Day 7, Wednesday, June 8
Baker to Delta, Utah
The great salt lick
We ride out into more cold and more Route 50 desert. As we go farther
into Utah the scenery starts to change to more rocky formations and bigger
plants and trees. Our first climb is long and steady and we pedal right
up. Coming down was a major surprise. It was through a winding, narrow
canyon with walls soaring above us. Nicole is in front of me, yelling
all the way down. It was spectacular sight, cruising down the mountain
right against the cliffs.
After coming out of the canyon the scenery is back to the same desert landscape. We see something on the road ahead and it looks like a person. As we get closer, we see a man walking along the road. We are 40 miles from the nearest town and here is this guy. We see he has a big backpack so we stop to talk. He is hiking from New York City to San Francisco. It has taken him five months to get this far. He says he will take rides, but won't ask. It is a fun encounter.
I notice Nicole is starting to slow and we had gone only about 40 miles. As we climb the next major hill, she is struggling. She wasn't feeling good at all and had to stop when she normally would climb right up the hill. We get up the hill and down the other side and the van is there waiting. Nicole decides she should hop in for a while and will rejoin us when her stomach settles.
Dan and I ride on and see a large lake in the distance. It is hard to tell what the lake is. It looks white and gray, like it is frozen. Part of it looks kinda blue, but not really. As we get closer, it looks like it could be sand. We finally get close enough to see that is a dry salt lake. The lake is huge, it hard to tell how big, but it is at least 10 miles across and many times that long. The van is waiting on a little dirt road that leads to the lake. We decide to drive the mile or two to the lake and get a closer look.
We walk out onto the damp salt lake. There is no water but the lake bed is moist as we walk out on it. Dan bends down and touches the lake bed. He takes a taste and declares it to be pure salt! Nicole finds a rock and writes our bike tour in the salt.
We have ridden only a little over 50 miles through a cold, cloudy day and we have a scheduled northern 80 mile drive to stay on our itinerary, so we decide to pack everything up and start driving to just south of Salt Lake City. As we near Provo, we see snow falling on the mountain and the rain coming down. We find a motel in Heber City, right on Route 40 where we head out tomorrow. It is 48 degrees and raining. Hopefully, the weather will clear.
Dan and Nicole check out Servier Lake, a dry salt lake..
Nicole leaves our mark in the dry lake bed.