Day Fourteen

Note the skinny shoulder here and this was a better area.

Robb and John ready to follow Scott's torrid assault on Soldiers Summit (7477')

The dark lines are coal.

Hey I think I know who stole the Old Man on the Mountain from NH!

If you get to Helper, UT be sure to visit Marsha. She "kneads your dough."

Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head

No, it didn’t rain today and the stretch of beautiful riding weather continues to follow us so a big THANK YOU to whoever is making those arrangements BUT our route today took us through the beautiful Wasatch Mountain range where Butch Cassidy (sorry there was no Sundance Kid except in the movies) roamed in the late 1800’s. On April 21, 1897 he and his gang robbed the Pleasant Valley Coal Company paymaster in a daring daylight robbery making off with over $8000 in gold and silver. The town of Helper is just below the site and when we rode down Main Street decked out in our flashy spandex outfits and gaudy hi-tech road bikes the citizens of Helper looked at us like we were Butch’s gang reincarnated. Although the entire Carbon County Police force was on duty (all two cars), like Butch, we escaped and made it to our final destination in Price.

Helper, by the way, is named for the little “helper” locomotive that was needed to push the coal trains over the mountain…I think I can…I think I can… I will remember that story and cadence as we approach the Rockies the next few days.

I am so happy to have my buddy, Robb, back but I really don’t appreciate hauling his out-of-shape butt through the windy passes and over Soldiers Summit. Fortunately I had help from John Hurley today so it was nice that the three Massachusetts riders all summited together. Hopefully with a good night’s rest and an easy day tomorrow he’ll work back into shape!

It should have been a relatively easy day with normal mileage and climbing but the wind, road construction, weekend traffic, and poor road design made it more challenging than it had to be. Much of the route was on Highway 89 and Route 6 and every proud Utah citizen was hauling a trailer with either multiple 4-wheelers or a ski boat. The construction forced us onto the road at some points and, where we still had a shoulder, it often was chunked-up with a rumble strip forcing us back on the road. The rumble strip might save some slumbering driver but it’s probably gonna kill some poor desperate pucker-butt biker.

All the challenging stuff was quickly forgotten because of the incredible vistas. Most of the glory shots of Utah are the snowcapped mountains or the graceful arches and rock formations in the national parks. The route we took today may not translate well in my photos but the mountains, hills, streams, canyons, valleys, trains, geological features add up to the best run yet for us. I’m sure it’s great from a car but the bike pace is what truly makes the difference.

You will note that we’ve added the GPS route to today’s entry. We’ve been working on this with John Canistraro, our techie back home and I appreciate all the help he’s provided. So far we’ve entered the routes for Day Zero through Day Five also and we’ll try to stay current and fill in the blanks as soon as possible.

Today’s ratings: (higher the better or easier)

Scenery: 9

Road conditions: 3

Grunt factor: 6