Crusher In The Tushar

This is about mountain climbing, but not in the usual sense. I'm signed up for an 80 mile bike race through the Tushar mountains of southern Utah. When you think of Utah mountains you usually think of the prominent Wasatch mountains that dominate the eastern view for most of the residents of Utah. However, down south near Beaver Utah you have the Tusher Mountains and Utah's highest road, Big John Flats, that tops out at 11,500 ft. I'm confused a bit by the "Flat" part of the name, but there are a lot of names around here that don't make sense. Normally I wouldn't post "cycling" things on this blog, but would post on my other blog www.crossthemountains.blogspot.com, which covers my infamous results and other details during the cyclocross season.

However, since I've been training hard and heavy for this race I've been spending a lot of time in the mountains. And staring at all the alpine views made this post seem more applicable to this blog. Most recently I put together a 74 mile training ride with about 6,000 ft. of climbing. The mileage was close, but the climbing is nowhere near the 12,000 ft. of climbing that "The Crusher" course will include. I took off work a little early on a Friday afternoon so I could get in the ride before we left for vacation the next day. I rushed home, got ready and then found I had a few things to get done first. Finally I left the house about an hour fifteen min. late. I've been riding the Alpine Loop quite a bit, which goes up American Fork Canyon and drops to Provo Canyon near Sundance, for training so I stuck with the usual first part of my ride which took me to the AF canyon entrance, then headed west to ride around the frontage road to Draper and the first big climb of the day, Traverse Ridge Road. It's not super tall, about 1800 ft. but it is unrelenting and in the hot afternoon sun it was pretty demoralizing. I finally made it to the top and loved the wide sweeping curves of the downhill. I had run out of water and my head felt like I had a major fever so I stopped at a gas station for a Slurpee. I started to suck it down and got the worst brain freeze of my life so I had to slow down. The Slurpee was pretty sweet so I filled up my water bottle with cold water too. I ended up sitting there for 20 min. sucking down blue Slurpee and 2 bottles of water.


I felt a lot better now and hit the road. I headed up the American Fork Hwy, with my legs feeling every bit of the 35 miles I'd already done. I got in a good groove and worked my way to the summit. This ride was much cooler than previous rides because most of it was done in the shade of the late afternoon and evening. In fact it started to get cool enough that I realized I was going to be in trouble once I hit the summit. Normally it's quite a relief to make it to the 8,026 ft. summit sign, but this time I knew I would be utterly frozen on the way down. I was cold to begin with, covered in sweat and cool temps, then the wind started. Despite adding to the cooling effect with speeding wind I tried my best to get down the road as fast as I could. I knew I could pop into Sundance for a minute once I got there. It seemed to take twice as long as usual to get there. Finally I rounded the last corner and got inside to the hotel registration lobby. They set me up with some hot cocoa and I warmed up as much as I could. It was then that I realized my next big quandary. I only had my prescription sunglasses with me and it was past dusk now and starting to get pretty dark. If I waited around much longer I'd be in big trouble riding blind. I got back on my bike, still cold, and started riding. Since it had gotten pretty dark I took my sunglasses off and rode half blind down the road. I was doing pretty well until I got a bug right in the eye. Then I started hitting swarms. I had to put my sunglasses back on and do my best to make out the pits and cracks in the road. I knew from previous rides that the coldest part of that canyon is about 1.5 miles below Sundance. I think it must be the raging creek right next to the road, but even on a hot day it gets pretty chilly right there. Soon enough I was shivering and slowly working my way down the canyon hoping that Provo Canyon would be warmer. After an eternity I made it to the highway.

Now, I was no longer really cold, but it was now pitch black and I had cars going 65 mph to deal with. The first part of the ride has a decent shoulder so it wasn't too bad. People often like to honk in the tunnel that you hit part way down and this night was no different. I could have killed them when they laid on the horn as I pedaled through that dark canyon. I was starting to get pretty darn nervous but I kept on. Now the shoulder got smaller and would be ok, except those rumble strips are placed right down the middle of it so you have a choice of riding in the 1 ft. space between the rumble strips and the car lane, or in the 1ft. space between the rumble strip and the road barrier. Obviously you want to get away from the cars that are speeding toward you in the dark. The only problem is that the far right side of the shoulder always has loads of debris on it. I was cruising down and saw the usual gravel, then bits of glass then I came across what looked like a overturned bucket of blood. Really, what are these people doing?! I was totally freaked out by now and had decided to just ride over the rumble strips because I was scared to go too fast anyway. I could barely make out any obstacles before I ran into them so speed was not my friend. Tires, 2 x 4's, junk and what was up with that bucket of blood. I'd also like to ask what the deal is with the huge pile of giant carp along the side of the road. I couldn't see them this time, but I sure could smell them. I had spotted this big pile of rotting fish on previous rides, truly bizzare. And why is this canyon taking so long to get down. By now I had pushed my sunglasses down my nose so that I could peer through them if I needed detail but they weren't blocking my view and making things even more black than they already were. Not a great way to ride, but it was better than choosing one over the other. Suddenly screeching tires right behind me, uncontrolled urination...almost. Did I mention that today was a bad day to put on the black cycling jersey? I'm not sure what the deal was with the car that apparently almost hit me I was afraid to stop or do anything other than continue in a forward motion.  Finally I got to the bottom and a street light. It was glorious! Then the lights ended. I'd like to ask Provo and Orem, what they have against street lights because the entrance to a canyon seems like a good place to have a few lights. I pedaled home grateful that I wasn't dead and pretty sure that I'd be able to make it there now.