Day 11

I got into the spirit of work today as I feel I made a difference; a great day.

At lunch I booked my riverboard for Saturday, and I am unbelievably stoked about it. I also convinced (not all that hard really) a good friend to join me for some other adventure Saturday.

Which leads me to my evening ride. Today's objective, canal scouting! As I sporked up frozen ravioli from my tiny mess-kit pot, I pulled up google maps on my little eee laptop (thanks ASUS). I loaded a few points of interest into my trusty garmin, threw my supplies into the bucket (bike) and headed out around 8:30 to avoid the heat.

What an enjoyable cruise through North Logan, a place I find myself crushing on. It has the feel of what I imagine Salt Lake did years ago with houses spread far apart by fields.

After checking out two of the four canal points I had planned, I was headed to the third when I was drawn compelled of course by an alluring dirt road. It had the look that it was oft-passed by, and that consumed my curiosity. About a mile up I stopped to enjoy a snack from the bucket and shoot a few quick pics.

Imagine the calm soothing pre-rain breeze as you listen to this little audio recording of the field.
After a soothing little rest, and given the darkening sky I decided it prudent to head home. As I turned the Madsen around and began my descent around the hill, I skidded to a stop when I could see signs of a sunset. I sprinted with the bike up the grassy hill past the private property signs (suggestions) for a better look. As I crested the hill my eyes beheld a truly ambrosial sunset. With my mind wiped clean of thoughts of dodging rain, I got the cameras out and shot and shot.

The ride home was pleasant and I passed many evening stroll-ers. I even got (and gave) two or three country waves from passing drivers.

Overall ride stats: 11.8 miles
Total daily mileage: 16.5

[Editor's note: I'm working on spiffing up the google doc (spreadsheet) for some additional information and fanciness, so stay tuned.]

Day 10

I learned a ton today at my internship.

[Editor's note: I have a strict no-blogaboutwork policy as to avoid being dooced, so dear reader, you'll have to expand in your head the generic one liner summaries.]

As I just did two twenty miler rides in the past two days, I was determined to have a less intense ride today. And I had the perfect thing to distract myself from (over)doing it.

River scouting.

Earlier in the week a mentor at work informed me of a little thing called riverboarding. I hit up the local college outdoor rec rental place on the way home to investigate. What I discovered shocked and delighted me. Of course, while I was there I had to show off my bike to the fellow gearheads. They were both very impressed, especially after I had taken one of them for a spin in the bucket (good thing I threw in the seat this morning). She gleefully screamed "Ooh, this is sooo fun, you've made my day!" as we tooled around the building. But, more importantly, riverboarding. Picture flying down rapids wearing fins a helmet and wetsuit on an oversized bodyboard. So, yes, I have got to try it. The only hitch is they seriously discourage going alone due to the sketchiness of the whole sport.

Scouting out the river became my main ride objective. I rode along the nature trail stopping frequently to mark out places that seemed mild enough that I might have the gumption to try solo. There were more than a few parts that looking at I nearly wet my pants from fright just imagining navigating them alone. Yikes. So, I schemed as I rode up the walking trail just enjoying my cruise and the cool canyon air. I even managed the uphill singletrack portion of the trail, though I had to hop off for a particularly sharp switchback.

I snapped a few photos at a Geologic Marker (commemorating the shore of Lake Bonneville). Check out the lighting on the cliffs above.

Overall ride stats: 12.3 miles, daily total mileage: 16.8, and man are my legs feeling it.

Day 9u

I set out for my after-internship ride thinking after yesterday's massive ride to paradise I needed a rest. I decided to head up Logan Canyon and once up a few cruisy miles, again I became so enchanted, when I checked the mileage on my trusty Garmin mounted to my handle bars I was alread 8 point something up. Surprised that my legs (and knees, please hold out knees!) were doing so well, I ran some quick maths in my head and realized that if I could make it 10 up, that'd make 20 miles overall, making my nice project odometer roll over to three digits. So I pushed on and turned around happily at 10.0. My new record up the canyon.

Going down the canyon, I was losing light so I really busted out the speed to get home. Near the end of the canyon I decided for a speed record and hit 33 mph. I was pretty stoked. Man am I tired.

Overall ride stats: 20.0 miles, total ascent: ~1820', max speed: 33.3 mph, est calories 730.
Daily mileage total: 23 miles!

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!

Day 4

After a week at a new job (read internship) I am pretty tired. I finally clocked the little ride to and from work which comes in at a mere 1.5 miles each way. So that means, the week's commuting mileage works out as follows.

1.5 miles per way = 3 miles per day * 4 work days (I'm doing 4 10s, which makes for a short work week) = 12 miles commuting per week on the Madsen.

I'll be heading out of state for the wife's reunion this weekend, so the mileage will stop there. The inflexible sticklers among you may think that this violates the entire premise of my experiment. I however view this as a real world 'in situ' project, plus I can't ride the requisite 200 miles.

The good news is that now my legs will have a chance to recuperate after a week of pushing fairly hard both at work and after on my evening rides.

Day 3

This morning's ride to work (a mere 1.6 miles) was delightful due to the early morning rain and crisp air. I had my rain pants on and escaped with only a dozen drops.

After my shift I rode home, cooked half a tombstone pizza and got back on the bike. I'd heard that a section of the Bonneville Shoreline trail connected Logan Canyon to Green Canyon so I wanted to find out. As I geared up I could see the storm clouds heading my way, and combined with not wanting to totally kill myself (I do tend to over-do it, though I prefer to think of my aggressiveness as "carpe diem") I decided I'd just find the trail and maybe get to Green Canyon. Well I found the trail and the access trail was way too steep for the 8 gears of the Madsen to handle so I carted it up to the shoreline. Once on the shoreline I was mostly OK with the rolling gravel path, but a few points were simply too steep for the traction to grasp. Annoyed, I carried on towards Green Canyon. I ended up going 2 miles up the rocky dirt road of the canyon 2 miles. This is a steeper canyon than Logan canyon and the jarring of the rocks made the downhill not unpleasant, but I'll just say I was a bit jealous of the folks flying by on their shocked out bikes. The scenery of this canyon is spectactular, close and very aptly named. I pulled over in one of the camp sites for a rest and granola bar to be surprised by 3 or so bolted sport climbs.

Overall ride stats: 11.1 miles, total ascent: 1962'

Day 2

Last night after work and a bit of dinner I took the bike up Logan canyon. I made it about 3-4 miles up, which sounds weak sauce but after a 10 hour day getting 70+ pound bike that far is no small feat. The total ride mileage was 9.8 miles with 1390 feet of ascent.

Today, work was fine, and now the good stuff. I was even more stunned than yesterday as I rode up the surprisingly gorgeous Logan canyon past a few dams. I went about 8 miles up thrilled as can be at the sights and relative wildernessiness of the place. As much as I enjoy a nice light road bike, the cruisey upright position make touring quite a treat. Here's a pic from the little pull-off where I turned around.

On the way down the canyon I thought I'd try out the nature trail that follows the river rather than coasting down the road. I hopped on at some campsite and enjoyed the wide graveled trail. A mile or so later the trail turns singletrack and circles up the hill to dodge some private property. I found this out after I had ridden up their driveway. I was hesitant about the singletrack given Madsen's length, but continued on for the sake of science. She handled remarkably well, reminded me of driving a rental Chevy Lumina across washboard in the Nevada desert (funny story), not the smoothest downhiller, but manageable. I did however knock the double kickstand on more than a few rocks as I'm not used to her clearance compared to my normal cross country mountain bike. I didn't think to much of the clunks until I got home and realized that I had lost both of the beefy rubber feet.

Oops. I'll have to find some old crutches somewhere....

I was however thrilled that I took a moderately technical bit of single track and handled all but the one sudden switchback on this longtail. Overall ride stats: 17.7 miles, total ascent 2589'.

I have a feeling my legs are going to be ripped and sinewy by the end.