Day 18 July 17 Burley to Snowville 86.57 miles Sea to Sea 08

Day 18 July 17 Burley to Snowville Utah 86.57 miles Sea to Sea 08

Total time in saddle 7 .08 hours average speed 12.1 Total ascent 3281. Current elevation is 4560 Ft. We entered Utah today and are on Mountain time. Three states down 13 more to go.

We woke up early this morning at 5 am as Hank and I had breakfast duty at 6 AM and we wanted to have everything packed and ready to go before we had to report of duty. We put out the cereals, milk, peanut butter, jam, nutella, bread, milk, orange juice, cranberry juice various types of energy bars, tuna fish salad for lunches, bananas, grapes, oranges, and hot oatmeal. Also had coffee and tea. As you can see we have a good selection for breakfast and lunch.

Hank got onto the road by 645 and started riding with Mary and Bill Drache. I got out onto the road by 7 and started riding with Joan, Tony Schweitzer and Corrine Smenk
It was slow going. I could not get over 12 miles per hour in the first 5 miles. A double peleton was passing me at about 15 miles per hour and I decided to hitch a ride for about 6 miles, which was a sweet and easy time for me. That was the end of my easy ride for the day.

At about mile 12 we started into our climbing for the day. This was not too hard nor was the second climb, which was 10 miles long.

First of the days climb. Keep pedaling Tony

As we were finishing out climb we were really wishing to see Walter our third SAG stop for the day. We saw him just before the top of our climb and just before the state border for Utah. Walter's SAG was a sight for sore eyes. It is so nice to sit in the shade and in comfortable chairs for a few minutes. It refreshes us considerably so we are ready to do the final push into camp.

Entering Utah

At mile 60 we finished our climbing and we looking forward to the 25 mile down hill. To our dismay we had a head wind going down hill and had to work. It was also getting hot. As we were starting our descent we could see the road we had to travel for the next 25 miles. The road was as straight as an arrow and we could see a great distance. As we got closed to Snowville we had one sharp turn and hill to climb before we biked the final 3 miles. These three miles seemed to last forever, as our bottoms were sore and our legs very tired. Today was one of the long hard days. View of the final 25 miles. The road seems to go on forever.

The terrain in the beginning was flat, with lots of irrigated fields and dairy’s. Once we started climbing the terrain was much drier and we saw lots of sagebrush again with little life. Once over the hills we again descended into a huge valley that had lots of irrigation and fields of hay and alfalfa. Again we realized how important the supply of water is to making the land come to life.

Showers here at our camp are very unique. None of us have ever had showers as we have tonight. The camp crew assembled a large tarp with a hose that women and men could take turns showering under. It was cold, but we were all this thankful we had a shower after a long hot day of biking.

The outside and inside of our fancy showers.

Len is reminding us at our peleton, that many of the people we are cycling for have much harder days than we are having. Even though we are finding some days hard we are still blessed and what we are able to do through this bike tour is amazing.

I arrived in camp with Joan around 330 and Hank arrived just after 5. Both of us were very weary and glad we were finally in camp.

Today one of our cyclists experienced an injury that will probably prevent him from cycling again on the tour. Arnie Issell from Michigan tore his Achilles tendon and his foot is in a brace. We have had minor injuries and accidents but nothing as serious as this. It is very disappointing for Arnie as he was so looking forward to doing this. Please pray that healing will go well and Arnie may be able to ride again.

Today we also had some minor incidents with two support vehicles. Two trucks had the trailer hitches come lose and the hitches dragged on the road. One was the truck hauling the groceries and the other was the truck hauling the porta potty. The safety chain held on the first one but it did not hold the porta potty so the trailer carrying the porta potty started down the highway on its own. Fortunately, no cars were coming and all is well tonight. We could laugh about it at our peleton meeting as we thought how funny it looked to see it travel on its own.

Hank has gone to bed early tonight as he is tired and I will be going shortly. I hope to upload to the blog tomorrow as our Internet seems very sporadic tonight and uploading information takes a long time.