We got passed by some guys on electric mountain bikes. You could hear their motors straining under the load .. I got new respect for an e-bike right there. One said "it's an easy spin to the top" ... it wasn't. Frigging liar.
So, we started at 6 am at Liberty Park in downtown Salt Lake. Tim had organized this ride to show off some of the cycling available in Utah and it served up about 850 miles of pavement, dirt roads, and some single track. As I write this back at home, several guys are still hammering away. Some 21 riders started and 12 of us scratched in the first day, along with yours truly.
Had a burrito at the hotel for breakfast, some juice and coffee, then scored a latte across from the Park right before the start. Because of Corona, there wasn't a group start but a set of small groups and I rolled with three or four others at 6:15.
Thru some neighborhoods, then along a few surface streets and some bike path that took us high above Salt Lake City heading south. We got to where 210 started and there was a straight up-ish grade .. harbinger of things to come. We did a few miles on some nice single track to the right of the main road in Little Cottonwood Canyon .. I rode most of it, but a few places were rocky enough and the grade was enough that I just quickly walked over the rocks. Then got onto the pavement and I was climbing pretty well and I continued with a few out of breath stops into Alta.
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| The Entrance to Something |
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| Alta |
I thought there was a place to eat and looked around and found the Goldminers Daughter and waited about 10 minutes for it to open and fix me a burger. It was good, but I only ate 1/2 of it, and drank a couple of Cokes, then packed up and headed up.
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| Think this is where the e-bike guys zoomed by |
When I got past Catherine's Pass I had forgotten we still had to go to Sugarloaf .. couple of minutes later the reality dawned on me. Then I caught up with Jason and Jennifer. The four of us climbed and walked and rode a little bit and pushed some more. Someplace in there I forgot to just stop, drink and eat and I started burning matches I didn't have. After the e-bike guys passed us we finally got to the top. I sat in the Alta lift chair and forgot to take a required selfie and started down the back side.
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| Sitting in the chair at the top of Sugarloaf ... felt good right then :-) |
I walked a little steep downhill section and then looked way in the distance and I saw the e-bike guys going up another big climb way in the distance. I really, really thought that was our route and it let all the air out of my sails ( and there wasn't much there in the first place ). I sat down, found a little shade and chilled for a bit. Jason and Jennifer passed me, then Kymberly passed. Decided to get up, tried to eat a GU and threw up. Laid down for 5 minutes and felt better and decided to head on towards Midway.
I rode some, walked a couple of little steep places and was feeling pretty good till I got to Mineral Basin Road. To be honest, it was like some 4WD vehicle torture test site. Big burly boulders, places to get tires stuck, water under rocks, did I say boulders ?? Steep descents, feet sliding out. Totally outside my riding ability by an order of magnitude. Surprised my ankles held up.
I finally got to the bottom where it turned into a regular road, and I got to a little turn with a sign for Midway and the GPS showed a big climb. At that point I was maybe 38 miles into the thing, and I needed water. So I stopped at the American fork River, filtered a bunch of water and then found a place to setup my tent for the night. I was totally fried, bonked, exhausted and went right to sleep without eating and frankly I could not eat.
Woke up around 9:30 or so and wanted to get some food in, so heated up some water and had a cup of soup. Couldn't eat the noodles, but the broth was really good, and then back to sleep. Was pretty nice except for the ATV's that wanted to drive up and down the road, but they gave it up around 11:30 pm
Got up, packed up and started up the switchbacks and I had nothing, Absolutely nothing in the gas tank. Ate a GU and some candy, still nothing. I had coffee earlier, nothing. So I walked pretty much the whole damm climb. Got to the top and my ride down was wobbly due to exhaustion, but was getting it done.
Midway is a pretty little town, stopped and got some breakfast, but the legs were dead. Tim had FB posted about it being dry ahead. Then I looked at trackleaders and saw Kymberly had stopped and that Jason and Jennifer were in town, and then looked up and there they were riding by !
Figured I would have to lie around Midway till the next morning to be able to tackle the trail and I simply didn't have the desire. I sat in Midway Park, got on the phone, scored a Lyft ride and a rental and at 3:30 was rolling out of SLC airport in I-15 headed south.
Stopped at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, loved it, walked around a bit and to be honest, I was exhausted on just a short little walk ... huffing and puffing and sweating and wondering what is wrong with me ??? When I was doing that I was glad I wasn't stuck on some mountain south of Midway.
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| North Rim Sunset |
Tim did a nice job setting up a challenging course, but it's a bit much for me. I know some of the guys just rode right on through all of that .. there are some really strong skilled riders still out there.
