End of the Journey.

On Wednesday September 16, 2009 at 5:00 pm I finally finished "the ride".

My immediate family all met me at "This is the Place Monument" in Immigration Canyon, Salt Lake City Utah.

Everyone of them are outstanding people and they set a high standard for me to try to live up to. Each of the children are beautiful, obedient, smart, strong and good. I will name everyone by Family starting with my oldest daughter's family and ending with my youngest daughter's family.

Shawnelle, Dale, Jessica, Kaycie and Adyson Aston

Ed, Kimberly, Joshua, Megan and Zachary Carter

Angela, Mike, Sydney, Braden, Justin and Nathan Drake

Stephanie, Josh, Halle, Madeline and Jackson Fugal

Jennifer and Scott Chalmers (their two dogs Bo and Tay can be seen in the Fort Bridger family photo).

I apologize for taking so long to update the blog to the end of the trip but I have been so busy enjoying family interaction that I am suprised that it is done even at this late date.

I have added 12 pictures with narrative today. Since I posted the first picture and narrative first you will have to read it last. If you want to find out what happened on Monday September 7 you will have to keep reading.

Thanks for your interest in and comments about my adventure.

I will not be updating it again.

Sunday evening September 13 I stayed at Kim and Rhonda Petersen's home. Kim is my wife Kathleen's nephew and I have known him for 42 years. He has always been a good kid. They live in Lyman Wyoming and have raised their family there. It was really fun stay at their home, visit and catch up. They also fix great meals.

I thought the rest of the trip was going to be a straight downhill shot from the high plains of Wyoming into the valley of the Great Salt Lake. It is approximately 110 miles from Lyman to Salt Lake City. I thought that would be two easy days or one long day - doable because it is downhill. I did not do my homework. It actually took me three days.

The 37 miles from Lyman to Evanston includes a steep long downhill and then a very long steep uphill that even causes semi-trucks problems. Monday September 14 I only rode to Evanston. I ran into a major storm with headwinds so stiff that they stopped me even while riding downhill and rain so intense that I was soaked in minutes. I estimate the wind gusts at over 40 MPH.

Tuesday September 15 I rode from Evanston to 3 miles past Henefer Utah before the storm hit again. I only got 44 miles on tuesday.

That left me with about 35 miles to Salt Lake City on Wednesday September 16. I rode up over Hogsback Summit and down to East Canyon Reservoir. There is a really neat resort named "East Canyon Resort". It is right on the Mormon Trail and has Condos, RV sites, camping, a fine restaurant, store and recreational facilities like tennis courts, etc. It was a welcome resupply point just at the right time. It is at the base of a long climb to the summit of "Big Mountain". The resort owns 10,000 acres that can be used for hiking in the summer and cross country skiing or snowmobiling in the winter. It is managed by a friendly, dynamic guy named Rod Myers.

This picture was taken at the summit of Big Mountain by a friendly biker. There is a lot of serious biker traffic between Salt Lake City and the summit of Big Mountain but not a lot of traffic down the other side to East Canyon Reservoir. From Salt Lake it is a 17 mile climb that gains 3200 feet elevation. There is also a smaller mountain on the route called "Little Mountain" by the pioneers. Both mountains were a challenge for a tired old biker looking forward to seeing his family at "This is the Place Monument".

On Sunday afternoon September 13 four of my five children and their families met me at Fort Bridger Wyoming. We had a great time learning the history, visiting, eating and relaxing.

I don't know if you can tell by this picture but everyone of them is smarter and better looking than I am. It is really satisfying to see improvement from one generation to the next.

I will name everyone in the last blog - Family Group picture.

The minor miracle on Friday September 11 put me back on schedule to attend Church.

Saturday September 12 I rode 73 miles to get to Little America on US Interstate 80. My Daughters Stephanie Fugal and Jennifer Chalmers and their husbands Josh Fugal and Scott Chalmers and granddaughters Halle and Madeline Fugal met me at Little America. It was great to see them. We ate and stayed in a warm, dry, clean motel room.

Sunday morning, September 13, I got up early and rode 30 miles to Church in Lyman Wyoming. I actually do not know how it happened but somehow the Lord was able to meet my goal set in Casper to attend Church in Lyman.

Stephanie shot this picture of me riding on I-80 from her motel room door. You may not notice but I am not carrying any equipment. Stephanie transported it to Church in her car.

South Pass City is another old gold mining town. It has been restored as a historical district by the State of Wyoming.

South Pass was a critical gradual slope route through the Rocky Mountains and over the continental divide. All of the Pioneer Trails crossed it. Later on gold was discovered there.

To really understand what is going on you will have to read the next blog entry.

It is now late in the afternoon of Friday September 11. I still had to ride another 5 miles on a dirt road to get to Highway 28. I wanted to ride another 6 miles on Highway 28 and get to a Wyoming Rest Area to camp for the night.

I got to highway 28 and a minor miracle happened. I was riding downhill and I had a tail wind. It had taken me about 8.5 hours of riding, eating and relaxing to get to this point and I had only covered 26 miles on dirt. I had about 2 hours of sunlight left and I decided to see how far I could go. In the next 2 hours I covered 40 miles. I arrived in Farson Wyoming with sunlight to spare. The ride was exhilarating. I seemed so powerful. I sped downhill at 30+ MPH. I even powered up the rolling hills at about 18 MPH.

My suggestion is if you want to go on a bike ride choose downhill with a tail wind.

On Friday Morning September 11, I got up early and rode 16 miles on the dirt county road to Atlantic City Wyoming. It is a great old gold mining town that is not on a paved highway. A few good and very interesting people live there.

I ate a couple of very good meals, relaxed and celebrated the fact that I was back in "Civilization". Then I rode another 5 miles on the dirt road to get to South Pass City.

About 50 - 60 miles west of Martins Cove the Mormon Church has created another Visitors Center. It is at the location where the "Willie Handcart Company" was rescued from the same winter storm that got the "Martin Handcart Company".

Both companies were rescued by wagon companies that Brigham Young sent from Salt Lake City when he learned that there were still pioneer companies on the trail in Wyoming late in the season (in addition to the two handcart companies there was a wagon company).

It is an interesting but not widely known fact that Brigham Young sent the rescuers out before the winter storm hit. They were also blasted by the storm as they searched for the 3 delayed pioneer companies.

The Willie Visitor Center is on US highway 287. US 287 junctions with State Highway 28 forming a triangle with Lander Wyoming at the top and the Mormon Trail as the base. I eventually wanted to get to Highway 28 so I decided to ride on the Mormon Trail for 30 miles as a shortcut to the continental divide over South Pass. That would save me about 30 miles.

It was now Thursday September 10 and I was way behind schedule because I had spent so much time at Martins Cove and also I had been riding against headwinds all week so I had covered less than one half the distance. I still hoped to make it to Lyman Wyoming for Church on Sunday morning and it was a couple of hundred miles away.

This picture is a shot of me biking along the Mormon Trail. I did not ride fast on the trail. It was too soft for my skinny, hard road bike tires. There were lots of sharp rocks and the ascents and descents were extreme. This was not a prepared road. There was no grading or leveling or laying a road base. This was just a wagon trail across the prairie. I am very glad that I rode on the Mormon Trail for the experience. I saw and learned a lot but it was slow and difficult traveling.

After about 15 miles the Mormon Trail crossed a county dirt road. I gladly transitioned to the county road. It was still dirt but it was a graded, prepared road and my bike did quite well on it. I camped on top of a ridge with just the coyotes for company and decided I would do better on Friday.