signs and fun things from a road trip to the Little Red Riding Hood Ride in Utah

I am taking a two day road trip to Albuquerque to meet up with my next oldest sister and her bike, will hang around with her part of tomorrow and all day Monday and then we will pack bikes etc and drive on to Salt Lake City to meet up with the younger twin sisters, hang around a day or two for sister time, then pack two bike and riders per car and carvan the two cars up to Logan for the weekend to do theLittle Red Ride ride. The process will reverse after the ride.

So today I left Houston and headed out through Waco, and Abilene to Lubbock for the first half to the drive to Albuquerque. I am definitely in west Texas heartland with miles and miles of miles and miles. Highlights from today's drive are as follows:
typical radio song country and western style included the chorus "two wives, three dogs, four cars, five jobs, and now I just
don't care anymore.
Road names I would love to know the background and origins of: Noodle Dome Road and Stink Creek road.
Museum I would also like to know the general contents of: the WASP Museum. ( is it an acronym, a sting , or an Anglo Saxon?)
Pithy sign for the day: on a black background with gold lettering " Don't Make Me Come Down There." GOD

Sounds like the fun has begun! I couldn't live there, but Utah is the prettiest state I've ever been to. It's gorgeous. I know you'll have a great ride with your sisters.

Funny one I saw outside a gas station on the way back from a hike last weekend: "Fire danger extremely high--don't even fart in the woods!" I think we're OK as far as moisture now...we just had way too many days in a row of rain!!

Made it safely to ABQ and am happily digesting a couple of green chile enchiladas and a local microbrew beer. The highlight of driving the the flat flat emptiness that is west Texas from Lubbock to the NM state line was the town of Bovina, three grain elevators , a dozen houses, a gas sttion/quick mart/local post office/garage/farm equipment repair etc and about a jillion feed lots. Approriately named.

WASP museum. Shoulda stopped, you could've taken in the big homecoming. Still might be worth a stop on the way back - either as a bit of women's history or as a belated Memorial Day tribute, or both! Sad that that acronym is being forgotten so quickly. I had to google it myself, and I *knew* about the WASPs, WAVEs and WACs.

I'm enjoying your trip report Marni!

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Originally Posted by thekarens

Sounds like the fun has begun! I couldn't live there, but Utah is the prettiest state I've ever been to. It's gorgeous. I know you'll have a great ride with your sisters.

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Some parts aren't even very pretty.
I expected not to like living in Utah, and I planned to leave for about the first 10 years I was here, after 23 years, I guess I'll stay for a while.

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Originally Posted by malkin

I'm enjoying your trip report Marni!


Some parts aren't even very pretty.
I expected not to like living in Utah, and I planned to leave for about the first 10 years I was here, after 23 years, I guess I'll stay for a while.

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I've been to Utah a lot since I used to live in Idaho and my sister lives in Colorado. We'd drive over regularly. It's true there are ugly spots like all states, but the pretty spots are drop dead gorgeous!

Marni, can't wait to hear the rest of your report. I bet y'all have a fantastic time.

crankin- thank you for the link to the WASP museum. I will try and stop by on the way back to houston.

Today we went to two bike stores one for a sale at which sister kris managed to find a black skirt and biking shorts combo and I found a pair socks with I (heart) my bike. For some reason the bike shops in Houston seem to have recently gone over to a shorter style of sock that barely covers the ankle bone. These are high enough to actually provide the protection they are supposed to.

Then we went to the brand spanking new TREK superstore. Gorgeous with a full line of trek bikes and a whole lot of very nice canondales as well. Lots of bike "bling" like coclor coordinated bar tape and cable covers and bottle racks which I checked out for the new bike which I will be ordering in celebration of the big 65, after I get home for this adventue. Lots of happy fondling and considering. The store is so new that not many people know about it yet. The sales persons were so bored that they were rding demo bikes in cirles around the displays practicing rear wheel lifts, wheelies and track stands which was both inpiring and amusing.

Utah is a great spot for sure. LRRH is a lovely ride, I won't do it again I suspect because it is such a pain to get into nowadays, but I have enjoyed the 3 I have participated in. Plus, I think it is too far to drive from my part of the SLC outer burbs LOL.

In Salt Lake City with sisters after a long beautiful and dramatic day of driving from Albuquerque via the Navajo Reservation on former route 666 now route 491 past Shiprock then west past Canyonlands, Arches, Goblin Gardens, Bryece, Zion, and Capital Reef Nation Parks, gorgous land forms and colors, each more striking than the last, Lots of climbing up through mountain passes and dramatic swooping dropsinto the canyons. Saw about a dozen bike riders on various bikes with or with self supported camping gear. Moab is definitley a place to go back to to visit and ride, it looks like the area has every sort of outdoor and biking on and off road adventure that any one could want. About 150 miles further on at Fort Cove we turned north into rain dropping veils of most over the mountains and canyons, into heavy rain with the sun sending slashes of golden sunset light through mists and veils of dark heavy rain to the west of us and black clouds with lightning to the north and right of us. By the time we drove into Salt Lake it was black as night and pouring down and loooking and feeling distinctly like tornado weather. The weather is looky wet and cool for the ride today and through the week and the ride. Fingers crossed that it improves. Great to be together having sister time.

We've had a crazy weather week. Thank goodness it looks good for Saturday!

molliewog- absolutely although I did bring both cold weather and rain gear with me. Right now I am just a Texas hot house flower in feeling chilly at mid 60's low 70's here in SLC.

Oh my arm warmers and leg warmers are packed for LRRH! It will be a chilly start for the century. I'm really excited for the ride :)

I wore my LRRH jersey from 2006 on my ride today --- not intentionally, it's one of my favorite sleeveless jerseys and it was warm out --- but it's a nice coincidence!

What an awesome day for today's Little Red. The weather certainly was absolutely perfect, and I saw significantly fewer undisciplined riders than in past years. Not sure if it's because we left earlier this time (right @ 7:30), or if the routes were staggered better. The motorcycle sag guys also were good about telling women to ride single file. After struggling to complete a 70 miler 2 weeks ago and a 42 miler last week, I wasn't sure I was ready for a century today. But it was a fantastic day. My new wheel set helped too, especially in the flat morning stretch. The only bummer was that bee that stung me in my lip at mile 90. Thank goodness for the sag guy who had ice. He even gave me some ice in a baggie to put in my bento box so I could keep reapplying it for those last 10 miles. Saved the day!

Marni, how did you and your sisters do?

Attachment 16279Attachment 16280Attachment 16281Attachment 16282[ATTACH=CONFIG]16283ATTACH=CONFIG]16284[/ATTACH]it was indeed a perfect day for the ride. The rain blew away as we drove into SLC thursday night and turned beautifully sunny. I think of all the various charity rides with various sponsors from national organizations to local bike clubs that I have done, that this is the best supported, organized and one of the most beautiful and positive ride I have ever done. From the frindliness of the voluteers to the hooting and hollering and congrats at the end of the ride, it is by far the best ride. The roll outs were so well managed that there was never much of a crowd on the road or at the rest stops which were abundant and overflowing with good stuff. And all of the various suyppliers that were around at the Friday night dinner and after the ride on Saturday had a good range of stuff at discount prices so some heavy shopping (sister kris) was possible. Learning to dance bollywood style friday night after dinner was great fun, as was walking past the tent and camper village on the way to our car.

You would never know that the ride (estimated 3500 people) aactually tripled and quadrupled the populations of the small towns the ride went through because the timed span of open starts with riders being led out by the police 100 at a time spaced everyone out so well.

The start and the rest stops were suptious with adequate to exce3ssive ride food and drink along with wet wipes, sunscreen and plentiful porta potties, which were all available after the ride as well.

Everyone's attitude was so positive, and it was great to see the age range of the riders, from 8 to 70 something and the day was absolutely perfect, 70's sunny, light breeze and very low humidity. For a Texas rider like myself this is definitly heaven.

My sisters and I rolled out at 8:00 am with the intention to do 100 or at least 70 but sister Kris the oldest of us, was having gearing problems, so we lowered our goal with Kris doing 36, and Luli and I doing 50. I could have probably added the 16 or so miles that went into Idaho, but I was having so much fun riding with Luli that we cut out at 50 and then waited at the finish line to clap Kris in.

We are already making plans for next year hoping that the fourth sisters (luli'sd twin) can join us.

The best ride of my life in terms of enjoyment!

That is so awesome! Great pics too. Glad y'all had such a good time.

Marni, fabulous ride report! What a great day for you and your sisters. It's nice to be flexible on goals. To me having fun on the bike is more important than achieving a set mileage.

Bollywood dancing??? Hahaha!!

Loved your photos, so glad you had nice weather that day.

Yesterdays' adventure was to take our bike up Emmigration Canyon (lovely wide bike shoulder and share the road signs along with a significant number of bikers going both up and down the canyon) up to (short steep curvy climb) and over Farleys Flat(longer smooth but equally steep swoops complete with more bikers) down to to Park City to ride the rail trail. It was another drop dead perfect riding day- temps in the mid 70s, slight breeze, cloudless sky and low humidity.

The last time I was in park city was 50 years ago, long before the ski area and all of the resorts. The main street consisted of an old victorian mining era theater, an equally aged church, some false front stores, a loose grouping of victorian era homes in various states of repair and scattered mountain cabins and summer homes. Needless to say it has changed as the whole area has become a ski resort with condos, large hotel facilities, restaurants, box stores and very many homes.

However either with the ski resort which went in in the 90s or since, they have put in a substantial trail and rail trail system in and out of town along with main street wide enough to accommodate a bike lane in either direction. Park City was originally a mining town so there were several rail systems and junctions coming through and into town and connecting it to Wyoming to the East and Salt Lake (a major railroad center) to the West.

We parked near where the old ( now new and trying to look authentic but not quite making it) train station was and took the rail trail down towards the bottom of the canyon and then down the canyon where the most recent and smaller ski resort Canyon Lands is just starting to take off.

The slope was a gentle one to two percent,.(coasting down , easy climb back up at the end) running through water meadows and wetland belts between or at the back of various condo and housing areasand out into the fields at the valley bottom. We had the sound of a trickling stream beside us for quite a while along with some beaver ponds, one with an enormous and very elaborate beaver dam, several types of flowering trees which I can't name, red winged blackbirds and magpies chirruping and squawking and general beneficent mother nature. A couple of road crossings which were well marked and gated with a post in packed dirt to slip past. The roads were side roads and not busy. One brief stretch on the road to transfer to another trail and then fairly level with some ups and downs and a highway underpass to take us down to the trail running down the canyon towards the Canyons. This trail had more "terrain features" with several short steep climbs, some curves and bends and some gentles slopes amid the hillside growth of broom, grass, trees, some sage and many other shrubby type growths, a dog park, school, hospital and more open country side. We went down this almost to Canyonlands and then turned around and reversed our course. We only rode about 25 miles, but between the extra 2,000 feet elevation and Kris' gears still acting up a bit, it was enough to loosen up the legs and really enjoy the ride.

On our way back down the canyon we ate at Ruths Diner a famous and infamous diner that has been, first in Salt Lake since 1920 and the canyon since 1950. It was the place that all the frat boys snuck away to from the University to smoke and drink beer. The original diner is still there but upgraded and improved. Lovely outdoor patio with lilacs (in full bloom) a large trees along with another little brook. Good variety of vegetarian, vegan and carnivore dishes.

Today we are going out to ride the JordanRiver Trail towards Provo and from the looks of it it will be another gorgeous dayE

So glad you are enjoying your cycling adventures in our fair state! When I first read your latest ride report, I thought you biked up Emigration Canyon and then biked on to Park City - please tell me that's not what you did because I would feel totally inadequate! Hope you enjoy the JRT - watch out for those goatheads.

bike duchess,

I actually graduated from U of U and most of my relatives lived olr are living in SLC, Provo or up around Malad, Idaho so I am pretty familair with the area. No, we drove to Park City and took the trails form there although riding up Emmigration canyon looks like it might be interesting, even the pass looked almost doable. Taken in perspective, SLC is about a 110 times more bike friendly and bike safe than Houston. The area along 1300 east west of state street is very similar, road wise and traffic wise to areas I have to ride in to get out onto the two lane country roads. I just don't have the snow to deal with.

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Report from Todays ride along the Jordan River.

We drove down to about 7600 southand 8th west and found a trail head parking lot. The trail was through country side and scattered suburban communities south and west of central Salt Lake ( road numbering starts at 1000 south, 1000 east, 1000 west etc and is mostly set up on a grid system although the spacing between the streets is variable.

The trail was pretty flat, perhaps with a false flat downhill, or maybe it was a tail wind. On either side of the path there were vast swaths of what I think was a shrub (coniferous or sage related?) called Mormon tea interspersed with swaths of flowering Russian Olives as well as blooming tamarisk, sundry wildflowers including poppies, prickly poppies and a yellow vertical yellow flower I know as butter and eggs but is probably something else. After a couple of miles the trail swung east away from the river and ended on a side street in a light industrial and office area. This lasted about 2 miles and then we got on another street which was wider and led to the golf club where the trail pickend up again along the river. We continued on for another five miles or so until we came to a park with facilities where we turned around and rode back to the car. We kept looking for a map of the overall trail at one of the various parks and or trail heads, but because the path itself runs through various municipalities, each of which is responsilbe for their section of the path and green belt, we couldn't find one. It must exist somewhere because the plan is for it to eventually connect with several other paths, but ...

Again it was a beautiful day and again we rode with the sound of running water, however subdued. Lots of little wren and sparrow type birds, an occassional crow but no magpies. Lovely view of snow topped Wasatch range to our east and south east as well as an infrequent glimpse of whatever range it is to the west that holds the kennecot copper mine.

A nice end to the Salt Lake city pahse of the trip. Tomorrow Kris and I revverse the drive back to Albuquerque, hopefully without the tornado like skies and the downpours, Thursday I will take a day off from the driving and then Friday I will start the two day safari back to Houston. Many happy memories to review along the wayas I return to life is real life is earnest daily life in the real world of solo training and riding in Houston heat, headwinds and humidity.

Honestly, those bike trails maps make my eyes bleed. They are supposed to join up but who knows quite when LOL.

Attachment 16303 Shiprock , Navajo Reservation, New Mexico

Back in Albquerque after a day long road trip through Utah, the corner of Colorado and New Mexico, down past Shiprock and through the Navaho Reservation to Albuqueque. Two pithy signs:

"It's your temper, please keep it." in a DQ .

"Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved"

and a haiku about the scenery in Canyon lands:

Sun pierced female clouds
Drape red rain skirts on the land
Aah, sweet release.

Today in Albuquerque, shifting bike into my car, packing park stand Kris is gifting me along with several warps for my Navajo loom gifted from Luli ( also a weaver, hand spinner) a green chili enchiladas final fix at Monroes and then off tomorrow on the two day return to Houston and reality mode.

Beautiful!

The maps are pretty funky...
Glad you didn't have the festival of flat tires that one sometimes gets riding on the Jordan River Parkway, although if you want to practice your tire changing skills, that's the place for it!

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Originally Posted by marni

... infrequent glimpse of whatever range it is to the west that holds the kennecot copper mine.y.

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Those are the Oquirrhs.

Mormon tea is ephedra!

I ride on Bontrager rice lites with kevlar- I have only ever had one flat in the 7 years I have been riding. I was the only rider on both the Southern Tier who didn't get a flat period and definitely the only one who didn't suffer from a goats head attack. I'd like to think it is my vigilance in checking and cleaning my tires and brake pads after every ride as well as during my reaching down and letting the tire squeeze through my glove while I am pedaling if I have gone over something or rolled the bike over questionable terrain, but I suspect that it is more that it is an excellent product. Either way I luvs my kevlars, although I will admit to changing them out about every 3,000 miles or cross country ride, whichever comes first. I do have one pair left that got changed out before the 3000 mile limit and I plan to give them to a young man down the street who needs a spare set to put on his trainer bike-

Malkin,

As far as practing tire changing, I much prefer an occasional practice session in the comfort of the heat or ac.

Thanks for the name of the mountain range and now that I see ephedra I remember I used to know that years ago, but these days its a miracle if I remember anything from ancient history.

I pretty much won't ride those trails because of the flats. Liberty from farmington to SLC was fine but the west and Draper is just always prickle city.

Safely home in Houston after a two day 15 hour drive from ABQ. Made it into the driveway and got everything before the rain hit. Currently buried in dogs and cats.

Pithy Sign from the road seen on an elaborate engraved wrought iron gate "Deep **** Cattle Company."

need to take a couple days to get laundry done and re-enter reality.

Looks like a wonderful trip. Thanks for sharing! Hope the transition back to reality goes smoothly.