Day 20 July 19 Willard to Salt Lake City Seatosea08

Day 20 July 19 Willard to Salt Lake City Sea To Sea 08

Total mileage 101.38
Ascent 5599
time in saddle 8 . 43 hours.


What a day it was on Saturday. It was a hard long brutal day for me. It started out very early with Hank and I getting up at 450 AM and getting ourselves dressed and packed up. We were ready to go by 610.

As Hank’s riding partners Mary and Bill Drache were not riding today as they were visiting family in Salt Lake, Hank asked Leanne Geisterfer if he could ride with her. His day started with Leanne having a flat tire right at the out set. She had another two flats before they got to the 1st CRC church in Salt Lake City. The last flat they keep pumping up 4 times as it was a slow leak in order to get to the church. At the church both Hank and Leanne called it a day and decided they were not going to climb the hills. This was a good call as the hills were very challenging and the day was very long.

In the meantime, I rode with Joan and Tony again. Joan’s goal for the day was to get into camp by 6PM. I thought we would get there well ahead of that. Surprise. This did not happen.

The first part of the ride was great. We rode mostly on level land through a number of towns including Bountiful. These towns seemed to be very prosperous and often had large Mormon churches. We did not stop in any of them as we had a long day ahead of us.

1st CRC church in Salt Lake City were providing us two refreshment stops, one at the church and the other on top of the summit in Emigration Canyon. We got to the church around 11 and had finished 60 miles by then. So we seemed to be making good time. A number of people stopped by to see the Mormon temple but I decided not to as I had seen it before and wanted to keep going to get the ride over.

After we left the church we started an immediate 12% graded climb. I had trouble and went every which way but could not get up the hill. Joan veered off onto a sidewalk to avoid me and feel off her bike. Both of us decided it was too steep and walked up to the lights at the top. We could than get back on our bikes and proceeded to enjoy the rest of the climb to the top of the summit in Emigration Canyon. It was a beautiful ride with a creek running along the road and lots of trees to find shade under. I took a picture of one of our many stops on the climb. I also had a chance to dip my feet into the creek to them cool off. It felt great. I took a number of pictures of the canyon ride to give you some idea of the beauty. We had a neat treat, as there was a couple handing out freezes to us. They had heard about us and decided that we could use a refreshing treat part way up our climb. Thanks to Jay and Leslie. As we were climbing, we reminded ourselves that we could be thankful for the beautiful scenery, the good roads and the shade provided. This made the climb up much less stressful and more enjoyable.

Scenery along the Emigration Canyon Road with one of our frequent shade stops.

Once we got to the top, the crew from 1st CRC greeted us. They were a welcomed sight. They had really cold drinks and power bars that provided a great change from the warm water we were drinking from our water bottles. The drinks were refreshing and renewed our energies for the next challenge. The view from the top was beautiful. From the summit we look down onto a large lake surrounded by canyons. We could see Interstate 80, which we had to take for our next challenge.

View at the top of Emigration Canyon and volunteers serving us refreshing cold drinks at the top

We sped down the hill quickly and hit our next challenge with full force. The entrance to the interstate was a 10% grade for at least half a mile. The rest of the climb was about 6% for the remaining 4 miles. Joan and I had to stop every half-mile to take a rest. We reached the summit of by 4 PM. Now we had another 20 miles to get to camp.

Clare Koostra riding up Parley Mountain, and view of down hill from Parley Mountain.

After stopping at a variety store at the summit, Joan, Marti, Anne and I headed out for the final push. It was going very well until I discovered I could not shift my gears. My bike was stuck in the highest gear in the back. I could shift the front gears but not the back. I was still 9 miles from camp. I realized I could not finish the ride today. I called Betsy Fox our lead SAG person who came to pick up my bike and I got picked up by Alida our camp nurse. I got into camp around 615 exhausted and very tired.

Hank had gotten into camp earlier as he had taken the SAG from the church in Salt Lake City and had set up the tent. We were both very tired.

When we did get into camp, we found out, our tent site was a half-mile walk and the showers were half-mile walk in another direction. We were initially deflated as we were exhausted a dreaded the thought of all the walking. After a refreshing shower and a good nights sleep we are feeling much better.

I did talk to Ed about the campsite, and he told me how hard it was to get the right places to camp. Apparently it is policy in Utah that schools do not allow anyone to camp on their premises. This limited his choices. Jordanelle is the first really big campground outside of Salt Lake that we could use. So here we are. I have attached some pictures of the campground to give you an idea of where we are camping. Jordanelle is a very beautiful campground for regular campers with lots of showers and restrooms and laundry facilities close by. Group camping is another matter.
view if the gear truck and pavilion from our camp site.

The temperature is cooler here and I am wearing my fleece for the first time.

I hope to ride the last 9 miles today after my bike gets fixed. I have discovered that the cable to my rear derailleur has broken off at the front shifter and I will need a new cable. George VanderKur has said he can fix it. If he can not I will need to take the bike into town to get it fixed as I can not ride it as it is.

So here we are at the end of the third week, very glad that Saturday is behind us. I think Saturday will be the toughest day of the tour as we had over 100 miles and almost 30 miles of climbing at the end of the day. If we can do this ride than I think we can do any other day on the tour.

Thank to the Lord that today is Sunday and we have some rest.