After a rest day in Baker, it was time to finally cross the Utah border, the state where we began this adventure seven months ago.

When you cross the Utah border from Nevada on Highway 50, the first sign you see is a sign that reads “Next Services 83 miles”. The next lodging available to us is more like 100 miles. I was not looking forward to such a long ride, even after a rest day, because in the last few days I’ve developed an annoying cough. It doesn’t bother me too much except when I breathe deeply or laugh. The former happens to be something I’m doing quite a bit of these days.

This cough is something Pat came down with as we were passing through Montana back in early September. She’s over it now, but it took close to a month for it to go away.

Anyway, I was very happy to have some help on this 100 mile ride today. My friend Paul, a very strong cyclist, and his wife Christine came down yesterday afternoon so Paul could ride with me today.

We got started at about 8:30 AM and it was a great day for cycling. It was cool, probably in the 40’s when we started, sunny, and almost no wind. We stopped at the border to take a few photos to mark the occasion of us crossing the border, and then we headed off onto Utah’s version of Highway 50. It actually looked pretty much like Nevada’s version, but the shoulders were noticably narrower.

Pat and Christine had stopped in the Confusion Range of mountains (about 43 miles into the ride) so Paul and I could refill our water bottles. When we stopped there, I commented that I thought the mountains were particularly beautiful. Christine thought maybe I’ve just been away from home too long. I’m sure she’s right about that, but I was thankful for the opportunity to be away from home so I could appreciate the mountains again.

Paul and I had some headwinds through the mountains, but when we started a long gradual descent towards Sevier Lake, we made a small turn towards the north and the winds were more at our backs. For about 20 miles, we enjoyed the tailwind and being able to carry on a conversation while cruising along at about 23 miles an hour.

I had just commented to Paul that I thought the wind had shifted from being at our right shoulders to being at our left shoulders when suddenly the wind stopped completely for a second and then we got a huge blast of cold air right in our faces. A few seconds after that, we were working hard to maintain 14 miles an hour. This was the shift in the winds that the weather forecast had predicted for today. So, we knew it was coming and the dark rainclouds in front of us told us the shift would be coming soon. For the remaining 36 miles of the ride, we fought against the headwind. Have I mentioned that Paul is a pretty strong cyclist? For 65 miles or so, Paul and I shared the extra work involved in the lead position, but as the miles added up, it became harder for me to share the load. When the headwinds really kicked in the last 35 miles, all I could do was take brief pulls at the front so that Paul would have a chance to rest and take a drink of water. Thanks for your help, Paul!

Total distance:	97.48 miles
Time:	7:04:59
Average speed:	13.8 mph
Maximum speed:	35.1 mph
Total calories:	6223
Average heart rate:	125 bpm
Maximum heart rate:	177 bpm
Total ascent:	2583 feet
Total descent:	3277 feet
Ride profile:	(click on image to view a larger version)
Ride comments: A nice day for riding. My friend Paul came out today to help me through this very long ride. We had about 20 miles at the beginning with little wind, then we had about 25 miles of headwinds, then 20 miles of tailwind. We finished up with 36 miles of strong headwinds. As we began struggling against the final stretch of headwind, we watched a large storm cloud pass in front of us from west to east. We never got wet though!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 17th, 2006 at 8:10 am and is filed under The Dream Tour, Bicycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.