Park City, UT

It has been awhile since I've written about riding over the Rockies. We had a brief respite from mountain climbing with a few flattish days between Steamboat-Maybell-Vernal and Duchesne. Utah has been amazing with very friendly hosts at the Kingsbury UCC, and a beautiful campsite in Duchesne at Starvation State Park. We camped at Starvation State Park with a wonderful view from the group pavilion over the reservoir there. Yesterday we rode into Park City for a much needed day off. We're staying at the Park City Community Church which is an amazing church with a lot of space for us to spread out and socialize, perfect for our day off.

Although it may seem things have been ordinary since Steamboat it has actually been far from that. And to illustrate my point I have a few of the more unusual in photos:



On a day that had already been plagued with flats (Steamboat to Maybell) at lunch just before I was to leave the van itself had a flat. After a brief attempt by Dave Miller to fix it, Rebecca came to the rescue with AAA Gold and a nice older fella with a tow truck soon arrived to fix us up.
The following morning it was my turn to sweep with Mariah, and an early morning wakeup in Maybell put us on the road in a fog bank, but at the top of the first hill it seemed all worthwhile when I got to look back and see and amazing sun rise. From Maybell to Vernal was a mostly uneventful day, besides passing by Dinosaur National Monument. I opted not to ride the extra 15 miles to see the park as it was already a long day at 90 miles, but I hear from those who did go that the visitors center hosted some impressive fossils and that there was a dinosaur model you could have your picture taken on, which would have almost made the 15 miles worth it.

Riding sweep also started off a several day stretch for me riding with a different group of people than my normal three amigos (Dave, Dave and myself). I have to say one of the better efforts of coordination was watching Mariah and Carrie do a little more than draft off of Carys (see above photo). That is actually Carys physically pulling the two of them up a hill somewhere in Western Colorado.

Of course there is never a dull moment on bike and build, and the day between Vernal and Duchesne was no exception. About a mile and a half after lunch I came upon a group stopped by the side of the road trying to free a goat stuck in the fence. Apparently they had already freed one, but the horns on this goat and the impossibly small opening prevented the goat from moving backwards out of the fence. To make a long story short I rode back to the van, took out the cable clippers from the toolbox and then rode back to the stuck goat to cut him out.
Yesterday from Starvation State Park to Park City was arguably one of our hardest days on the bike of the whole trip. At 95 miles, with the first part of the morning into a very stiff head wind, then a long mountain pass (see above summit photo) and then two more small mountains at the very end of the day into Park City it was a long day. I personally arrived around 6 or 6:30, I don't really recall the exact time in the haziness that is the memory after a long ride, but the last riders rolled in sometime after 7.


One of the major perks of riding mountain passes is mountain streams, which yesterday many of us took advantage of midway through the ride to cool down and ease some of the pain in our legs.

Today is our first official rest day since Taylorville. I already got my hair cut and my next stop is the outlet stores here in Park City, then hopefully a relaxing afternoon somewhere outside in view of the mountains that surround us.

Nathan