Day Sixteen: Payson, Utah to Orem, Utah

June 30, 2024

Today's short ride was the easiest and most pleasant one of the trip.

Joy and I lived in Utah Valley for three years in 2009 through 2011-ish, and we've kept in contact with our friends Christa and Bob there since then. Today's destination was their place in Orem.

Utah Valley, sometimes disparagingly/ironically called "Happy Valley" by its non-fans, was busy when we lived there, but I'd heard that the population had exploded since then. So I spent some time last night attempting to map out a low traffic route from Payson to Orem. It helped that I was doing this ride on Sunday morning, when the Mormons, who make up a large majority of Happy Valley residents, would be either inside their churches, or at home studying their religious texts.

I didn't want to arrive too early at Christa and Bob's on Sunday morning, so I took my time getting ready, and didn't ride out until after 9:00.

I backtracked a couple of miles of yesterday's route, and was immediately on pleasant farm roads.

This was very, very nice riding. Almost no traffic at all. Despite my mid-morning start, it still felt fairly cool.

Eventually the farm scenery became more industrial. I crossed over I-15 for the first time. Sunday traffic continued to be very mild. The mountains that loomed over us when we lived here still depressed me a little. I never understood why, but living at the foot of the mountains always made me feel a little uneasy.

A long section on Kuhn Road in the Springville area was especially nice riding. No traffic at all on Sunday. I remembered riding this when we lived in Utah.

I had to cross I-15 again. This time it was not quite as easy, and I spent several minutes on a sidewalk peering at the map on my phone, trying to ensure that I wouldn't inadvertently ride onto the interstate.

Now I was in Provo, in the vicinity of the BYU campus. I was trying to connect the Provo River Parkway Trail. Finding a way onto this trail was the hardest navigation of the ride. Google Maps showed that I could enter the trail by riding through an old mobile home park.

I wound my way through the mobile home park. Most of the modest homes were very old, although most were tidy. The park butted up against I-15, and despite the wall that had been constructed to reduce the noise, I could still hear the constant rush of traffic on the interstate.

At the end of the final cul-de-sac, where I expected an entrance to the bike path, there was a fence instead. There was no way I was getting around, under, or over this thing:

I was slightly aggravated, but maintained my composure as I backtracked out of the mobile home park, and then into a modest neighborhood that butted up against a park, through which I rode my bike across a soccer field and finally connected with the bike path.

The path follows the Provo River and has lots of shade. It's very nice. It made riding through Provo much more pleasant than it otherwise would have been.

Mormon boy dressed for Sunday recreation on the path. Shouldn't he be at home studying the words of the Prophets, though?

I exited the path and rode on quiet city streets for less than two miles. I suspect that the fact that I was doing this on Sunday made it much, much more pleasant.

After a little confusion - my hosts' neighborhood looked different than I remembered from my last visit in 2019, because of a new housing development next door - I found their place, and Christa welcomed me.

It was very enjoyable catching up, and hanging out. Despite my protestations that I didn't need anything fancy, Christa made a delicious dinner that was the best meal I'd had since the one Morri made back in California the night before I started this tour.

Christa and Bosco. He's a very good boy. Their other dog, Ellie, was initially suspicious of me, and kept her distance for a while.

Later, after it cooled down a little, we went into the backyard, where Bob has an impressive garden, which supplied some of the ingredients of tonight's meal.

I went to sleep a little later than usual, after working on a route to get me out of the super-busy Utah Valley and closer to the Wyoming border.

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Today's ride: 30 miles (48 km)
Total: 991 miles (1,595 km)

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