Phase I, Day 9. Delta - Salt Lake City

134 miles. The last 34 miles took forever.



Again an early start but I hit a road block right away. Carefully planned to arrive at the only cafe in Delta open at 5am so I could eat a big breakfast and start riding at sunrise. The cook didn't show up to work. The waitress offered to make me some toast but I passed. Resorted to a few gas station sandwiches for breakfast.

Spent about 3 hours heading north toward SLC through rolling grasslands then a sharp pitch up for the 2000' foot climb to Eureka and my last climb of this trip. I liked that. Eureka, UT is an old lead mining town at the very top of the hill. I found a nice deli there which made up for my breakfast.
As I crested the top of the hill I finally saw the beautiful Wasatch Range and Utah Lake. Then much more peddling for a few more hours passing Utah Lake shoreline along it's remote western side.



Suddenly it all changed. Massive suburban sprawl. For 3 hours the roads were thick with traffic and tons of red lights. Worked my way through the industrial part of the city and finally into downtown Salt Lake. I was totally frazzled. I'm fine riding the bike in traffic, do it all the time at home, but after 8 days with no traffic I wasn't prepared.

Did you know the Utah state bird is the Seagull? I saw seagulls once today....while passing the city dump.

But I made it safely. The whole trip was very safe as a matter of fact. Just a chapped lip and an epic farmer's tan to show for it.  812 miles. 52 hours in the saddle. About 33,000 feet of climbing. 3 flat tires.

The bike ran perfectly and all the careful planning worked just right. I never even busted out the tool kit. Apart from this morning's breakfast and my SLC arrival it was just about a perfect trip.

A funny end note to the day. My ride home is by Amtrak and all along I have imagined rolling into a wonderful old railroad station lobby with my hands in the air. The Amtrak "station" in SLC is a very small out building next to the Greyhound depot. And it was closed!

I imagine this great experience will take some time for me to process, I can't believe it's over already, but right way I know one thing has changed. When I look out that plane window down onto the vast Nevada landscape I will forever see it differently.

Oh, one last thing. I caught up to another biker today. Young Tom from the U.K. Tom was peddling slow weighed down with loads of gear and gallon water jugs and all sorts of stuff. Tom is at month 8 of his round-the-world bike ride. He's halfway done. THAT is a bike ride.

Thanks for following me on my journey blog and for the nice comments. I think I'll hang the bike in the garage and give it some well deserved time off but we will be back next year for Phase 2.