A Weekend in Nevada

Rosey and I decided to get out of town this weekend and head to Great Basin National Park in Nevada to do a little camping, hiking and caving. We got up early on Saturday morning, packed up the Harley and rode the 200 miles across the desolate Utah desert. This isn't the first trip that we've taken on the Harley, but it was probably the coldest. It was barely above 60 degrees when we left Spanish Fork at 7 in the morning and didn't get much warmer all the way to Nevada.


Our Furry Friends
Although the ride was mostly uneventful, we did manage to see quite a bit of wildlife. There were a herd of cattle grazing by the side of the road near the dry Sevier lake bed, an antellope that looked like it was fixing to jump out in front of us, a coyote that actually did run out in the road in front of us (although far enough ahead that it wasn't a threat) and a massive eagle that we scared away from some carrion that it was picking away from the asphalt.

Bike Trouble
For the duration of the trip, the bike felt a little odd to me. It wasn't cornering quite right and I was just generally uneasy about the way it was riding. I tried not to worry about it too much and just chalked it up to the fact that it was loaded down pretty heavy. A Harley cruiser loaded down with two passengers and a hundred pounds of food, clothes, hiking and camping equipment is bound to be a little less responsive.


It wasn't until we got to the campsite in Great Basin and got off the bike that Rosey asked, "How do you check for a flat tire on a motorcycle... because your tires looked pretty low as you were riding those corners up the mountain". All of the sudden it made sense to me why the bike had been riding funny all day. I didn't even have to check the front tire to know that it was flat. But I checked it anway... and was frightened to discover that the air pressure was so low that I could make a depression in the tire just by poking at it with my finger.

I was freaked out, we were 200 miles from anywhere, and 20 miles up a mountain... this would be one of the worst possible places to get stuck on a motorcycle. Fortunately, there was still some air left in the tire and I was still able to ride it. My hope was that I could ride back down the mountain to a gas station to fill the tire with air. I was concerned that the tire wouldn't hold pressure, but I figured that it was at least worth a shot.

What really scared me about going to get more air, was that it meant leaving Rosey behind at the camp site. I didn't dare put both of us back on the bike with the tire that low, but leaving her behind meant taking a chance that I would get stuck on the bike somewhere down the mountain and that she would be stuck back at the campsite with no transporation. The matter was made worse by the fact that neither of us had cell reception. So, once I was gone I had no way of communicating with her to let her know what was going on.

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. I carefully drove the bike down the mountain, rode the 10 miles back down to the gas station at the Utah-Nevada stateline, filled the tire with air and didn't have any more problems for the remainder of the weekend. But you can bet that I checked the air pressure every time that we stopped on the way home :)

Walking in Her Shoes
By the time we got the problems with the bike squared away, camp setup and had lunch it was going on 1 in the afternoon. We had planned on hiking Wheeler Peak that morning, but the bike trouble had delayed our start. I was beginning to lose motivation and didn't really want to start an 8.4 mile hike that late in the afternoon. It was Rosey nudged me a little and convinced me to make the assault on Wheeler Peak that afternoon.

Shortly after moving to Utah, Rosey bought a new pair of hiking boots. They were fancy and expensive but they had gotten good reviews on all of the online hiking website. Unfortunately, like many high-end hiking boots they needed to be broken in. She had worn them once or twice but had avoided taking them on really long hikes because she was afraid that they would end up hurting her feet. Nobody really likes breaking in hiking boots because it's like asking to be in pain.

I was starting to be concerned that unless the hiking boots got broken in soon, that they were going to turn into a wasted investment. So, being the concerned and caring boyfriend that I am, I offerred to break in Rosey's boots for her. My feet are pretty tough (literally calloused in some places) and I figured that I could hack the pain. Besides, how bad could it be?

Less than a mile into the hike I realized that bad things were happening to my feet. And yet, I decided to forge onward. I really wanted to get to the top of the mountain and besides, I was tough; I could take it. The pain grew steadily as I climbed further and further up the mountain. But with each step that I took, I got closer to the summit and found it harder and harder to convince myself to turn around.


When we finally made it to the top of the mountain, I decided that it had been worth the pain to get there. We had an incredible view of the surrounding mountains and valleys. Not to mention that it's just a wonderful feeling to be standing on the top of a mountain (our fourth one this year). The good thing about starting the hike so late in the day was that everyone else had started earlier in the day, leaving Rosey and I all alone on the top of the mountain. We took a few minutes to enjoy the solitude (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) before heading back down the mountain.


It didn't take long to come down from my high (no pun intended) once we started descending from the summit. I was quickly reminded of the pain that my feet were in. The descent became something of a Zen-like experience for me as I tried to drown out the pain by keeping my mind focused on the hike. I envisioned myself back at the campsite finally able to take the shoes off. I found myself walking faster and faster in pursuit of this goal.


We averaged between 3.5 and 4 miles per hour on the way down the mountain. In retrospect, I almost feel a little bad because we were walking so fast that we didn't get a chance to enjoy the hike on the way down. But I did what I had to, to survive :)

Being able to finally take the shoes off back at the campsite was almost orgasmic. It would almost be worth doing it all over again, just to be able to experience that sweet elation and relief as I slid my feet out from their leathery oppressors. Almost, but not really.

Upon assessing the damage, I discovered that in the course of nearly 10 miles of hiking I had blistered, popped, and then rubbed the skin away leaving a patch of blood and puss. It was really quite unpleasant to look at. But hey, I was right: I was tough, I could hack it, and I did. Thankfully there's no rule that says that I can't bitch about it afterwards... that would just take all of the fun out of it :)

To be continued... maybe... but probably not :) Just in case, here's a link to the rest of the pictures. We also did a short hike through a bristlecone forest on Sunday morning, and then took a tour of Lehman Caves. All in all it was a pretty damned good weekend.

School's In

I felt the effects of school being back in on my ride into work today. I must ride past half a dozen schools on the way into work and the traffic was double what it normally is. Not to mention that there were crossing guards and additional stop signs and lots of police officers making sure that no one was going too fast. I got a dirty look from a cop in my neighborhood for riding by at 22 MPH. Hmm, it would be pretty funny to get a speeding ticket on my bicycle :)

Rosey's Ulcer

Yes, Rosey did ride the ULCER today too. I was going to let her blog about her experience on her blog, but she said that she preferred that I just write about it here...

Although Rosey rode seperate from me, she was keeping a blazing fast speed of 18.5 miles per hour. Prior to moving to Utah she was riding in the 14-15 MPH range. She also only stopped once at the 40 mile rest stop (the same one that I accidentally pulled into).

Unfortunately, she got a screw in her tire at mile 80 and did some damage to her wheel. Apparently the screw caused some sort of nick on the inner aluminum that was causing her tube to explode violently when she re-inflated it. She went through one tube herself and then had one of the roving support vehicles go through another tube before they decided that the problem was irreparable. She got a ride back to American Fork High School from one of the support vehicles. I think that Rosey was a little frustrated not to be able to finish the ride but she seemed to have had a good time anyway.

The Results Are In

I rode 106.5 miles in about 5 and a half hours. About 45 minutes of that was accounted for by 3 rest stops at miles 25, 53, and 82. That gave me a moving average of 21.5 miles per hour. That's awesome! I usually ride to work at about 22 MPH, but I really didn't think that I could keep that up for a full 100 miles. It really helps to ride in the group and to take turns fighting the air at the front of the group.

I had tentatively planned on riding with some guys from Novell, but I pulled away from them in the first couple of miles (they were having technical difficulties) and ended up riding with a couple of random guys from Salt Lake that were going about the same pace as me. I felt a little funny about just latching on to a couple of riders like that, but for the most part they didn't seem to mind. One of the two guys was a little uptight at first, but he lightened up when he saw that I was capable of "pulling" the group behind me.

The highlight of the ride for me happened just as we passed Novell and actually got onto a street that I ride to work everyday. We were in a huge group of people. From what I could tell, we were the leading riders of the ride. Somehow I managed to work my way up to the front of the group and in a moment of bravado, I pulled out in front hammerred down, got up to about 28 miles per hour and pulled a couple of hundred yards out in front of the leader. Of course I couldn't keep that speed and eventually I had to drop back down into the pack to get back in the draft. But damn it felt good to be out in front if only for a little while. It proved that I'm capable of riding with the big boys.

The course was really poorly marked and there were several times that I took a wrong turn and had to correct. Of course, I don't like to lose ground, so correcting meant catching back up to the group that I was riding with. I nearly killed myself a couple of times trying to catch back up to the group.

The worst of these occasions was as I was just rounding West mountain from the North. There were arrows on the road indicating that we should take the right fork in the road. Unfortunately, the arrows didn't indicate that was the direction to the rest stop which no one in that group actually intended on stopping at. The other half of the group kept riding straight and left us behind. Thankfully, there were a couple of really strong riders in the group that turned off and we were actually able to catch up to the other group over the course of the next 5 to 7 miles. Actually I should make it clear that I had very little to do with the catching up, I just got behind these guys and rode their draft all the way back up to the front group. It was awesome.

I was riding really strong all day long and didn't really feel the affects of fatigue until about mile 100. In fact, I'm not sure that it was really fatigue or just a general lack of motivation and energy due to the fact that I felt like my ass was going to explode :) I knew that I should have used the bathroom at that last rest stop. It was so bad that I thought a couple of times about just pulling over to the side of the road, ripping my bike shorts off, squatting and relieving myself right in the ditch. Fortunately, it didn't come to that. I was able to squeeze out those last couple of miles and made it back to the porta-potty at the high school parking lot where the ride started.

The Night Before Another Century

I will be riding my second century (100 mile bike ride) tomorrow. It's funny how much less nervous I am about this one than I was about the last. I have ridden so much over the last couple of months that this really doesn't feel like a huge challenge anymore. It's just another Saturday on the bike :) I'm no longer concerned with whether or not I'll finish and more concerned with how quickly I can finish.

It will be fun to have the opportunity to ride with some faster bikers tomorrow. When I rode in Minneapolis we started a little late and so we were riding from behind and passing a lot of slower riders. It was a nice ego boost, but I'm sure that it gave me an artificial sense of speed. Tomorrow I will be starting near the front of the pack and I'm sure that I'm going to be humbled by all of the stronger bikers whizzing by me. At least it will give me something to chase after :)

My Next Challenge: The Other Half

I just signed up to run the "The Other Half", half-marathon in Moab, UT on October 22nd. I haven't done much running in my life, but I started jogging with Rosey a couple of weeks ago and I am really starting to like it. A half-marathon, 13.1 miles, is something of a stretch goal for me considering that three weeks ago I could barely run 3/4 of a mile without stopping. My body has adapted quickly though and yesterday I was able to run 4.5 miles without stopping. Tomorrow, I'm going to shoot for a full 6 miles and then I'll add one mile per week until the race in October. If I am successful in meeting this challenge, I may consider training for a full marathon later in the year. Wish me luck! :)

Bombay House, Mount Baldy and Antelope Island

I'm too lazy to write a more substantial post about our weekend, so I'll just post links to some pictures instead.

Friday night we drove up to Salt Lake to meet Rosey's brother Ben and his wife Wendy for dinner at the Bombay House.

Saturday morning we went hiking with Rosey's Dad and stepmom, Karen, to the summit of Mount Baldy. The wildflowers were spectacular!



Saturday evening we camped on Antelope Island and then got up on Sunday and biked around the island.

Preparing for an U.L.C.E.R.

The weekend after next is the Utah Lake Century Epic Ride. It's a 100 mile (i.e. century) ride adjacent to Utah Lake that Rosey and I signed up to ride. Since it had been a while since either Rosey or I had ridden that far consecutively, we decided to do a training ride this weekend to prepare. We rode 80 miles behind Utah Lake from Elberta to Eagle Mountain and then back. Although I'm in pretty good shape from riding my bike to work several days a week, going on that long of a ride is a whole different challenge. A ride that long is as much of a test of your endurance for pain as it is a test of your physical fitness. Fortunately, we both survived the training ride and I think that we are in good shape to tackle the full 100 the weekend after next.

Camping and Hot Pots

Marci, Malina, Rosey and I went camping this weekend at the Diamond Campground in Diamond Fork Canyon. It was a little strange for me to go camping so close to home (about 15 minutes away) but it was a nice campground and we still had a lot of fun. Hey, any excuse to build a campfire is a good one... even if it is only 15 miles from home.

On Saturday morning we packed up camp and then hiked to the Spanish Fork Hot Pots on the Three Forks Trail. Parking was a beeyatch because the canyon road is extremely narrow and they have put signs up prohibiting parking anywhere near the trailhead. So, we parked about a quarter mile away and hiked along the road to the trailhead (which look abandoned despite the fact that there were a number of other hikers on the trail).

After crossing the river on a pile of sticks and logs, I felt compelled to come up with a better option for future traversals of the river. So, I started hunting for large rocks and plunking them down in the water to make stepping stones for a safer, easier crossing. In the end, I'm not sure how much easier it was to cross the river on the stepping stones but I still had fun building. Thankfully, Rosey and Marci were very indulgent of my bridge building compulsion and waited patiently for me to get it out of my system :)


The trail followed a river through the canyon for 3 miles and ended at a small waterfall that fed pools of water that were being warmed by some hot springs. Someone had built little structures around some of the pools turning them into nature-jacuzzi's. I hear that a lot of people come up here to get naked in the hot pots. After seeing the water and the muck at the bottom of the pools, I'm not sure that I would really want to get naked in these pools.

The rest of the pictures are here.

Here is a map of the hike in Google Earth. The GPS was having some trouble getting satellite reception at some spots in the canyon on the way back, so the trail looks a little jumpy.