Length of the State of
September 16th through 26th
2006
In the 1980’s, my spouse
crossed the
I normally bicycle for
exercise, but to do this trip, I started training, putting in additional miles
and doing shorter trips during the summer.
I’m not an athlete by any means – especially when it comes to climbing
hills. But I did put in the miles,
ending at 20 miles per day, five days a week.
Our bicycle enthusiast
friend, Nanda, from
My plan was to go from North
to South, because the climb was more gradual, and the steep climb would be at
the end of the trip, when we would be in better condition. Also, we wouldn’t have to climb out of that
very deep hole (3,000 feet elevation) where St. George is located. As a touring reward, the route would pass
through Zion National Park, making a memorable highlight at the end of the
trip.
When the date of the trip
arrived, the weather threw us a curve in
the form of cold, rainy weather in the North.
We compensated by changing our plans to go from South to North. This would make for a lot of climbing at the
beginning of the trip, but we should be able to take advantage of the
prevailing wind direction (Southwest to Northwest).
On September 16th,
we began the trip, going from the Arizona border near St. George, to the Idaho
border near Logan, finally finishing on September 26th. It was challenging – more so than I thought,
but we rose to the occasion. The total
distance was 473 miles. We cycled up
2000 foot climbs, waited out a storm under a makeshift shelter in the middle of
nowhere, and encountered headwinds so strong we had to gear-down and pedal hard
to go downhill. There were a lot of
walk-up hills, but at the end of the trip, we cycled into Cache valley without
having to get off and push.
Map, with
Route Traced in Black
Here are the links to the
pictures and narrative of each day of the trip, followed by the time and
mileage statistics of the trip as a whole: