September 2, 2013
Day 33: To Coalville, Utah
Today I start the final segment of this tour and follow the Mormon Pioneer Trail to Salt Lake City. Today's route is through high desert on a road south of the trail's route through Echo canyon which is now I-80.
I got on the road at 8:10 after an excellent hot breakfast at the Days Inn. I pedaled southwest, uphill, out of town on Overthrust road. At the city limits the road name changes to Salt Creek road. It's mostly uphill, climbing to an unsigned summit at 7200 feet elevation.
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Near the summit I passed a huge compressor station on my right just before the pavement ends. This was the only long unpaved segment of my tour, and it was only 6.1 miles of well-graded gravel.
The road crosses into Utah for a few miles before crossing back into Wyoming for several miles. Eventually I crossed into Utah for good. None of the 3 state line crossings was signed.
Pavement resumed when I got to a pipeline facility on my left. A car went by about every 10 minutes.
I had a glorious descent from the summit to the Chalk creek valley. Trees here and there, but definitely not forested. During the descent I passed the turnoff to a popular off-road vehicle area. After that I was frequently passed by a pickup trucks towing ATV trailers. Still light traffic.
Not surprisingly I started to see irrigated farms in the valley along Chalk creek. Pioneer Mormon farmers were aggressive and systematic in their use of limited water supplies to irrigate farms.
I had a headwind for the last 20 miles but the riding was still easy because it's all downstream. I could frequently see dark gray clouds over the mountains, but it never threatened to rain in the sunny valley.
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The valley became increasingly green as I descended. Green because of extensive irrigation from the Weber river stored in Echo reservoir. I'm getting near big mountains again-the Wasatch range.
There are no services between Evanston and Coalville but it's still an easy ride. I would have preferred to go another 10 miles to the town of Henefer but it has no services. Tomorrow will be a long day with huge mountain climbs.
I arrived in Coalville at 2 PM and had lunch at the only cafe that was open on the labor day holiday. Then I went to the only motel in town, Blonquist Motel. Their only available room was a 2-bedroom suite for $52. No problem getting my bike inside! Plenty of time for a nap before dinner.
Coalville is a pioneer Mormon town founded soon after Brigham Young offered a generous reward to the first person to find coal within 50 miles of Salt Lake City. It's a farm town now. Extremely tidy and more prosperous than the more remote Mormon farm towns I've seen recently.
Today was mostly cloudy in the morning. Some very dark clouds, but I never got more than a few drops of rain. The afternoon was much sunnier because the elevation is lower. High of 82F.
At the motel I discovered that I left my toiletries bag behind at the motel room in Evanston. Fortunately my tour is almost finished. I got it back a couple weeks later by calling the motel asking them to mail it to me (charging my credit card for the expense).
Distance: 48.6 miles (78 km)
Climbing: 1294 feet (392 m)
Average Speed: 10.8 mph (17 km/h)
Today's ride: 49 miles (79 km)
Total: 1,667 miles (2,683 km)
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