SR-66

So K Jo worked Friday morning and even though I signed up to help with morning rounds at TOSH, it was a very slow day, so I left after only an hour to bike while the wifey was at work. She had an appointment at Bingham Cyclery to have her bike fitted at 12:30 so I knew I didn't have much time... At this point, I feel like I should explain. TOSH is The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital. A hospital especially for people to have knee, elbow, hip, shoulder etc. operations. Morning rounds refers to lab work done every morning on said patients. Finally, a bike fitting is something you do when you buy a new bike. They set the bike in a trainer, and watch you pedal and then make adjustments to your shoes, seat post, saddle, handlebars, etc. to make sure that your bike fits your body in the best possible way. There is a really great article on utahmountainbiking.com for those who want to do bike fitting on their own... which is what I have to do since I can't afford to pay someone to do it for me. Anyway... moving on. SO I have this plan to ride Utah's Highways... Utah is a BIG state and not all of the highways are in one central spot. In the list I made, I divided Utah into seven regions. North, Northeast, East, Central, West, South and Southeast. Because we live in the Central region, it would be easiest to get those out of the way first, but then I would have nothing to write about until we traveled to one of the other regions which happens less than once a month, SO I decided to start branching out and ride a road NOT in the Central Region. Since I didn't have a lot of time, I decided to hit one close, in the Northern Region which has 32 highways in it. I wanted to do SR-65 which goes from I-80 just East of Salt Lake all the way to I-84 in Morgan county. It is about 28 miles long, but it has a wicked steep climb near the beginning and I didn't have a lot of time so I decided to hit one not as close, but much shorter so... on to SR-66

SR-66 begins at SR-65 just north of East Canyon Reservoir. It heads generally north-west down East Canyon until it reaches the town of Morgan where it heads under I-84, then shoots south-east for about a half a mile. It is 14.3 miles long and drops in elevation from around 5780 feet to about 5100 feet peaking at about 5880. It is a pretty gradual descent, but it feels and looks like it is steeper than it really is. I said goodbye to K Jo about 7:45 and started getting ready. Thinking that I was going to be riding SR-65, I filled three water bottles, my nalgene bottle, packed trail mix, and stopped at Harmon's on the way to the ride to pick up some clif bars and GU. On the way, I decided that 65 would take too long, so I drove on 65 until the junction for SR-66. I have only been on this road once that I can remember, and I started in Morgan and turned around after only a few miles so I had never been here before. I left my car and headed up the first hill which is short and steep. I admired the view of the reservoir, and thought to myself, "Great, a good hill to warm up quick". Usually when I ride, I feel like crap and want to quit in the first three miles or so. After getting a little warm and getting into a good rhythm, I feel a lot better, like I can ride forever. After cresting the first hill, I was not warm... I then started the descent into East Canyon. Descending is VERY easy. It can be dangerous if you aren't cautious, and I usually am (a hospital visit and road rash is the last thing that I want). You really don't have to work much, you just let gravity do it's work. The problem with this is that if you start a descent at the beginning of your ride, you don't really get to warm up very fast. That was the case for me on this ride, and I didn't feel better until mile 8 or so. At the bottom of the hill, I kept thinking that I was REALLY going to suffer on the way back. "By the time I start to ascend the hills here, I will be at mile 20 and I will be DYING." Add to that the fact that my speedometer was only registering 30 mph, meaning I was heading into the wind. At least I will have a tailwind coming up. By then I realized that the grade wasn't too steep because my max speed to that point was only 40 mph, I was a little more warm, and I was halfway done with this highway. After riding past lots of beautiful farmland, I entered the town of Morgan (shout out to Travis, it is after all his hometown). I passed under I-84 and followed the signs to the right. When I left my car, I thought 66 was 15 miles long. After crossing I-84 in Morgan, my computer told me I was at mile 13.5, so I was pretty confused. I got to mile 14 and still didn't see any more 66 signs, was even more confused. I gave up trying to find an end sign and turned around. As I thought before, the grade wasn't too bad and I averaged somewhere around 10-12 mph up the hill. Coming back there is a great view of the East Canyon Dam. I headed past the dam, looked out over the water and saw a huge fish just a foot or so from the surface. The ride then continues up and up until it peaks at that first hill which made for a good quick descent to the car. I drove home on gorgeous SR-65 (both of these would make for a great Sunday, or anytime, drive) and showered just in time for K Jo to get home from work so we could head up to her bike fitting. A good day. Ride today was 29.9 miles in 1:39:16. Average speed 18 mph, top speed 41.3 mph. Tally so far, 5 highways, total milage: 142.7, state road mileage: 60.8. Thanks for reading, blog fans.


Chris