Mile 895.9 - Seriously, Utah? Seriously?

When I had fallen asleep, it had been raining steadily, so at dawn when I awoke, I naturally assumed that's what the patter on the tent was. I ate a quick, cold breakfast and started packing up the place. I opened the tent door and found not rain, but a steady sleet falling from the sky. I hurried my preparations and the sleet turned into a heavy slush, falling not as individual, unique and precious snowflakes, but as large wet clusters, covering everything much more efficiently. I tried brushing off the snow as I rolled up the tent, but it was coming down too fast for me to get all of it. By the time the tent was in its bag and everything ready to load onto the bike, she had accumulated nearly half an inch of snow. When I picked her up, there was a neat green outline of a bike in the white grass, but by the time the camera was out and ready, it had been covered in. Snow was piling up on the panniers and my helmet as I loaded everything on and rode back down to the gas station I had stopped at last night.

I grabbed breakfast and sat at one of the tables already kinda cold and wet. But I didn't want to sit at a plastic table in a gas station all morning, so I went back out. In the parking lot, a man told me that down the mountain only a little way the snow was rain, if that helped me at all. Even hours afterward, it's hard to say if it was help. By Santiquin, 18 miles into the day, the rain stopped for a while. I took a quick rest in Payton, running into the gas station for yet more gatorade. The women inside saw me ride up and asked how far I was going. All the way, just not today. When I woke up, I wanted to stop in Park City for the night. By the time I had the bike packed up, I thought Provo would be far enough.

And so I did. After 40 miles, I called it a half day. I found a room with wifi and spent a couple hours washing the bike from the combination of desert dust and wet road grit made muddy by a thorough application of pure, soul-cleansing, Utah rain. You can't drink here, but you sure can be cold and wet outside. I learned that after not too very long, the shoe covers I got fail to keep the shoes from getting saturated with water. From the shoes then the socks, and that's enough for me to not want to be riding. Also the wet gloves, but I bet around here I can probably find a decent pair of weatherproof ski gloves that I could send home after Wyoming.

Not a lot else to report on today. I'm still surprised by the amount of livestock kept in yards in this state. Also, Provo is in desperate need of some bike infrastructure. I can see the bike lane on University Ave, but no one else can because no one's bothered to paint them in yet. Three out of four cyclists I saw were on the sidewalks. It would really only take a few strong, dedicated advocates in this town to really bring about a bike culture, but I'm not willing to move here to do so. I like beer with my pizza too much.

(Half) Day 12, Eureka, UT - Provo, UT
44.0 miles, 895.9 total. 3:01:27 today, 69:55:13 with a high speed of 40.7mph