Let's Get it Started
Okay, this is like the third blog I have started, the other two failed to launch after one or two posts. I think my problem is that I never really had anything to blog about. My life is what I would believe pretty boring to other people, so why write about something that even I think is boring? Well... I found something and it is FREAKING cool. My lovely wife, Kathy Jo:
and I love to travel and see things. Just last weekend, we went and saw two plays at the Shakespearean Festival and went mountain biking on a sweet trail near Bryce Canyon called Thunder Mountain. Once upon a time while traveling, I thought it would be a good idea to set a goal to drive on all of Utah's Designated state routes. Not a bad idea right? For those who like to travel and see things, this could be a great adventure. Well, while driving to Cedar Breaks National Monument, I got the same travel bug but this time it hit me: What could be better than driving all of Utah's Highways? How about ROAD BIKING all of Utah's highways. Let me explain: I had been watching Le Tour, I just biked up Little Cottonwood Canyon (SR-210 by the way), and I was having visions of pumping my legs on my KHS (that's my bike) up SR-14's 14 mile, 4000 ft climb. The more I thought about it, the cooler it seemed. I thought about it during the plays, I thought about it while riding, I thought about it on the way home. I told K Jo about my great idea and she thought it would be pretty cool too. We stopped in Nephi, and I whipped out UDOT's highway map and began to research. After 10 minutes or so, I became pretty overwhelmed. There are a LOT of highways in Utah. A LOT. And some of them stretch halfway across the state.
I went home and yahooed, (I yahoo, I don't google) Utah State Highways and found this lovely gem. I also went to UDOT's website and sent a message to them asking about a current list of Utah's Highways, they sent me this. I went from overwhelmed to near PTSD. I have learned a lot about Utah's Designated Highways. There are something like 200 Designated State Highways running over 3600 miles. The shortest is less than a tenth of a mile, but it is not signed, the shortest signed route is less than a quarter mile. The longest is SR-24 and it is 160.3 miles long, I think that I will ride that one in a few years, and will quite possibly ride it over two days. I was also disappointed to learn that some of Utah's highways have freeway or expressway status like SR-201 (the 21st South Freeway), or SR-154 (Bangerter Highway), and can't be ridden on a bike so I can't ride ALL of them. A big portion of Utah's highways (SR-281 through SR-320) serve state parks and all but one (SR-313 serving Dead Horse Point) are less than 4 miles long.
I also thought it would be fun to make maps and elevation profiles of all of my rides. I have spent a bit of time on Google Maps and through the miracle of the print screen button and Microsoft Paint, I have come up with this.
This is a map of SR-10 that goes through my hometown of Castle Dale. It starts at I-70 south of the town of Emery and ends in Price. My maps will have the route the highway follows, the route number, the two termini, the length, and when needed, a zoomed view of the start and end point. I don't have a GPS unit that can do elevation profiles for now, that may come later. I will also post pictures of my rides. I hope that you look forward to following my blog as much as I look forward to riding all of Utah's Highways. Thanks for reading.
Chris
and I love to travel and see things. Just last weekend, we went and saw two plays at the Shakespearean Festival and went mountain biking on a sweet trail near Bryce Canyon called Thunder Mountain. Once upon a time while traveling, I thought it would be a good idea to set a goal to drive on all of Utah's Designated state routes. Not a bad idea right? For those who like to travel and see things, this could be a great adventure. Well, while driving to Cedar Breaks National Monument, I got the same travel bug but this time it hit me: What could be better than driving all of Utah's Highways? How about ROAD BIKING all of Utah's highways. Let me explain: I had been watching Le Tour, I just biked up Little Cottonwood Canyon (SR-210 by the way), and I was having visions of pumping my legs on my KHS (that's my bike) up SR-14's 14 mile, 4000 ft climb. The more I thought about it, the cooler it seemed. I thought about it during the plays, I thought about it while riding, I thought about it on the way home. I told K Jo about my great idea and she thought it would be pretty cool too. We stopped in Nephi, and I whipped out UDOT's highway map and began to research. After 10 minutes or so, I became pretty overwhelmed. There are a LOT of highways in Utah. A LOT. And some of them stretch halfway across the state.I went home and yahooed, (I yahoo, I don't google) Utah State Highways and found this lovely gem. I also went to UDOT's website and sent a message to them asking about a current list of Utah's Highways, they sent me this. I went from overwhelmed to near PTSD. I have learned a lot about Utah's Designated Highways. There are something like 200 Designated State Highways running over 3600 miles. The shortest is less than a tenth of a mile, but it is not signed, the shortest signed route is less than a quarter mile. The longest is SR-24 and it is 160.3 miles long, I think that I will ride that one in a few years, and will quite possibly ride it over two days. I was also disappointed to learn that some of Utah's highways have freeway or expressway status like SR-201 (the 21st South Freeway), or SR-154 (Bangerter Highway), and can't be ridden on a bike so I can't ride ALL of them. A big portion of Utah's highways (SR-281 through SR-320) serve state parks and all but one (SR-313 serving Dead Horse Point) are less than 4 miles long.
I also thought it would be fun to make maps and elevation profiles of all of my rides. I have spent a bit of time on Google Maps and through the miracle of the print screen button and Microsoft Paint, I have come up with this.
This is a map of SR-10 that goes through my hometown of Castle Dale. It starts at I-70 south of the town of Emery and ends in Price. My maps will have the route the highway follows, the route number, the two termini, the length, and when needed, a zoomed view of the start and end point. I don't have a GPS unit that can do elevation profiles for now, that may come later. I will also post pictures of my rides. I hope that you look forward to following my blog as much as I look forward to riding all of Utah's Highways. Thanks for reading.Chris
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