SR-17
So remember how I said I needed a break? Well, I decided to extend our break. It is so sunny and warm here in St George that I couldn't bring myself to go back to Salt Lake, so here I am early Sunday morning writing from the business center of the Crystal Inn in St George. Oh... and remember how I said I was going to run a portion of the Ironman St George run course... yeah that didn't happen either. I woke up and got ready to run and my legs were SO achy. Not really sore, just achy. I don't know what it is but it is very frustrating. I think I landed wrong snowboarding or something because they just hurt. So I decided to take a few days off of running and scale back my distances, which will most likely mean I will be doing the half marathon distance in May instead of the marathon distance. It's okay, there is another marathon in October that I have my eye on. Anyway, because I did not run yesterday, I decided to see what other state roads are close to St George. Also, because I decided to ride, I also decided to extend our stay one more day... it didn't take much to convince K Jo. I looked at some maps and saw SR-59 which extends from Hurricane about 22 miles to the Utah/Arizona border and thought, "Perfect, out and back about 45 miles." So I made a map and an elevation profile yesterday morning. I had breakfast and we checked out and drove around St George for about an hour. I hit the bike shop and bought chain lube cause my chain was pretty thirsty and squeaky. After we checked in, I lubed up my chain, got on my bike and went, "AAAAAHHHHH". Turns out that even though you ride once or twice a week during the winter for an hour each time, it really does not prepare your tush for a nearly four hour ride. My butt is sore! Great, now my legs ache and I have a sore butt. So, K Jo and I went exploring the hotel. They have a huge outdoor pool and the weather was amazing. I also remembered from perusing maps that there is another state road near St George that is only 6 miles long so I decided to make yesterday a swim/bike day. I swam in the pool for about 20 minutes and the water was AMAZING. I also rode SR-17.
SR-17 begins in La Verkin at SR-9. It dips down to La Verkin Creek where it begins to climb in a north by north-west direction. It then passes through the small town of Toquerville and shortly thereafter it curves back to the south-west then back again north-west where it continues to climb until it terminates at I-15. It is 6 miles long. Although I ached to ride 45 miles by going out and back on SR-59, I decided my sore bum couldn't handle that. I also didn't want to only ride 12 miles so I started this ride in the middle of Hurricane. I parked at the Family Dollar, put on my shoes and helmet and began my ride by heading west on SR-9. I soon found that SR-9 is under construction and had to dodge traffic and ride on the sidewalk. Soon, I made it through construction to the Virgin River which is at the bottom of a breathtaking gorge. I am still kicking myself for not taking pictures, but here is a picture I found on Google Maps of the bridge spanning the gorge:
I continued on unharmed by the traffic or the sidewalk and finally made it to the beginning of SR-17. I sped down the hill toward La Verkin Creek and relished in the fact that I was riding at 30+ mph in January without having to wear tights or a jacket... Nope just my bib shorts and my jersey. When I reached the bottom, I began to climb and you know me, love me some climbing. This route has a narrow shoulder but there is not really a ton of traffic, so the climb, although moderately difficult, was nice. I stopped near the freeway to snap a picture of the end sign below... gotta love that azure sky... and turned around after passing under the freeway. I again grinned from ear to ear as I screamed down what I felt to be a well earned descent back into La Verkin. I crossed the creek and began the climb back to the SR-9 junction, fought traffic and the sidewalk back through construction to the Family Dollar where I used the facilities and bought a coke and some salt n vinegar pringles... so luxurious after a ride... I put my bike on the car and headed back to St George where K Jo and I had dinner and watched a movie in our hotel room. Another great day. SR-17 is state road number 23. I rode 19.5 miles today in 1:10:05, averaging 16.7 mph. Top speed was somewhere around 35 mph, my computer got reset on the way back to the hotel before I could see the top speed. Thus far I have ridden 700.7 miles, 252.3 miles of state roads. Thanks for reading!
I continued on unharmed by the traffic or the sidewalk and finally made it to the beginning of SR-17. I sped down the hill toward La Verkin Creek and relished in the fact that I was riding at 30+ mph in January without having to wear tights or a jacket... Nope just my bib shorts and my jersey. When I reached the bottom, I began to climb and you know me, love me some climbing. This route has a narrow shoulder but there is not really a ton of traffic, so the climb, although moderately difficult, was nice. I stopped near the freeway to snap a picture of the end sign below... gotta love that azure sky... and turned around after passing under the freeway. I again grinned from ear to ear as I screamed down what I felt to be a well earned descent back into La Verkin. I crossed the creek and began the climb back to the SR-9 junction, fought traffic and the sidewalk back through construction to the Family Dollar where I used the facilities and bought a coke and some salt n vinegar pringles... so luxurious after a ride... I put my bike on the car and headed back to St George where K Jo and I had dinner and watched a movie in our hotel room. Another great day. SR-17 is state road number 23. I rode 19.5 miles today in 1:10:05, averaging 16.7 mph. Top speed was somewhere around 35 mph, my computer got reset on the way back to the hotel before I could see the top speed. Thus far I have ridden 700.7 miles, 252.3 miles of state roads. Thanks for reading!
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| If you look closely, you can see that this used to be a US-50 sign. |
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