he was awake last night. He remembered exactly who Pete was from the late 90's GOBA rides he'd done. That was a real encouragement to me! Thanks for sharing, Gary.

By then everyone was eager to get rolling and so the loading, tire pumping, and "what are you wearing discussions" were dispensed with rapidly and off we went. Our little group of Bob, Leigh, Chuck, Jim and Zero and I left in the middle of the pack and soon we were pedaling out of town in formation. Bob wryly observed "Maybe it will rain, but at least we have a hefty head wind". And "Maybe there is a lot of construction, but at least the Utah drivers are agressively bad".

We managed to navigate our way through the early route changes OK with only one missed turn and were soon pedaling east on Route 89. I stayed back with Jim for a bit to see if he was going to be OK and when he said he just needed to get warmed up at his pace, I picked it up a bit to catch the others. That meant going from about 8.5 mph into the 30-40 mph head wind to perhaps 10 mph. The wind was so strong and shifty that drafting was really not workable anyway.

Our soon left onto Route 6 turned us right into the teeth of the wind that howled down the narrow canyon. Wonderful for the wind farm just up ahead, but every cyclist's nemisis. I thought the prevailing winds were westerly! Soon we were climbing on the narrow berm. Fortunately traffic was light. Construction spots forced us to repeatedly climb over the concrete dividers to ride to the right of them so as not to get crushed. At one point I stopped to use a construction porta-john. Once in the thing it started to shake in the wind.

The climb eventually got steeper as the road stretched toward the huge gash cut though the top of the highest rise. Parked at that highest point was the white sag van with Michele and Judy handing out water and bananas. My riding companions from earlier were there as well so I was able to rejoin them for the ride down and over to the real climb of the day. We paced along into the wind, glad for the respite when riding behind. The road paralleled several sets of tracks and soon a train as long as I've seen, overtook us slowly and rumbled past one car at a time until two hundred or so had passed us by over the course of many miles. The end of the train was marked by two "helper" locamotives to keep the thing rolling along through the climbs. That was how the town down the road came to get its name -- it was the point the locomotives were attached or detached at the start or finish of the long climb to Soldier Summit.

About 40 miles out Chuck and I stopped at the silver van parked next to the road to get our jackets since the temperature had dropped. The others rode on to the SAG stop as it turned out, but Chuck and I somehow missed it and continued up to Soldier Summit and once crested began the lengthy descent toward Helper and Price beyond. More construction sites, a litle cycle cross over the dirt road paralleling Rt 6 and frequent looks up and over our shoulder to see how close the rain was getting.

Gerard had alerted us to a quaint old store and an eaually quaint 78 year old owner that was worth stopping in to see. The gentleman had pictures of his grandad with Butch Cassidy and was eager to show and tell anyone that stopped by. The rain closing in on us and the climb over more barriers to get to the store helped us to decide we would roll on down the valley. Soon we were down in Helper and stopped for a sandwich and a quart of chocolate milk. When we left it was just starting to spit outside but the wind had picked up in our favor this time. Chuck shot off like a thoroughbred bolting for the barn and I just hung on his wheel. We finished the last 8 miles in 20 minutes so eluding the rain by minutes.

All who rolled in after us came in drenched including Jim. He had finished, felt good and was ready to do it all over again tomorrow. I am very grateful for that! We shared a load of wash -- great to have all clean clothes again. Then he showed me how he cleaned his rear cassette and I got the bike clean, prepped and oiled up for tomorrow. Even got a brief cat nap in before supper. Delicious spaghetti and salad buffet with all the the brownies and cream puffs you cared or dared to eat afterwards.

Tomorrow is a 60+ miler, all down hill. Arrival for most will be noonish. There's a van trip to Arches National Park planned as well as an optional raft trip down the Green River if there are enough takers. Then it's over to Grand Junction Colorado and our 4th state. We will meet the 2000 or so Bicycle Tour of Colorado (BTC) riders there and our routes merge for a couple of days. Should be interesting!

I will sing of the Lord's great love forever;
with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known.
I will declare that your love stands firm forever,

that you established your faithfulness in heaven. Psalm 89:1-2