SR-48...ish

SR-48 starts just west of the small town of Copperton at the gate for one of the roads leading to the Bingham Canyon Copper Mine. The road immediately climbs a short hill, then as you can see, descends for about ten miles. On the way it passes through the quaint little town of Copperton. Further down the road, it intersects SR-111 where it continues through acres and acres of farmland, and just before the first signs of civilization appear, it meets the start of SR-209. It then passes the south border of Salt Lake Municipal 2 Airport, and continues on down to cross SR-154 (Bangerter Hwy) where it finally meets SR-68 (Redwood Rd) at 7800 S. Then it ends... sort of... It actually continues on for another 2 miles, 1 mile north at 7000 S... I know, weird right. It doesn't follow Redwood, it just kind of skips... Anyway, it continues down until it crosses the Jordan River, then curves slightly south where it passes under I-15 then ends at US-89 (State St) in Midvale. The route is 12.6 miles long, (13.6 if you count the mile of Redwood Rd that you miss).

I am racing in an Xterra triathlon on Sep 26th (near Ogden at Pineview Reservoir, your support is not only welcome, but also encouraged), so I have decided to start riding less, and running and swimming more, but I will be training EVERY DAY until the race. That also includes work days but excludes Sundays (you gotta have a rest day once a week). I got home from work Friday morning and was feeling pretty good so I decided to hit the road (it was a bike day) on SR-48 (it's pretty close to home) before Kathy Jo got up. I wanted to make sure I knew where I was going, so I went to my computer to look the route up and found that my internet wasn't working. I tried my GPS software on my computer and that wasn't much help either. I thought about using Google Earth, but it takes forever and I was in a hurry. The sooner I got home, the sooner I could get to bed. I aired up the tires, filled a couple water bottles, donned my helmet and headed out not really knowing where I was going, but confident that I could find my way. I raced north on State St until I got to 7200 S where I turned left. The road here is pretty bike friendly, in fact most of this route is. There is one scary part with no shoulder or bike lane from the freeway to 700 w, but it is REALLY short and other than that section, it is a GREAT ride. After I dipped down to the Jordan River, I started climbing. Just past 1300 W, UDOT was doing construction which meant the normal four lane road was down to two lanes... with no room for bikes... which meant I was on the sidewalk. It also meant that I was watching my hide instead of watching for street signs. I crossed Redwood, continuing on through construction, and getting off SR-48 still watching my hide, but now looking for a SR-48 sign. After a while, a bike lane opened up on brand new pavement, and I was happy as a clam, and didn't care whether or not I was on the state highway. Eventually I crossed Bangerter and immediately climbed a short hill that curves until it heads south past Jordan Landing. I continued south on a nice wide shoulder until I came back to SR-48, then passed it, realized my mistake and turned around. I took a left, finally re-connecting with SR-48, passed the airport where I snapped a picture of a plane taking off and looked ahead at the gradual rise in road that heads pretty much southwest as New Bingham Highway. This is a pretty steady grade for about 4.5 miles until it runs into SR-111. Just past this, I stopped to get a picture of the massive amounts of earth I mentioned in my post about SR-209. You can also get a sense of the gradual grade that this road climbs. Eventually I got to the top of the hill where it flattens out, but only briefly before you get into Copperton. At the edge of town, the road finally peaks, then descends quickly until it gets to a run down bar called the ore house. With this big chunk of copper ore out front. I got to the control gate, snapped a photo of the End sign, and turned to head back up the hill to go home. Passing through town, I got a couple of stares, but it is a downhill grade, so it was quick. Just past SR-111 the road continues downhill so it is a good fast ride back home. After passing Jordan Landing, I realized that I had not been on the highway, but has somehow lost it. I reached Redwood road and saw the SR-48 Junction sign and knew where I had gotten off the trail, and thought briefly about heading back that way to do the whole road until Kathy Jo called wondering where I was. I told her I would be home soon and kept going on 7800 S. I headed under the train bridge and started to climb the hill when I saw this guy:

He was pretty big, probably two feet long, but he was also dead, so it made me kind of sad. It also reminded me of another ride I was on several months past where I was on Wasatch Boulevard near the Olympus Mountain trail head and I saw this little guy.

K Jo and I went hiking to Mount Olympus and saw two more of these on the trail. I thought they were pretty cool. I finished off my ride, took a quick shower, and got to hang out with Kathy Jo for a few hours before I fell asleep on the floor while she was reading on the couch. I woke up and headed to bed, slept for a few hours and spent the rest of the afternoon with K Jo hanging out at home. This ride was 28.2 miles, I rode it in 1:36:07. Max speed 33.5 mph avg speed 17.5 mph. Tally so far, 6 State Highways, 170.9 miles of total riding, 70.3 miles of State Roads. Thanks again for reading blog fans.


Chris