Monday, June 25, 2007

Day 12-Utah!





Miles Completed Today: 84
Total Miles Completed: 767
Miles To Go: 2933

The guys started at six AM today since it was a long haul from Baker, NV, to Milford, UT, but they made it by 3:00 PM. It was an uneventful day (that's a good thing) and Pat's use of Chris' front wheel proved successful. Pat discovered an issue with his front wheel yesterday and tried to fix it last night to no avail, so he put Chris' mountain bike wheel on his bike. Now it's getting interesting! We'll stay in Milford tonight and then head to Cedar City, UT on route 21 tomorrow.

It was a long and desolate ride today with only one or two places to get water along the way, and one of them was an old abandoned house with a water out back. A westbound cyclist in baker described it to us as the only tree and house along the road, and he was right. Seeing live cows crossing the road was amusing, but then we saw dead cows in some parched areas.

Chris hung around Great Basin National Park in the morning, rode up to Wheeler Peak above our campsite, and then hiked up from 10,000 feet to 11,000 to see the Bristlecone pines, the oldest living organisms know to man, and the last remaining glacier in North America that did not flow down from the north. One tree was dated to be 4,900 years old. Yes, that's not a typo, 4,900 years old! They're extremely tough, grow at, and above, the tree line and sometimes appear to be dead, but continue growing on certain branches or limbs. The needles alone live to be forty years old.

5 comments:

DecemberxAngel said...

Hey guys, it's Sam. It's great to be able to follow your trip from here. We all miss you a lot and hope that you're having fun. Fourth of July won't be the same without you!
<3, Sam

Sean and Ariel Mahan said...

Wow! Two states down. You guys are speedy. That must mean you made it past all those mountains. Wow! Never again will I complain about biking to work again. Good Luck! We miss you but are so proud of you.

Jennine Almond said...

Took me a while to figure out what a "BLOG" was. LOL. Of course, if it wasn't for my nephews, I wouldn't know what Teenage Ninja Turtles were either. I LOVE this Blog thing and it's great to follow you all on your journey. You rode a 3K ft climb up the Sierra NV to Bear River?? Holy Smokes!! I'm losing weight just reading this! Congrats, Pat, on 51.6 mph!! Sean, don't let him intimidate you. He's a maniac on wheels :) and hope you got ben gay for those sore legs :) Chris, you are AWESOME!! Ride on! Be happy. Be Well. Be Safe. With Big Smiles & Love, Jennine

ukayer said...

Chris just shared the blog with me. What an adventure; very impressive! Good Luck from SoCal.

- Colin

Sean and Ariel Mahan said...

Dead Cows! How sad :( Now you can say you've seen almost everything. Good Luck! I hope you will see more and more things. (excluding cute dead animals)