SR-248

I know, I know it's been like seven months, but it was winter, and I THOUGHT I MIGHT ride some of southern Utah's highways, but K Jo and I started snowboarding and I started training for The Utah Half, and... Anyway here is my latest adventure on Utah's State Highways: SR-248. To sum up the whole ride, here is a picture:

I love seeing flags when I ride because they are such great indicators of wind speed and direction. Yeah, that was my day... wind. I am picking up some shifts at Park City Medical Center so Saturday morning (May 22nd) I went there to become acquainted with the lab. I really didn't feel like driving all the way to Park City JUST to see the lab, so I decided to see what state roads were near Park City. Luckily, I found SR-248. I am in the middle of training for the Utah Half, and today I was supposed to ride two hours. How fortuitous that this road is 14.5 miles long with lots of hills meaning out and back would take two hours. The road starts at SR-224 in Park City. It drops slightly then rises a bit where it drops again to Jordanelle Reservoir. From there, it winds its way up the mountain where it peaks around 7000 feet, then drops into Kamas Valley finally terminating at SR-32 in Kamas.

I left the lab around noon and headed south to the highway. I took a left and began my ascent (the road to the hospital is at about mile 3 of the highway) I got to the top of the hill no problem and started to descend. Now, the wind was blowing pretty good in a north west direction. I was headed east, blissfully unaware that I was riding into the wind because I was descending a big hill. I got to the bottom and started a hard ride up another hill, again, into the wind. I reached the top but not before getting a great view of Jordanelle reservoir (I would have liked to take a picture, but I left my phone/camera in my car). At the top, the wind shifted slightly and was now blowing from the south. From the top of the hill, the road descends straight east right into Kamas. I screamed down the hill (go fast, take chances) topping out at almost 45 mph. When I hit Kamas, I stopped at a 7-Eleven to answer the call of nature. I tried this new stuff called perpetuem. It is a soy based endurance fuel for crazy people like me who go on bike rides and run and swim for two hours or more. I did a lot of research to plan adequately for the race in August, and apparently if you exercise for more than two hours, your muscles begin to cannibalize themselves for protein. To avoid this one must consume proteins, calories, carbohydrates (fuel) during the race. Anyway, perpetuem comes in powder form and you mix it with water. So I drank that stuff and a little water and it made me have to pee... a lot... After 7-eleven, I turned around and noticed that the wind had shifted... again... blowing in a north east direction... which meant riding into the wind... again... up the big freakin' hill I had just come down... I finally made it to the top and started to descend (again into the wind) so I never went any faster than like 35 (could not go fast, could not take chances). I made it to the bottom and looked up at the hill I had to climb and couldn't remember it being that big, then I realilzed that I had ridden down the hill (blissfully unaware) into the wind, so of course it didn't seem so big. About half way up, had to pee again but, Park City was still a few miles away. I eventually made it into town, did my business, and turned around to head back to my car. This time, I was riding down hill, with the wind and it took me only 7 or 8 minutes to get back to the road to the hospital where my car was parked. I had to turn almost completely around to head back west towards the hospital, and the wind had picked up considerably so it took about 5 more minutes to ride the mile back to my car. I got in my car, called K Jo and headed home. On the way, it snowed at Parley's Summit. I stopped to pick up some groceries, then got home and went... again... maybe this perpetuem is not for me. All in all, is was a great day.

Today's ride was 31.1 miles, I did it all in 2:04:53 averaging 14.9 mph with a top speed (amazingly) of 44.9 mph. This is the 12th state road I have ridden. 369.3 total miles, 165 miles of state roads. Thanks again for reading.

Couldn't find an "end sign" at either end of the highway but I don't think it would have mattered anyway because I left my camera in my car. The two pics I did get, I took in Park City while on my way home.