Well I was completely wrong to say that I was done with this trip.
While I was boxing up my stuff at Adam's Bike Shop a gentleman by the name of Clarence Whetten walked and began to order some funny stuff for a BikeE. Now being a the proud owner of a BikeE AT I had to ask what he was planning to do with it. We got to talking and it turned out he had two NXs (Bike's take on a road bike) and wanted to together a second set of wheels for one of the bikes so he could put fat tires on it and take it in the dirt on a trip he was going to be talking.
I started telling him about my trip from Reno. He'd been toying with doing one of the group rides across Nevada so he was pretty interested in the route I'd taken. When I got to the part about how I was scouting for the NBG it was all Mr. Whetten needed to hear, he mentioned that he was familiar with the group and had even tentatively volunteered to help map a route through Utah. Mr. Adams had been having some trouble with the clutch in his Jeep and was trying to get a hold of his wife to use her car to get me up to Salt Lake City. Clarance stepped up and said "Don't worry about it, I'll take care of him." And take care of me he did what I'd written off as a dead day turned into one of the best of the trip.
He'd ridden over so he went home to grab his pickup which gave me time to go buy a bag from the thrift store across the street. We packed my stuff in the back of his pickup and then said good by to Reed and I got a couple of pictures. We headed a couple of blocks to his house and got out his BikeEs and we took off on the route that the NBG riders this summer will be taking out of the city.
We headed out on some side streets until we got to the rails to trails path that makes a good start up ??? (I'll have to ask the name) canyon. It's a trail that any city would be proud to have, it winds along a creek and up to some beautiful waterfalls. We hoped on the highway so I could get a feel for the lower section. We took a couple of pictures and started back. Along the ride we had a couple of really interesting conversations on about biking, touring, even ultra-light weight backpacking. When he told me he'd only been ridding one year I about fell of the bike. This guy knew his stuff, he'd scouted routes between SLC and Provo/Orem, scouted a route out of the Provo Orem area and said he'd look at my routes into town and modify them to be more bike friendly. What we both sort of marveled at was the large element of chance that played a part in our introduction.
I told him the story of finding Martin in Santa Cruz on my first ride. I'd lost the piece of paper with his last name and had no idea how I was going to get a hold of him once I got to Santa Cruz. On a fluke I stopped at this little place ten miles or so outside of town to get coffee and a bagel. I grab a copy of the local free weekly newspaper thing and who's got an article on page 5? Martin Krieg. So now I've got his full name so I ride on down into the city. I cruse in and see a little of the downtown and beach front. I stop at a 7-11 to call him and find a Martin Krieg in the phone book well it turned out to be a different one but he had the number for the right one (Martin you better be in the phone book this year or I'm sure next year he's going to get an unlisted number and neither of you will be reachable ;). I called him up and he asked where I was, turns out I'd ridden right by where he was living and talking to him from two blocks away.
We went back to his house got a bite to eat and I met his wife and some of their nine children. His son John has already done a TransAm with the American Heart or Lung Association I forget which.. He reminded me a lot of my brother, a real smart kid, the type that'll end up doing what ever he wants.
He wasn't done yet, we got back in the pickup and went back up the canyon and took the highway through the town of Hever, he took me up to the summit so I could get a look at the rest of the road. The shoulder is non-existent in parts but it's either two lane or there are turn outs so it's ride able. We saw a couple of local cyclists going up and if they'll ride it I'd fell safe riding it. He took me into Salt Lake along the other possible route, through Park City, which is mostly Interstate and had some nasty hills. After my 80 miles on I-80 I'll stay away from the Interstate and on the smaller highways like the first route he showed me.
We even stopped into the SLC REI, that was a sight. The cycling department would have taken up half of the Reno store. The reason we'd stopped in was because they actually had a BikeE FX (their mountain bike) we wanted to checkout.
He dropped me off a the train station at about 7:30pm and my train wasn't until 1:10am, the station didn't open till 10:00pm. I ended up meeting this guy named Daniel who'd been working at one of the ski resorts and was waiting for the train home to Chicago. His train didn't leave till 4:30am and he'd been there since 4pm so he'd been gotten really board. We sat around talking till 10 when we were able to check our bags then went over to a Mexican restaurant and got something to eat. I had a great time talking with him.
I can safely say now that the train ride was uneventful, it was actually in early. I'm actually on the train in Sparks waiting to for the scheduled departure time. Barring the freak train derailment I can say I'm home safely.
It's been a wonderful trip for me I hope reading about it has at least been tolerable,
andrew
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