Length of the State of
We got up the next morning,
checked out of the motel, and started pedaling at
Leaving the
Safari Motel, in Nephi
The Mexican restaurant
across the street was closed, so we hoped to find a restaurant as we pedaled
north through town. It turned out there
were no restaurants, so we ate at a convenience store at a gas station at the
north end of town. We then resumed
pedaling north.
It was a cool, sunny day,
with a light wind from the north. It
seemed ironic to me that although the prevailing winds in
As it had appeared the day
before, the terrain sloped downhill to the north. We soon made our way to the town of
Entering
the town of Mona
We watched for the road
leading to Mona Reservoir as we pedaled through town, but it was not marked by
any sign. When we came to the north end
of town (knowing the road going north from there was the old highway 91), we
consulted our map, and pedaled back into town.
We inquired at a gas station, and they said it was the road going west
from where the gas station was.
Soon we were pedaling west,
and after a mile or so, it turned north again.
The views eastward over Mona
Reservoir toward
Looking
over Mona Reservoir, toward
This was a road I had not
yet traveled. It was a pleasant, country
road with little traffic. It continued
north past the reservoir, and followed the stream flowing toward
Entering
the
We eventually made it to the
town of Goshen, and stopped in (probably) the only convenience store in the
small town. We found that there were no
motels there, so our plan to stay in Nephi was a good one. We snacked, and filled our water bottles in
preparation for the 40 mile empty stretch west of Utah lake, where we would not
be able to replenish our supplies.
After a few miles climbing
to the west, we reached the south end of Redwood Road (highway 68). Since I remembered there is a “61” milepost
on Redwood Road near our home, we knew how far we were away from home.
The road is flat, and
straight for a very long way.
The long, straight road, west of Utah
Lake, disappearing into a distant point
As we made our way farther
north, the road turned to follow the shore of the lake, and went up and down
over the hillside slopes.
Utah Lake,
looking northeast
Eventually we got to an area
where there were a lot of bedroom communities, but still no stores. When we made it to the highway coming from
Lehi, we finally encountered a Smith’s store, and ate stuff we purthased
inside.
The next section of Redwood
Road (going north toward Camp Williams) was really bad. There was a lot of traffic, and the shoulder
was only inches wide. To make it worse,
there was a walk-up hill just before Camp Williams. It was a welcome relief when we finally made
it over the hill, and got a wide shoulder again.
The first
view into Salt Lake valley, north of Camp Williams
From that point, it was
pretty well downhill all the way. We
were running a bit late, relative to the amount of daylight left, but we knew
that Redwood Road has street lights (at least in some sections), which would
help. We figured we would forge on
toward home, because there were no motels on Redwood Road, and we would have to
cycle up to the I-15 area to find one.
Besides, at this point, we were only one bicycle-commute round-trip from
home.
Our plans took on unexpected
hit a bit later, when (because I was following close behind Malcolm, and had no
time to dodge), I hit a piece of road-junk, which punctured my back tire. It made a slit 3/8” long in the tube, but
only a puncture in the tire. We figured
it wouldn’t hold long if we patched it.
Fortunately, Malcolm had a spare tube, and we eventually got the tire
fixed. Unfortunately, this used up a
significant amount of our precious daylight remaining.
In spite of bad construction
from 35th south to 21st south, and being in the dark, we
made it to our home in the Rose Park area at 9:00 PM. It had been a really long day, and we made
the most mileage of any day of the trip, despite the headwind.
On this day, we travelled
84.7 miles, with an average speed of 10.5 MPH.
The bicycles were moving for eight hours and one minute. It took us eleven hours to do it.