Day 8, Thursday, June 9
Heber City to Roosevelt
The century kid
As we awaken in Heber City, our main concern is rain. Luck is with us
as it is cloudy but no rain. But it is cold. Real cold. It is in the 40's
and that isn't fun.
I walk a block from our motel to an Internet café to check email and post the web site. It is a charming little dump run by a constantly-talking former flower child in her late 40's. I ask he what the deal is and sit down to fire up my computer and wireless. A mom and teenage daughter walk in and order a couple of bagels and a coffee for mom. The girl is wearing spurs on her boots, which strikes me as a bit weird, sitting there trying to get my computer online. It turns out the big high school rodeo is in town and cowboys and cowgirls are everywhere. I finally get online, do my business and pay the $4.60 for the Internet time.
We are now running a bit late, thanks to my Internet break. We ride out of town on U.S. Highway 40 about 8:30 a.m. and are hit by the cold. It is now 51 degrees and we are riding uphill. Between the road and the mountain is enough room for a house and a big yard. Most the houses have one or two horses grazing in the yard and a small barn. We are still climbing.
The scenery has changed drastically from Nevada. It is rockier, green and lots of trees. And we are still climbing. I pull a little away from the other two and 90 minutes after we started I stop for a break and wait for them to catch up. It is still cold as we keep climbing. Finally after two hours and 15 minutes I reach the top, where there is a beautiful log lodge and store. The others pull in shortly and we realize we have ridden 17 miles uphill and have climbed 2,350 feet. We are feeling good even though we haven't gone very far.
As we head out again, it is downhill and cold. We were sweating pretty good coming up the hill and now I see that it is 49 degrees as we head back down. We add some clothes and keep pedaling.
The terrain has thrown off
my judgement of when I am going downhill or it is flat. There are several
times when I think we are riding on the flats and I look down and am going over
25 MPH, which means it is downhill.
After one long downhill run where
we were going 30 MPH, we came to a reservoir. In the back of my mind,
I had been thinking all day that we weren't going to make our 98
mile goal because of our two hour climb that started the day. Suddenly
we were only 30 miles away, cruising, feeling strong, the temperature
has risen into the low 70s and we had plenty of time to make 100 miles.
So Nicole set a strong pace of 17-20 MPH on a flat to slight downhill run and we pushed for Roosevelt, Utah. About 10 miles from town the energy started to fade and the hills appeared. Dan and I were determined to make sure today was the day Nicole did her first ever "century” – 100 mile ride. Nicole liked the sound of the idea and we took one final break before attacking the hills.
As we pulled into Roosevelt,
Nicole's odometer showed 99.1 miles. So we rode around the streets
of town until she hit 100. Her first century and on a tough ride.
Dan and Nicole start the climb out of Heber City, Utah.
Dan catches his breath as Nicole climbs the mountain.
Dan is dwarfed by the mountain pass.
We get ready for the final ride into Roosevelt, Utah.