For a day building up to an anticipated massive climb going to Salt Lake City tomorrow, this day from Starvation to Heber City was no slouch of a ride itself. We had just about every element of a classic Illini 4000 long ride. We started the day with some offroad and gravel riding, followed it up with some rolling hills, then a pretty large climb, a false flat with headwinds just to rub in the pain for our legs, and a descent to the finish in town where we can see the mountains we will be trying to conquer tomorrow. Also, along the way, there was a picture challenge which you may have seen on Instagram before this journal, but we can also have some looking and deciding for yourself which should be the champion of the three competing teams.
Ride Overview
Mileage: 71.2 miles
Elevation: +3,628 ft. / -3,743 ft.
Points of Interest: Fruitland, Strawberry Reservoir, Daniels Pass, Mount Timpanogos
Tales of the Trail
The morning in Starvation at the campground was a successful one with all of us having the camping routine more practiced since we had had experience to draw on. Bagels for breakfast are always a happy sight too because it gives us the change from oatmeal that so many of us desire. With sand in all of our belongings and our shoes, the riders for the day set off on the further sandy path towards the campground exit. Then, it was a happy descent on the newly paved road as the sun was rising right ahead of us to the East. Obviously, we couldn’t go too far that way or we’d be heading back home, so somewhere around a mile in, we turned South to go back towards the highway. The entrance to the road was less obvious than usual, so as the first team rolled past and then had to turn around, the second team caught up to make for a social start onto the gravel road that took us back on route. Some undulations and ruts weren’t enough to hold us back and soon enough, we were on Highway 40 that we had come in on yesterday.
The start of some action began with Maaike picking up a nasty flat tire just as we were crossing the bridge over Starvation Reservoir. A cotter pin must have been angled just right and punctured the rubber tire and its internal mesh casing. This was a shock because Gator Skins, the type of tire on Maaike’s bike, are usually extremely resistant to this kind of event. Just our luck, right? Well, with help from the van and a new tire on the wheel we were back to rolling again. It also gave time for this team to take their interesting photo:
Further up the road now that the flat had occurred, the other team was taking a photo of their own:
This happened a little later, but I will show what the crew in the van came up with right now too. There is still controversy here because a video was not explicitly mentioned as being a legal entry to the competition. Anyways:
These were all being posted to the Instagram account around the time we were reaching the second rest stop. The riders had conquered the big climb of the day and it was not an easy one as it covered over 1,000 ft. of elevation gain. Just before the climb, we all also hit a large area of road construction that had cars on the highway waiting for their turns to go through on the one lane diversion. We navigated that with hopefully only a few nasty looks from drivers. Then, it was Nishk’s turn for the next flat tire on the day. He had a nail or pin of some kind go through and needed a change in tube, luckily not a full change of tire like Maaike earlier. There was one redeeming quality of having the construction behind us as we went up the climb: the cars all came in waves, so there were moments of many passing and moments of complete calm on the road. The highway wound up through the hills and mountains with rock features and trees on either side to keep encouraging us to push onwards and upwards even when we were tired.
Peanut butter sandwiches replenished us at the van before what we had expected to be an easy next stretch, but what turned into something much more difficult. The wind was picking up and coming right into our faces. That, combined with the fact that we were still gaining elevation, just more slowly now, made this a really tough almost 17 miles. Once we made it though, we were greeted with something special: a lodge that served the best tasting cream soda any of us had ever had. They were served in chilled steins and had free refills. From the first sip, the sugar was amazing and nothing really would have hit the spot better at that moment. Our waitress was also a special person as she was willing to share her experience dealing with a mother who was being diagnosed and treated for cancer. This was a touching story because we will soon be biking near their home in Idaho and her mother is not sure how much longer she has to live. We will ride for her then.
The descent into Heber City was quick all the way. Max had his turn on the flat tire carousel. Headwinds slowed the pace a little from what it may have been, but this was probably for the better to keep our speeds in the low 20s of miles per hour versus the high 20s or even low 30s. Once we were getting close and out of the kind of canyon that was Daniels Pass, we could see the mountains we will be crossing tomorrow to make it to Salt Lake City. The views from Heber City were incredible!
Once we had showered and settled at the stayover, dinner was donated to us which was a meal of home cooked tacos and cookies that were amazing and left us wanting to eat more and more. We decided to go to a soda shop for dessert, a Utah classic apparently, and enjoyed the range of options that we had to try new flavors and add more sugar to already sugary beverages. (We need it for tomorrow, don’t worry.) We walked there and back as a team and we felt like we were in the right place at the right time. Here’s to making it over the mountains tomorrow!
