Day 8

After a weekend of rest with wifey in her cute little hometown I'm back. Oh, how I'm back. Work flew by today as I anticipated my evening ride. As I approached the bike rack outside my work building, a scooterist who was helmeting up for his ride home hollered out with a grin "I'm jealous, you've got a bigger basket than me!"

To make him laugh a bit, I replied "I'm jealous, you've got a motor!", though I wasn't. I'm truthfully, though hopefully not smugly, enjoying this month-long project sans earth-destroying, noisy oil burners. Plus, my quads are going to rock.

I sprinted home (ooh that last hill is a doozy, I call it the quad buster), pounded a quick dinner of frozen ravioli (thank you Costco) and prepared for my ride. I threw on my bike clothes, filled up my camelback and bottle with water and gatorade respectively, snagged my GPS units (nerd!), grabbed a few treats, including some rootbeer milk (thank you Gosner's) and some yummy bars (thank you wifey's sister) and chucked all of this gear in the phenomenally huge bucket on the back of my Madsen.

[An editorial aside on the beauties of having a bike with a gargantuan bucket on the back]: May I take just a moment and tell you dear reader how freaking awesome it is to be able, on a moment's notice, to chuck anything--found bungees, groceries, beefy bike locks, gear, the worlds largest snack stash, or wandering graphic designers--in the bucket. On your bike. And ride off. Seriously, I would never have thought that a loaded bike could ride so much like a normal bike. Dear reader, please keep tabs on the sidebar list called "Items Hauled". It will be updated daily with things I have actually hauled during this project.

As I sat on the pavement to "velcro up" my bike shoes (that doesn't have quite the ring to it that "lace up" does, if only I cared about my writing enough to change my bike shoes...) I decided on a whim that I would not ride up Logan canyon for a change. I whipped out my map and a place jumped out at me. It called me. Now the only trouble was the distance. It appeard to be about 10 or so miles due south, and the worst part, it was pretty flat the whole way. This would not be a ride with an easy way home like the descents of canyons. This would be a serious ride, and I knew I had to do it. It would boost my confidence for the secret grand finale I am planning for the project.

I set off to main street and headed south. I am astonished with how beautiful Logan is. The ride was good, though the road was not terrible scenic until it narrowed to a classic two lane country road. Canal? check. No shoulder? check. Delightful drivers? check. (I'm not sarcastic here, these were the most biker friendly drivers I have ever seen, most people, even the usually arrogant pickup drivers passed me in the opposite lane!) As I rode I even grabbed a wheat stalk to hang out my mouth as is required by country living regulations.

I gleefully stopped at the above sign which was a mandatory picture, only to be topped by the following pic.

I found a tiny park and had my snacks. I must admit that I thought for a placed named paradise, it was sorely lacking in Del Tacos, but I relented given the sunset. I was worried that I may have overdone it, but the snacks perked me right up and I had an equally delightful ride home to Logan.

Today's stats:
1. work and back 3 miles
2. ride to paradise (and sadly back) 25.8 miles

Not a bad precedent, eh? Almost 29 miles in one day, when last week I did 47!