Riding Day 15 - A Very Hard Day

Perry to Garden City, UT, about 71 miles with a couple of significant climbs, including up beautiful Logan Canyon, along the rushing Logan River. Again we were led by Rich's cousin, Dan, truly a fine person in addition to being a very strong cyclist. On the first climb we struggled with a significant headwind, and at the top it was cold enough that we could see our breath. We then rushed down the beautiful descent, after which we warmed up with coffee, hot chocolate, and breakfast at the Burger King at the bottom.

After a quick tour of Logan, we started up the canyon. A nice lunch stop at a National Forest campground was followed immediately by the start of rainfall that lasted the rest of the day. We have significant rain gear, but weren't equipped for that amount of rain and cold. By the time we reached the summit, it was snowing, my gloves were drenched, Rich's feet were soaked and numb, and we were faced several miles of downhill to Garden City on Bear Lake. Under normal circumstances it would have been a fun and beautiful descent, but the rain was lashing our faces like knives, our cold hands could barely work the brakes, we couldn't allow ourselves to go too fast because of the cold, and the lake was gray and dark. It was a great relief to finally reach the bottom and find Cindy and Kathy in the motor home in the campground where we could dry off and warm up.

Tomorrow's forecast is predicted to be rainy with a high temp of 48 (normal is 73). If that comes true, we'll probably take a layover day here.

On the plus side, we passed 1,000 miles today!