Length of the State of Utah Bicycle Trip

Tuesday, September 26th 2006

 

The next morning, we ate at the restaurant just north of the motel, checked out, and resumed pedaling at 9:30 AM. 

 

Leaving the Galaxie Motel, in Brigham City

 

We pedaled down Main Street (with a construction detour), stopping for a picture:

 

 

Then we continued on the highway going north out of town toward Honeyville. 

 

The “Honeyville Mall”

 

Further north on the road, we entered the town of Deweyville:

 

Aere at Deweyville

 

From there, we followed the highway north to where it meets highway 30, going east into Cache valley.  This was the part I had not been looking forward to, since it is a 600 foot climb.  We geared-down, and pedaled along, resting occasionally. 

 

The last climb

 

Surprisingly, we didn’t need to get off and walk/push.  We kept pedaling, with occasional rest stops, and after re-climbing the elevation lost going down after a false summit, we finally crested the hill. 

 

It’s all downhill from here!

 

Following highway 30 east toward Logan, we encountered some beautiful marshlands. 

 

At the wetlands west of Logan

 

We continued on to Logan, eating at a convenience store at 10th west.  Then made our way east to Logan’s Main Street, and from there, to our daughter’s place in North Logan (where our truck was parked). 

 

At Emily’s house, with our pickup truck (blue) parked in the background

 

There, we visited for awhile, and arranged a time for Emily to meet us at the border with our truck.  We then cycled a few blocks back west to the main highway, and headed north to Smithfield. 

 

North to Smithfield

 

There we snacked, taking our time (we had allowed plenty of time so Emily wouldn’t end up waiting for us).  We then headed north again. 

 

Near the Idaho border just south of Franklin

 

We continued on northward, watching for the “Entering Idaho” sign.  We didn’t see a sign, so we bicycled into the town of Franklin. 

 

I stopped soon after, noticing a sign that read “Franklin, the oldest town in Idaho”.  At that point, we heard our daughter Emily honk the horn of our pickup to get our attention, and she drove up to where we were stopped, explaining that the Idaho sign had been temporarily removed due to construction. 

 

We had her take two victory shots in front of the “oldest town in Idaho” sign.  Unfortunately, when the people opened the disposable camara to develop the film, they didn't check to see if the entire roll had been used, so when they opened it, they ruined the last few pictures.  So in spite of taking the pictures, we ended up without them. 

 

At about 4:50 PM, we loaded our bicycles in the truck, heading for her home in North Logan, where we had a barbeque.  It was a nice ending to an amazing trip.  

 

On this last day of the trip, we travelled 57.3 miles, at an average speed of 10.9 MPH.  The bicycles were moving five hours and 15 minutes.  It took us seven hours, 20 minutes to do it. 

 

We had a light headwind the whole day, until the last half hour, when nature finally relented and gave us a parting taste of a tail-wind. 

 

As I look back on this challenging accomplishment and great adventure, the thing that comes to mind first, is that you can go amazing distances on a bicycle, if you just keep pedaling. 

 

Trip Distances & Statistics

Back to Trip Overview / Index