| The 13th thru the 14th of September was the third annual bicycle trip along Skyline Drive in the mountains of Central Utah. I enjoy seeing the rock formations in southern Utah, and think I enjoyed the 16 hour drive up there almost as much as the bicycle trip itself. |
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The scenery is beautiful--perhaps even awe-inspiring. Each time I see it again I wish I had studied at least some geology. Perhaps at some point in the future I will rectify that omission in my education. |
| In Price/Helper, Utah is a balancing rock. I have been waiting for it to fall since I first saw it in the mid 60's. On this trip I verified that it is still in place. Stay tuned for late breaking news... |
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Just north of Monticello, Utah I noted a golden eagle sitting on a fence post only a few yards from the highway. There were numerous heavy trucks passing that point at full speed (with their accompanying noise and wind) but the bird just ignored them. I thought this a bit strange, and that I turned around and drove by it a couple of times, each pass at a slower speed than the previous one. My camera has a short lag time between pushing the button and firing the shutter, making it surprisingly difficult to get a reasonable photo of an object on the road side while traveling even as slowly as 45 mph. The slower I went, the more agitated the bird became, and on my 5th pass the eagle finally launched itself. |
| This trip I took the $20, full suspension, bike that Dave procured for me at a yard sale. Given that the wheels move in relation to the frame, there aren't a lot of options for mounting a cargo rack on a full suspension bike. I elongated the seat post, and then customized the rack to fit it. |
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The rack looked pretty good until I put the 30 lbs. I was carrying on it (which I didn't do until we were on the mountain). I then discovered that the side-ways vibrational movement was unacceptably large. I transferred 8 lbs. of water to the front handle bars and that ameliorated the problem (by creating another one--the water bottles occasionally rubbed the front tire). |
| I made a mistake on the dates, and we went a bit later this year. The temperature was a bit lower, but that didn't create many problems. The road had been wet and in places was still muddy. It was quickly evident that my bike doesn't handle mud well. Most of the road surface was rutted and/or ruff, but I was pleased with the way the suspension smoothed the bumps. Carrying that much weight is problematic, but I am unwilling to do without food, or water, or sleeping gear, so I don't see an easy solution. (Can you see the potential problems falling out of the sky in the background?) |
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My camera battery died just as I was attempting to document Dave's Twinkies and milk, and the images I have are from the first of the trip. We were rained on only briefly one time, and that was in the morning of the first day, but when we camped the dew was incredible. The tent, the sleeping bags, and the bikes were all drenched. Further, since it had to be packed for riding, out gear didn't have much of a chance to dry. We reached the half-way point (a paved highway bisecting the mountain range), looked at rain in the distance (in almost all directions), and decided to bail. We rode down Highway 31 (through a light rain) to Fairview. |
| That portion of the ride was exhilarating and, by itself, well worth the price of admission. I reached speeds in the high 30'and even forgot about the over-loaded rear rack (which, fortunately, continued to function flawlessly). |
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I knew before I left that my tires were nearing the end of their useful life. I checked them at Dave's and found a small patch of cord showing. We toyed with buying replacements in Orem, but time was a problem, and I came home on my slicks (worrying [at least occasionally] all the way). This photo documents the amount of cord showing at the end of the trip (roughly double the amount visible in Utah). The price of peaches has risen substantially, but I did manage to bring home a few. I wasn't vigilant, and ended up paying full price for what, when I examined them closely, were obviously culls. That left me a bit chagrined, but the peaches still tasted good. |