Day 74…. Time for the big push into Heber, UT today. I was dreading this ride today. Between 3990 feet of climbing and the 70 miles of distance it was to be a long, hot day. After [pedaling the first 4 hours I realized that I had covered the first 3000 feet of climbing in the first 35 miles. Then the next 990 feet was covered in the following 20 miles. This was a long, long 5 hours of constant climbing. Coming from Wisconsin I have never experienced anything to this extent. Hours upon hours of climbing brings out a different mentality.
Happy the day was going smooth, happy I was heading down instead of up, some rogue object in the road decided to slash my back tire and rapidly deflate it. Since switching to tubeless tires the wheels contain liquid slime to fill punctures. Well when you get a large gash the liquid goes flying everywhere and sprays all over while deflating.
Standing int he direct sun on the side of the road I tried to plug the tire and refill it. At first the plug held and did not deflate. Well this only lasted a few minutes before the tire went completely flat again. Removing the back tire again it was time for a tube. This whole process takes a good half hour or so. I had always wondered how much of a mess it is to put a tube in a tubeless setup. Well my thoughts were correct… It was a huge mess. Liquid latex all over my hands, sweat dripping from the brow the tire was repaired.
Off on the Journey again. With some more climbing to do I was running out of water and still had a long way to go. As I reached the summit there was a truck driver pulled over. Stopping and asking for water yielded a friendly driver and a nice cold bottle of water to help finish the day out. This was refreshing and helpful. I didn’t think there was enough water left in my pack for the rest of the day. Makes me even more happy I split the ride up over two days.
As I started to descend the headwind decided it was a good day to continue to pedal constantly. Normally when you get a nice downhill you can coast and relax. Not today. Constant effort just to sustain 18-20 mph. The pass going down had construction on it. Which meant instead of 3 lanes we had two lanes and almost no shoulder. Also the speed limit is 60 mph still. Not much bothers me while riding but there is an occasional close call that scares me half to death. This pass was one of the worst passes I have been on. Being Sunday everyone and their brother had a pull behind camper and often a boat behind the camper heading home. A lot of these campers are WIDE and well past the mirrors of a truck. Well people though they were leaving room only to have a trailer pass me close enough I probably could have licked the side. Just stupidity and nerve-racking for me.
Which makes me wonder something. When I was repairing the tire earlier I had moved off the road, into the ditch to work. Now this was a two lane hwy again. People went out of their way to move over into the opposing lane to give me tons of room. Now I am 15+ feet off the road. At this point there is now reason what so ever to need to move over. Get back on the bike where I am a foot or less off the road, if not on the white line often… Most seem to now understand moving over a bit is the correct thing to do. People make ZERO sense.
After 20 miles of downhill and treacherous cars interaction I was happy to reach Heber, UT. The temp was really hot and dry.
