Today we rode from the campground in the Palisade State Park to a dispersed campsite 15km east of Strawberry Reservoir. We had blue skies with a few clouds all day. We mostly rode a paved road, and a short difficult single-track.
Riding statistics: on Monday May 27, 2024, the 19th day on the Western Wildlands Route route, it took 12:01h (08:03h moving time), between 06:39 and 18:40, to cover 140 km (87 miles), including 1165 m (3822 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 17 km/h (11 mph). During today's ride the average temperature was 27 °C (84 °F) with a minimum of 8 °C (46 °F) and a maximum of 47 °C (124 °F).
Totals: So far, it took 6 days, 3 hours, 2 minutes and 8 seconds of cycling time to cover 2062 km (1282 miles), including 23882 m (78357 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 14.3 km/h (8.9 mph).
I got up at 6am, packed the bike, and we were on our way by 6.45. We had to ride a lot of paved roads because of the alternate we are taking. We would try to join the original route at the Strawberry Reservoir. The original route passes Skyline Drive. Since the Skyline Drive section is mostly above 3000m it is still covered in deep snow (1.5+m).
We rode the 89 in a northern direction until we got to the 6. In every town we passed we saw all the flags at the cemeteriea because of Memorial day. Anna told me highwayb6 is a very busy road, and one of the most dangerous in Utah. My initial alternative route would take us 20km with a huge climb onto the 6 going east. However, both Google maps and my Garmin proposed another alternative. 5km north on the 6 in the direction of Salt Lake City and then on small roads again. Since there was a huge traffic jam, it meant we could pass all cars, instead of them passing us with high speed. Safety wins, we take the Google / Garmin alternative.
When we left highway 6, we were on a quiet road with beautiful views. We got lower in elevation and soon we’re riding inside a canyon again, with a small river next to us. Soon it got more crowded and there were quite some parked cars.
At a certain moment our navigation took us through a small parking lot and onto a trail. Many people were hiking it, and often it was a technical difficult ride with our packed bikes. The navigation showed a little over 1km for a next turn. I assumes it was a shortcut to another road. After 1.5km there was no road, just a change of direction. At this moment I started checking both the Garmin and Google, and we were send on a 11km long trail, which went up the mountain to a spring and waterfall, hence the popular hike. We realized we could not continue and had to go back. Unfortunately that trail was a kind of shortcut and now we had to ride 30km extra to get to the Strawberry Reservoir. It was already 6pm, we were not going to make that. I was not happy because I was going to meet with Anna and John at the Strawberry Reservoir. Having no cellphone reception in the canyon did not help either.
Not much later our paved road ended and we had to continue on gravel to our right. Not sure what to do we parked the bikes at a sign and decided to eat something to push on. Within two minutes I saw the pickup truck from John and Anna come around the corner from our left. The had checked our tracker when they still had cell phone reception and guessed where we should be. Spot on. I was so happy to see them both. They have been mountain biking 30 miles north today. We have been chatting for half and our, and as a good trail angel, Anna brought cold ice coffee and sprite for Fons and myself. When John and Anna left, there was no need to make it to Strawberry Reservoir anymore. We find a nice dispersed campsite close by. Tomorrow I will plot a route that brings us back on the original Western Wildlands Route.
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