:: shift7 ::

:: north/south adventure ::

utah: day 13, wed 10 sep
nephi - richfield

stats:
75.7 @ 17.4 = 4:20:48, max 37.0, trip total: 984

eats:
doughnut, strawberry harvest powerbar, half roll of sprees, half size can of pringles, red bull, powdered doughnut, potato chips, bacon and turkey melt, fries, apple pie a la mode

sleep:
KOA campground, $9

thoughts:
the iPod batteries died before i even got on the road. you haven't danced yet. and it was going to be a long morning. it was cold. it rained a few times last night. it was wet. and it was a late start- about 10:30am. the clouds were mixed, gray stormy massive pounders and white puffy happy clouds- but no sunshine.

thomas was off to spanish fork to get a delivery (his biking shoes from home). there were plenty of jokes- i was hoping he received them, because it can suck not having the right equipment. its always something. when you tear through the clothes, bike, tools and everything else on a daily basis, its amazing most of it can withstand the abuse.

so we were off, and it was cold. no sound. a slight breeze, you guessed it- head wind. but at least it wasn't raining. not right above us anyway, you could see the showers in the distance like sheets hiding the view. there were a couple systems and the valley was so immense you could see them move. how fast and which way wasn't exactly clear. why? you would think that would be easy to tell. well, mainly because we were moving also. it was either going in the same direction, or slightly at an angle cutting across our path. our path, being the road i was on and guessing that it went more or less straight- not always the best assumption. but as the day wore on i was trying to thread the needle between two systems. trying to make it to a town (42 miles away) before i got hit by the one on the left and not too early to ride into the one in front - moving to the left. seems like a complex thing to explain- really i was just trying to stay dry.
weather systems and open spaces clip

no pacing, no drafting. today was all about self trial. sure i might have talked to myself for a while, maybe i sung out loud- real loud to test the vocal strength. shake it up a bit. it was hard to keep the cadence even and keep the focus on the bike. there was nobody listening so it was easy to talk.

like a couple other times this trip (maybe a few more)- the scenery was incredible. it was stark and in your face. you felt like you were being swallowed up. everything you saw disappeared into the horizon and many times there was nothing that showed you there was another house, town, or whatever down the road. it could have been the road to nowhere.

it was about 2.5 miles to the town when it started to rain- i guess it didn't help to gauge the rain after all. it won. the one on the right swept in with great speed- it was situated on the mountains to the right and when it freed itself it just tore across the valley. with it came some cold ass air. shift gears- it was time to high tail it to town. does rain bounce? no, but hail does. it wasn't large but it wasn't hot either. coming into town i saw the correctional facility (a good place, being 30 miles from anything). then i was on the search for a store to park myself inside for a while. this was gunnison. they had tons of jerky.

so even though i wasn't hungry (cold doesn't grow my appetite) i went into top-stop and had a red bull with pringles.
pringles = 31% of daily fat
red bull and pringles = each have 9% daily carbs
it couldn't hurt, they had a nice little table there, and i chowed down. and as quickly as it came the rain left. and it soon started to look sunny. thomas came by with the van, and my charged up iPod-- the afternoon was smooth. it warmed up and the tunes were blaring. the wind, if any, was usually on my back- the weather had passed.

"Looking for service. ****" it kept looking but nothing. no phone.

and it was an easy day after all- physically anyway. we were in camp by 4pm, cleaned up by 5pm. it was nice to have the time, i know it had a lot to do with the fact that we didn't have many places to stop. oh, and we ran into construction again (gregg and scott- enjoy this): not only was it road construction dirt- but it was wet mud (photo attached). then we had a section of 6 miles of "fresh oil" on the road "drive slowly" -- its the icky stuff they put down before the gravel top. fun. real fun.