Heading west - in 90 days from New York to San Francisco: The Salt Lake Loop

For the next week and maybe more I planned to do kind of a loop via Salt Lake and the Salt Plains northwest of where I was in this day.

Cause the next day I want to take off is when I'm gonna do the hike down Grand Canyon, there is no other possibility as to return to the Colorado River just 100km south of Moab, cause the hike I'm gonna do is on the south side of the canyon and if I don't wanna do a return ride to there via the North Rim I have to approach from the east (makes more sense when you look it up on a map:). Another reason to approach Grand Canyon from the east is that I wanna see Monument Valley which is exactly at the Utah border to Arizona.
But anyway, that's because I'm doing a loop, crossing the Salt Plains, cycling a little bit into Nevada and going back east via Delta (Utah) to the Colorado River instead of going directly south from Salt Lake to Vegas.

My place for the night

The next morning the weather finally seemed to be getting nice again as I woke up because of the rising temperatures in my tent this time. I had now plenty of time to make it to the Ray's Tavern in Green River to watch the quarter final of the Euro, Germany vs. Italy at 1pm. The remaining 40km/25mi included a 30km/19mi ride on I 70 cause for another time there was no other road available. But at least it went there very quick and by 11:30am I already reached the exit to the town.

Going into Green River

The Green River - not really green to be honest:)

The good thing about everything being so far apart from each other here in the desert is that every town has pretty much everything what you need: bars, gas stations, grocery stores and fast food restaurants, no matter what the size of the town is. One of thes fast-food chains, Subway, became my absolute favourite stop in the last couple of weeks. Mainly because of the foot-long Meatball Sub which contains almost 1000kcal and is so delicious, for just 5.75$!! (Picture at the end of this post, where it was way more important for me to get one:)

Another thing I fell in love with are the cookies you can get there:) They are soooo good that I simply can't resist buying at least three of them when I see them. I definitely have to ask Jan from the Hanson family in Kansas for the recipe of the cookies cause hers have been definitely the best I ever tasted!

Unfortunately it wasn't possible to take an own photo of the cookies, cause I'm first eating and then thinking:)

The third thing I really appreciate of getting there especially during hot and exhausting days are the cold drinks in the 44oz-super-sized cups. Sure you can get them pretty much at every gas station but when I see a subway I always get them there cause of the already mentioned reasons:) Depending on the temperatures I usually empty the whole cup (half filled with ice cubes, getting a free refill, empty the cup again, getting a second refill for free and filling this one into my bike-bottle for enjoying a cold drink the next half an hour of cycling:) Since I started cycling the desert I actually stop at every gas-station or fast food restaurant for the cold drinks as you never no for sure how long you'll have to stay with out one afterwards.

Same problem as with the cookies but I think this picture displays the size of the drinks pretty well:)

So the first thing I did when I came to Green River was looking for a Subway for sure and I found one! Gained new strength from the Meatball Sub, the cookies and the soft drink I was ready for the soccer-match and headed to Rays Tavern in the middle of the town. Cause you can't just sit in a bar without eating or drinking something I ordered Mountain Dew and fries for the match and the eating went on!:D

Ray's Tavern in Green River

Watching the match with the support of delicious fries:)

Jesus! This match has been one of the most thrilling ones I've ever seen in my life! Cause it was the two best teams remaining in the tournament, it has been a pretty close match for most of the time and ended with a 1:1 tie after 90 minutes. Cause the extra time didn't change anything it went on to penalty kicks what is always a nightmare for both teams cause usually its just luck what decides the match from now. And even worse was that Germany was the second to shoot what means that once it gets to suddendeath you're always the one who has to score if the player of the other team scored before without a chance of winning in that moment. Unfortunately it was a tie after 5 penalties for each team so it went on to sudden death! It was so thrilling that I simply couldn't control my eating anymore (I think I emptied a whole plate of fries just during the penalty shootout)! Then suddenly an Italian player missed and it was the chance to win the match now!
I think you could have heard my scream across the whole town when the German player scored:) I got definitely lots of funny looks in the bar but I didn't care, I was just soo relieved!:)

Maybe I should call them after this match! :D

Cause the match went on for an hour longer than usual it was already half past five when I got on the road again but the German victory gave me some extra power and I decided to cycle till sunset and pull over just somewhere next to the road then, what shouldn't have been a problem as the road went through the middle of nowhere the next 100km/62mi. But the soccer match shouldn't become the only frightening thing that day. Again and just in the valley I rode into have been some very not good-looking clouds and as came closer I saw the first lightning on the left side and soon it have been two thunderstorms on both sides of the valley!!

Dangerous looking clouds ahead

As it was pretty much impossible to predict the way they would take and considering that I was exactly between them it was the best decision to continue as fast as possible in these stormy winds cause there was absolutely no place to seek shelter in this totally flat area with nothing but foot-tall bushes. It got really dangerous then when the thunderstorm on my right side came so close that one lightning stroke just a couple hundred meters apart into a hill. I didn't look back anymore from that moment and cycled as fast as I could to get outta this hell! I even tried to stop a car to get some shelter until the storm would be gone but cause nobody wanted to stop, cycling faster was the only option! Finally the thunderstorm dissolved and went away into the other direction. That was close! If it would have come just any closer I would have had to dismount my bike immediateley and go into safety position which is to hunker down, feet and knees together and put the hands on your face to expose the smallest surface as possible for the lightning to strike and never lay down (as less connection to the ground as possible!) The saying of some people that you're safe on your bicycle or motorcycle because the tires are out of rubber is just not true. A lightning which strikes through thousands of meters of air doesn't stop for a few centimeters of rubber!

Cycling into the night (notice the steep climb ahead:/)

Considerable relieved another time that day I continued on the road towards the next town with supply, called Price, till sunset. The sunset below the still slightly raining clouds was absolutely amazing and I could take some nice pictures and cycle towards a blood-read horizon into the night. Once it was getting dark I could already see the lights of the neighbour-village of Price and pitched my tent just right before the town so I could get myself some food and drinks right after getting on the road the next morning:)

Stunning sunset ahead:)

my place to sleep for this night

Lots of little company around my tent:)

Just 5km/3mi down the road the next day I spotted a Subway and cause I hadn't eaten yet I got myself the Meatball Sub + a huge softdrink for breakfast. Quickly refilled my waterbag I got on the road again, intended to reach Provo, a town just before Salt Lake City that day about 150km from Price with 700m/2300ft going uphill on a pass in between. During the ride actually nothing special happened. Temperatures were alright, the pass road not steep and the winds not to bad. The mountains are not that special anymore around here, just covered with dry grass or bushes, not very spectacular but of course still nice to see:)

One thing to mention maybe is that the thunderstorms of the last few days have downgraded to "just" heavy showers today of which one hit me but considering the high temperatures it was rather a welcomed refreshment:)

Very fresh jerkey along the road:)

First traffic lights since more than 250km/155mi!

When I reached Provo then it was just 5 o'clock (1am in Germany) and I got good reception again, so the perfect moment to get my next radio interview with SWR3! The host of the show (his name is Ben Streubel) just called me not even 5minutes after I sent a message so I had to find a place with no wind in no time what has been quite difficult considering that the wind was blowing from everywhere. But in the end it went all out fine and I could cycle the last few kilometers towards the shore of Utah Lake. When I got there I found myself at a beach with a couple of benches and a nice view over the lake towards the mountains and the sunset. Such a beautiful place for having dinner, quiet and almost nobody around. I almost forgot to watch my noodles on the stove as I was watching ths sunset.

Best place to have dinner...

...and watch the sunset:)

I waited then until it was getting dark to pitch my tent just anywhere around. Once it got night you could already see all the fireworks on the opposite shore of the lake as people have been already celebrating the upcoming Indedpendce Day!
On the bench next to me some people have come around 10pm to light their fireworks as well. Hasn't been really special but rather loud so I finally looked for a place to sleep a little away from there and immediately found one not far from the benches to have my breakfast there again the next day.

Sleeping place near the lake (I don't know what my smartphone did to some of the pictures but at least it doesn't affect the nice ones)

The 4th of July started as a super lazy day for me. Cause I wanted to see the big fireworks at the north end of Salt Lake City at 10pm I had plenty of time that day cause it was just a 70km-ride to near Downtown. I spent half of the day blog-writing and enjoying the views of the lake and started my ride towards the city around 3pm. Just after I got on my bike I did something really stupid: I was looking up the route to the next Walmart on my smartphone when I totally forgot to look on the bike-trail. I saw the gate way to late and crashed into it with about 20km/h(13mph). The gate was exactly that high that my front wheel was stuck under it, the front tire completely pressed down to the rim of the wheel. In the first moment I really thought this would be the end for my front-wheel, what would have meant a lot of fun finding an open bike-shop on Independence-day but after I got my bike pushed out from under the gate (with the help of another person - it was really stuck below the gate!) it seemed to be completely intact, no scratch, no burst tire or tube, no deformed wheel, nothing! That's what you call luck/ or a stable tire!!:) Considering my experience with my back wheel, that one would have never ever stand something like this!! Well, after that short shocking moment I continued on my way to Walmart visibly relieved that nothing happened.

Writing blog by using green energy:)

So dumb! :/

A short ride later and as I should have known it better I went way to hungry into a supermarket again which ended even worse than last time: Besides a new flag for my bike (lost my last one during one of these thunderstorm winds) and a bunch of these Cliff-energy bars (these from Carol really convinced me as being the perfect power-snack in between) I bought a whole chicken family-size for just 4$ and a king-sized salad as well!!! For sure I didn't even finished the chicken and so I had to save the salad for later. It was sooo much!:D

That happens when nobody stops me!:)

During this meal I almost forgot about the time and so it was already 6pm when I finally started the remaining 60km to Jordan Park where the fireworks were supposed to be. On the way to there I saw a lot of booths in front of supermarkets selling tonns of fireworks! Seems like the whole country is going to buy some of these considering the amount that they were storing there. Independence day here in America is definitely a bigger event than the national holiday is in Germany! I'm not even sure if it's allowed to launch fireworks on the 3rd of October there.

Everywhere around!

Salt Lake City from above, not much to see really

But anyway I made it to Jordan Park by 9:30pm cause there wasn't really much to see along the way. Salt Lake City hasn't got really a beautiful downtown and is just a flat spread out city surrounded by mountains on both sides.
Cause I had still half an hour left when I got to the park it was plenty of time to look for a good place for taking some nice shots of the fireworks and cause I've never tried it before with this camera I was quite excited how they would look like. Well...considering that I had to use my bike as a tripod I was definitely surprised how well they became!:) They haven't been the biggest fireworks I've ever seen they were still definitely worth it for the photos and thousands of people have been coming to watch them so now all these people were about to leave the park all at once! It was kinda difficult to get outta there cycling but even a little bit slower I made it out of the park really quick and started to head westwards out of the city.

4th of July fireworks:)

No I had to make a momentous decision: I had been looking up the weather forecast for the Salt Plains the next day and the predicted some very strong winds picking up around noon and blowing with up to 70km/h (44mph) from the southwest, so pretty much the opposite direction I was heading to. Cycling against winds, blowing with 70km/h is simply impossible and so it was for sure that I had to cross the Plains in the morning and finish the 80km/50mi crossing latest at noon. Cause the Plains were still about 100km away I had exactly two possibilities: Camping right out of town, cycling to the Plains the next day, camping there again and crossing them the day after or doing the hardcore-version: continuing through the night, making it to the Plains by the next morning and crossing them directly afterwards.
Two reasons made me choosing the hardcore-plan: first I didn't want to loose an extra day by spending half a day and a night waiting at the start of the Plains and secondly I wanted to be in Ely, Nevada (400km from where I was) to watch the semi-final of the Euro there three days from now:)

So I started cycling into the night. Cause there wouldn't be any services till Wendover, 200km/124mi away I filled up my water bag with almost two gallons (8liters) which should definitely last for 200km, considering that it would be almost no elevation to climb and half of the way would be during cool night temperatures. Soon after leaving the city I had to get on I80 for the remaining 170km/106mi cause there's simply no other street crossing the Salt Plains. For sure, a night ride on an Interstate with nothing to see is actually a quite boring adventure but with music keeping me awake it was kinda alright. For some reason I couldn't really get faster than 15km/h (9mph) although it was going super flat with no climbs between. I could just explain it with the headwinds I got that night and the amount of extra weight I was carrying with me because of the water, so I didn't think too much about it (I should find out later that day why) and was rather focusing on getting to the Salt Plains by sunrise.

Thanks for pointing it out! I already wondered why the air is moving!

I just made it in time to the rest area at the start of the crossing when the sun was about to rise. Cause I was sooo tired at that point I just had to take a short power-nap and so I inflated my sleeping mat on one of the tables and tried to sleep a little bit. Although I couldn't sleep really I felt a little bit more refreshed after an hour rest and was ready to start the final part of this monster-stage, the 80km/50mi Salt Plains Crossing. I found then out that there was water supply in the toilets and even cold drinks, so I wouldn't had to carry that much with me but how should I know!

Sun is coming up again after a sleepless night

Short nap on the table:)

After 10km/6mi the road made the first and last little turn before it goes simply straight and flat towards Wendover the town on the other side of the plains. The first 20km are quite exciting, cycling in a totally flat, snow-white salt-desert but then you just wanna arrive on the other side. The weather forecast turned out to be shit cause there was absolutely no wind from the southwest at all! That was for sure good news for me but if I could have known that before I probably wouldn't have decided on this monster-stage! But even without winds and quite moderate temperatures I was still pretty slow and so it took me almost 5 hours to reach the other side.
Cause after cycling almost 200km to the beginning of the plains my but hurt that bad (probably the slow speed did it's part as well) that I couldn't stand it anymore and made my saddle super soft by putting my cushion on it which felt quite weird but helped alot!! It's a little bit harder to cycle with that but it's so much more comfortable that I didn't mind the 1-2km/h I lost because of this:)

In the distance you can see the only turn the road makes (it's 10km/6mi away!)

Cushion improvement:)

You can see the other side all the time (still 70km away when I took this picture)

Cause it's flat and straight all the time and there's nothing between you and the other side you can see the other end for almost the whole time! It seems so close although it is about 80km away what makes it quit taff in your mind when you have cycled 20km and the mountains didn't come closer at all!

Nothing but a bike:)

Everything is covered in salt

Needed three of them along the way!

Whyever they built this here:)

But finally I made it to the other side and spotted what would save my day totally: a Subway!:) After already cycling 270km without a major break the Meatball-Sub tasted as good as never before and the ice-cold drinks have been sooo refreshing, I think I refilled the 42oz-cup 3 times before I left the shop. :)

Discover Wendover! You can visit the historic McDonalds, Burger King or the very old Shell gas station! :D

Or you're simply going to the right place...

...and doing the right thing:)

After another short power nap I refilled my waterbag again with two gallons cause the next supply would be the town of Ely, Nevada 130mi/210km away with apparently nothing in between! In Wendover I crossed the border to Nevada then. I wondered if the town agreed on one time because Nevada is Pacific Time already and it would be probably cause some confusion with two time-zones in one town:)

No services for 130miles/210km!

When I continued then for a little bit in the evening it kinda felt really hard now to get some speed so I finally decided to check on my tire if maybe something could be wrong with that or if it would be really just the extra weight. As I checked the pressure then, everything made sense: It was even below 1bar (15psi), almost no pressure at all in my tire anymore!! So stupid that I didn't checked it before, so I apparently lost at least 4 hours since Salt Lake City just because of this!! It all could have been sooo much easier!!

Cause since I decided not to refill my tire at gas stations anymore, after what happened back in Kansas I bought myself a new pump there for 50$ with which it should be apparently possible to fill the 65psi (4-5bar) in the tire by handwork! Now I would see if it would pass the ultimate test... and it did it!!! This pump is just amazing! Within no time you can easily pump up any tire to any pressure and the best thing is that you can fix the hose at the valve so it doesn't affect that one while pumping. Just a brilliant solution! I'm gonna pump up my tire just with that from now on as it has even a scale which actually works compared to these at some gas stations!
But I simply had no idea what caused the low pressure as I couldn't find anything sticking into the tire and the valve seemed to be intact as well. Cause the pressure seemed to be stable now I decided to continue and have a look on it if it would get low again!

Best investment so far: my pump!:)

And it was soo much easier cycling now than before, that I almost flew over the road!:) So I could do another 30km till sunset and just chose any random place next to the road to continue to Ely the next day:)