southern UT spring centuries

[yellow]

I'm thinking I need to sign up for one of the upcoming early centuries in the St George area in order to stay motivated. The Zion Country Spring Century (http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1265335)is February 25 and the Cactus Hugger Century (http://www.cactushugger.org/) (which is part of the larger Cactus Hugger Cycling Festival) is April 1. Anybody ever done either/both of these or planning on them?

y, lonely in Utah, needing motivation.

[sulis]

I contemplated both of these rides, but I don't think I'll be able to make it. If my fortunes improve, I may sign up late. A friend of mine mentioned that she and a few friends were contemplating Cactus Hugger. I told her about te so hopefully she will post soon and maybe you will have some riding buddies. :D
Have you joined any of the Wasatch Women's cycling club rides? They always seem to be out and about riding and joining these events.
If you don't mind a slow newbie rider, I'll probably ride the Ghost Town Century in April...although I don't know if I'll be ready for the full century by then, but I will do as much as I can.

http://www.bike2bike.biz/Rides/bGhostTownCenturyb/tabid/313/Default.aspx

[yellow]

ooh ooh! A response! There is life out there!

Not sure about Ghost Town. Depending upon what's on the platter at the time, I may be able to do it. I'm mtb-ing a week in southern UT earlier in the month and then planning a road trip to OR in May, so my "fun miles" (on my car, that is) may be used up. We'll see! Also, the info doesn't say WHERE it is. Can you enlighten me?

I'm not riding much at the moment as I had two close-to-hypothermic episodes and have decided that I need to just ride indoors and ski a whole bunch. Oh, bummer! :D

[Lifesgreat]

Hey there!

I am the friend Sulis speaks of. Yes! There are several of us Utah County folk planning on the Cactus Hugger. I am going to do the 45 mile and I am not sure what the others are doing. I am actually a triathlete who really focusing on the running right now, so I am not doing any biking:mad: I am planning to really get biking in early March.

[sulis]

Yes...there is a life here. :)
I'm not riding tons either...I'm with you yellow...its just too cold and windy.
I'm riding a bit on my trainer about 2x a week and hit a heavy spinning session on Saturdays.
I met LifesGreat through a tri board we both frequent. I too am doing alot of running this winter. But it sure does help improve cardio endurance, which can only be a plus for riding.
I will do a few tris this summer, hopefully. But find that my heart is really being pulled towards biking more. We'll see what happens.

As for the Ghost Century, I believe it said its around the Tooele area...around the old mining tows. I'll do some recon though and let you know what I find out.

:rolleyes:

[yellow]

Sulis--check your PMs!

And Lifesgreat...as long as you're doing SOMETHING you will be fine for CH. My fastest century last year was my first one (in March) for which I had completed very little on-road training, but I had been skiing a whole lot and was religious about doing pushups and wall sits. My butt complained a little bit as I hadn't spent 5+ hours in the saddle since the previous year but other than that I survived just fine.

I'm still leaning toward the Zion Country ride as the CH may interfere a teeny bit with my schedule. Not certain yet. In any case, if it looks like I can do the CH, I'll PM you and perhaps we can meet!

[Lifesgreat]

I am not going to be able to do CH. I have had some scheduling difficulties arise :(

[yellow]

I think I'm going to do the Zion Country ride. I have another century I'm doing in Calif a couple of weeks later so that will be a good test for my butt.

I'm still not sure about Ghost Town. April seems so far away but it really isn't. :eek: It doesn't say if there are alternate distances (that is, any less than 100). I'll have been on a almost week-long mt bike trip the week before and may only want to do a metric/partial. Sulis, did you find out anything else about the ride?

[Lifesgreat]

I found this on the internet today, but I cannot vouch for its accuracy.

4/22/2006
Ghost Town Century
Join us as we ride by & thru old Ghost Towns, the Pony Express Trail, & the old wagon train trial on this fun ride to raise money and awareness for Blood Disorders. 100, 65, & 50 mile options on this supported ride.
Phone: 801-677-0134
E-Mail: Bob@bike2bike.org
Web: http://www.bike2bike.org

[yellow]

When I printed out the entry form for Zion County it also listed those same distances for Ghost Town. If I do that one, I'll prolly go for the 65.

I do wish that Bike2Bike site provided route maps of all the rides. The way they describe Ghost Town you can't tell where the heck it is. I wouldn't know if sulis hadn't clued me in.

[sulis]

Hiya ladies

Sorry for the delayed posts. I have been off line for a while..
I actually emailed the Ghost Town Century contact and they said that it supports and half and metric century as well. Here is what they said.

"The Ghost Town Century does indeed support a metric century (65 miles)
and ahalf century (50 miles). The Metric will have 3 rest stops plus a
lunch stop and the Half will have 2 rest stops and a lunch stop. If you have
any additional questions please feel free to contact us. In the mean time:

Take Care & Bike 2 Bike "

I'm waiting until the last minute to commit because I want to know what the weather will be like then. I'm a woose...I just don't think it will be fun to ride in the rain. :p But I don't foresee a problem signing up for the Ghost Town if weather permits. If I do go, I'll probably do the half century.

I'll keep ya'll posted.
Happy Training!

[yellow]

sulis, I'm a woose too (DH is threatening to make me go mt biking tomorrow....noooo! I haven't ridden outside since my last near-hypothermia episode). I too will prolly wait to sign up. Heck, we can prolly sign up the day of! I'm not too worried about them running out of space since it sounds like the ride is out there where there's a bunch of....space. :p

[Lifesgreat]

I will probably wait too because that is the last day of spring break and I don't know what our plans are for the week. If I do it, it will be the 50 miler, that I do know.

[CyclaSutra]

Ladies,

I'm your Huckleberry. I rode Ghost Town's 65-mile route last April. Best I can remember, it went something like this:

Horribly cold and rainy weather (40 degrees?) to start from the Recreation Complex or something, just east of the Tooele Army Depot North. Ride headed due east into town, then turned south along what I believe is Hwy 36. Light traffic on a Saturday morning, great road surface, slight downhill. Just after the first rest stop (15 miles?), the route turned left onto a spur road and started gradually going up hill through sagebrushy sort of flats. Turned again on a teeny road and started winding its way through a beautiful canyon with a rushing creek. Road got smaller, still great surface, and steeper. The final grunt to rest stop #2 passed by cool old mining equipment and chutes sticking out from the hill. In lowest granny gear and chanting "I will not walk my bike" as me and my 50-rpm cadence ground it past a couple of bike-hikers. Slammed cups of Gatorade and water, then turned it around and FLEW back down the hill. Passed a cop as I was doing 41 mph, but he didn't bother with me, rightly assuming I was only endangering myself. Back out to the highway again, south again and then west on a smaller road. Lunch stop at the lower left corner of the route rectangle, and then north again slightly uphill back to Tooele.

Food was a bit crummy: 25-cent granola bars, boiled potatoes with no salt (blech!) etc. I think they did have banana halves and I was ready for the Little Debbie brownie by the lunch break.

But if the weather had been decent, all in all a great ride. I would do it again. But I'd BYO PB&J.

[Lifesgreat]

Thanks for the report. I will need to get my map out, but maybe you went to Ophir? Ophir is a former mining town located in a small, beautiful canyon. There are a few residents there, I believe.

If I do it, I will dress warmly and bring cold pizza.:rolleyes:

[yellow]

I'm your Huckleberry. I rode Ghost Town's 65-mile route last April.
Thanks for the report. Horribly cold and rainy does not sound good right now! Hopefully this year won't be a repeat of last year.

Weather forecast for Zion Country next weekend (2/25) is partly cloudy with a high of 64 F in St George, light to no wind (yay!) and mostly cloudy with a high of 62 F in Springdale, 7 mph winds. I would LOVE IT if it just got to 60!!! Now I'll just have to survive the 40s in the morning at the start. Good thing they SAG your clothes for you!

[AuntieK]

Thanks for the forecast, Yellow!
I was going to go down and ride Sand Hollow this weekend, but decided against it because of the nasty weather outlook. Glad I didn't after all the snow we just got...hear it wasn't too pleasant down south either.
I was hoping the weather would warm up for the 25th though. I'm glad you're keeping track! :) Should be beautiful.

[yellow]

Updated forecast for Saturday (Zion Country): sunny, 65 (or 67 depending upon the forecast) in St George, 61 (or 64) in the park. Not too horribly low for the low either: "mid-30s". They took the "partly cloudy" words away. 0% chance of precip.

Yay! I may even show my ankles! And I won't have to carry a raincoat!

[SadieKate]

Yay! I may even show my ankles! Do we need to warn folks to wear extra dark sunglasses? :p

Without Jason around this year, we've lost our spring emergency beacon.

[yellow]

Do we need to warn folks to wear extra dark sunglasses? :p
:cool: glacier glasses recommended.

[CyclaSutra]

I'm having a horribly indecisive time here ... I want to come down and do the Zion century, but it's a LOOONG drive for me. I'm five hours north of Salt Lake, so that would be about 9 hours each way, and I have to zip back up to work on Sunday by noon.

Is anybody from Salt Lake going that I could catch a ride with, or hop in my SUV? I just don't know if I'm up for 18 hours of driving with "just us chickens," meaning me and my bike. I could be in Salt Lake by tonight and then get up and drive any time on Friday... but I'd need to head back to Salt Lake right after the ride so I can get up and drive home on Sunday.

I'm also not sure if there are any St. George hotel rooms left. I tried to check yesterday and didn't find any vacancies...

Any help? Tx!

[yellow]

I'll PM you.

y

[sulis]

How was the ride yellow?

[yellow]

How was the ride yellow?
Both AuntieK and I have reports over in the Adventure Stories section! AK: http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=5370 and mine: http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=5389

It was a nice ride. Worth repeating.