It was the end of the month, it was time to figure out what money would roll over to the next month, and reconcile all my accounts. Fortunately for me, biking to work does save a bit of money. I had roughly $100, and a really big urge to bike across to another state. There are two big problems with that however, number one. I only have a weekend to do the trip, and that starts Friday after work, I get off at 5. Number two, this will only be my second bike tour, so lots left to learn to figure it out. I also had only about a week to plan this, which for some bikers is plenty, for others not so much. I felt like it was reasonable, but with the feeling I got to figure it out. I opted to not use any campgrounds, as I am trying to learn more about stealth camping, and get some experience with it.
The night before I had to leave I started setting up everything, so that when I was ready to leave for work, I just biked there and everything would be set. The American flag being the newest thing, it was held on by ponytails and masking tape, I am surprised it lasted the whole way. The Flags were only like $2 in the end too.
Once it hit 5, I was off. I rode my bike from work to the UTA Frontrunner station in Murray, and got a one way ticket. For anybody outside of Utah, or just unaware, but live in Utah. The Trains don’t run on Sundays, and that’s the day I plan on heading back. I took the Frontrunner all the way to its last stop in Ogden. The stop right after mine, someone got on with a very cool custom bike, I thought I would share it here. By the time I finally reached Ogden, it was already 7:30pm, and I still had 40 miles to go. I was excited and very nervous, no going back once I start.
As for the details of this first night, not a lot happened, I was just trying to get far, and find a place to sleep. I started in Ogden, and biked through Willard, Perry, Brigham City, Bear River City, a few more, but in the end I found myself at the Riverview Cemetery. As I am writing this, I think I thought this was the Garland cemetery when I got there. Either way I got somewhere safe, and no one spotted me. One highlight on my way there was a semi truck show that was setup, I was too tired to ask anybody about it, but it looked really rad. Also I wasn’t by any convenience stores (unless I made a detour), so I was scared I would run out of water. Fortunately, I found two parks before sunset, and was able to provide myself enough to get where I needed. When I reached the first park, I realized I probably could have filled my two extra water bottles in my panniers at work before I left. I usually think I need two bottles for roughly 20 miles; I would like to have more than that, but I got to play it safe. I would also eat my snack bars when finding these places because they made me thirsty.
On a last note for the first night, the cemetery was across the street from a lds church, a small highway, and a house with a pet horse. Which also happened to be very close to where I slept. The horse was curious what I was doing, and 100% scared me. On my last Bike Tour, I was by a lake and that had tons of bugs, and a couple deer by me. I will take the horse any day over the mosquitous. It was about 11:30 pm before I went to bed, I was very tired, so I just setup sleeping pad and tent and went to sleep.
I got up at 4:00 am the next morning, woke up the horse because it started going back and forth. I can’t remember weather I ate breakfast immediately, or waited for the sun to rise a little. When I say breakfast, I really just mean a tortilla, and maybe a bagel. I need rice and stove top, I will plan on it one day.
The game plan for Saturday is to bike from Riverview Cemetary (its really close to Tremonton town for reference) and bike all the way to Preston Idaho, its the closet urban city I could get to in Idaho, its a little bit passed the Idaho border, and finish off the night in Deweyville. I planned on asking locals if I could set up a tent in their front yard or something. In other words, Bike to Idaho, and bike back to Utah.
My gps started out by taking me to Deweyville, because I was so close to the end destination it thought I wanted to go their first. I got to see the little town I would be visiting that night before I needed to be there. All was well on the ride, passed through some fields, passed through some small towns, can’t remember how I had enough water, but I had just enough. Then I hit the big first test of this ride…. the SHORT DIVIDE. Which to me did not feel short. I basically had to pass through a mountain. The start right before the mountain was a gravel road with a lot of farming, which scared me in the sense that if something happens, nobody knows where I am. Kinda. I was sharing my location with Garmin device to my parents, so they might have been able to send someone out or come out themselves. Still it was pretty scary in that sense, just cows and a dude trying to get to Wendy’s in Preston Idaho. It was a really pretty view, especially considering it was 6 or 7 in the morning. After the gravel road I hit the paved road, and it was steeep. I don’t have all the stats on it right now, but I do I know I couldn’t ride it. I walked it up, and it was about a mile of walking my heavy bike.
Alas I hit the top of the Short Divide and went flying down, I have never gone so fast on my bike in my life. My bike is really heavy for the record, so my speeds are not on par with a lot of other cyclists, which is fine. I didn’t feel like I deserved the downhill to it because I walked it, but it did feel good. At this point, a lot of the biking is how you imagine Idaho, the land of potatoes (idk if I saw potatoes) and lots of fields… Everywhere. I am writing this three weeks after it happened, so I can’t really say I remember exactly how I got water. I know on my way after the Short Divide there was one amazing small town which had a park with cold water, that I could not get enough of. The sprinklers also happened to aim right at me at that water fountain, but still well worth it. There wasn’t a whole lot of elevation gain past that, nor was there a ton of bikers. I saw a couple, but definitely not a lot of them. Suddenly I was there. Standing right beside it, the Idaho state border sign.
I wanted to start heading back, but I knew I was far away from water, and or Wendy’s. I really wanted Wendy’s. Once I finally reached Preston Idaho, I went to Wendy’s and ordered from there lunch menu, the employee looked at me weird, and said if I don’t mind waiting 10 minutes till lunch. I said yeah that’s fine, I am in no hurry. I pay, and realize it was only 10ish, it was breakfast menu time. I asked the employee the time, and he confirmed that. I was just kinda in shock, over 40 miles so far, and it was this early. I got my food and ate it. Then I went to a nearby park, and napped. I tried many benches, pavilions, and trees, it wasn’t all that comfortable. There was also this nice guy who was sitting in the Pavilion. We didn’t say a word to each other for the majority of the time we were there, it was awkward, but peaceful. As he was leaving, he made a comment about me not going on, can’t remember exactly what he said. I just let him know I needed to rest, and I found out he lives in Idaho, but works in Utah. He said he could not afford Utah, and Idaho happened to be cheaper. I could have all these little details mixed up, but that’s how I remember it.
Now it was time to set off for the last half of the days trip. Back to Deweyville, back to where I accidentally started the morning. While I was still in Preston I went to Artic Circle and got an ice cream first of course (: I then set off. Back through the many fields, back through the Short Divide (which I walked again) back to the small town with a small park with a great water fountain! This time there was no sprinkler, but rather the small town people. Heading back was harder because it was so much hotter. Also plenty of vending machines either don’t take card, or don’t carry electrolytes. It makes me mad. Now the weird thing about the trip back, it did not take me to the isolate gravel road. It took me to an actual road, and this road is where my energy really started taking a dip. It was windy, and I thought I only had 11 miles left in the journey. My GPS shows spots I previously was in, and thought I started in Deweyville, but that was a town close by that I forgot about, so it was further than I thought. I kept pulling off to the side of the road where it was safe to take super mini naps, in order to get this last length of energy. At one point I guess I scared some people, they were super nice and even gave me a Powerade. They helped boost my morale and I was able to keep going for longer than a mile at a time at that point, even though I was still very exhausted. Eventually I made it to Deweyville.
In Deweyville, I stayed at the main park place, and just napped for a bit. I had plans to go ask neighbors where a good spot to set up a tent would be, but it was hard to breathe, and I had no energy at that point. I also suspect I can have exercise Induced Asthma, only when its something extreme. I ended the day at 95 miles, and I was just dead inside. Eventually it was eight or nine, and I figured it was too late to start asking people, and I would just setup tent and such somewhere in this area after sunset, however I ended up seeing the town guy and asked him if it was okay. He said, “no”. My heart dropped, he said the nearest place was in Tremonton, which was just too far for me. I tried getting an Uber out, tried biking a tiny bit to see if there was any field I could just disappear into, and I couldn’t find anything that fit my criteria, and I was dead inside. I returned about 10 or 11, and saw he was gone and decided I would be out by 4am, and I will just lay on the cement.
The night got really interesting, at first I wasn’t in any blankets and was trying to be as prepared to leave if I needed to. I knew what the guys truck looked like as well, and could see he was not here. I do not condone or advise anyone to do what I did, this is just what happened. Anyways, I fell asleep, and about 30 minutes later I see a car shine its headlights towards my area. Obviously my heart starts racing, so I just keep low and quite to see whats happening. I see the townsman get out and try fixing a sprinkler. After about 15 minutes he left, I have no clue if he saw me or not, but he didn’t say anything, and I was just in shock. I am very happy he didn’t go say hi to me. He then left, and I knew he wasn’t coming back. I was set for the night, or at least I thought. About another hour later, a parent or grandparent pulls into the parking lot with her two kids. She says she left a flip flop or something out on the trail right by where I was. Her kids got out and start looking, and they start looking right by me. I straight up just say hello to them, the kids did not even respond. I just lyed there while they looked, and could not find it. I thought that was it, and I was done for and needed to start biking again, which I would be willing at this point because I had enough energy to bike a small amount again. Luckily, they just ignored me and left. I then slept the rest of the night, and grabbed my quilt. I wish I took off my watch however, because that got scratched from sleeping on cement.
The final day, Deweyville to Salt Lake City, I was ready to be done by this point. I got on my bike and started crossing through many small towns/cities, as I tried getting into my first urban city. It was going very well, I was just tired at this point. I eventually needed water, and I decided to try asking convenience stores if I could refill, I couldn’t do this in really small towns… because well you don’t find convenience stores in them. They were all really chill about it, and this became my best source of water for the entire day. I took one big break once I found another Wendys in Clearfield, so I got some food there, before continuing on.
As I was getting closer to Salt Lake, the roads became scarier and I had to bike on highways that felt like freeways and such, and overall was extremely scary. On top of that, apparently salt lake hit a new high of 107 or something like that, and I could feel it on top of the headwind, I was just exhausted in a different sense than I was the day prior. Once I got past all the painful roads, I just found some shade and took a nap for an hour or two.
Finally, it was time to push through get onto a bike path and get to home, I just kept cycling, it was painful but I kept going, tried my best to stay hydrated, and made some progress. It was really slow, but I was getting there. Let me remind you, it was very very hot, and lots of headwind. As I was approaching roughly 10 miles from home, my parents called and asked if I wanted a ride, normally I would have been like, I would never take such offer, I wouldn’t be able to claim the title, however my body told me it was the right thing to do. Plus I had work the next day, so I took it and met them in a parking lot and got drove home.
This ride was tons of fun, this is my first blog and I made it in a gipsy, as I am figuring out my website. It will have lots of errors, grammar mistakes, and mistakes in general. Thank you for reading if you spent the time doing so, and I also have a video on this trip right here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VuSv1Z57P_k