Heather & Uhl Albert

Long Weekend in Saint George

IMG_2045Heather and I headed down the Saint George, UT for a weekend of warm weather riding. On Saturday we did a ride which we’ve always wanted to do; St George to Enterprise and back. We’ve gone north past Veyo on Hwy 18 before and know that there’s some decent climbing up that way.

We chose Saturday to tackle this ride since it was supposed to be the warmest of the three days of our trip. We left before noon, when it was still a cool 40-something degrees in town. Riding up through Snow Canyon was as scenic as it always is. Even taking pictures while riding no handed, gives you some great shots. You can just point a camera in any direction and you’re guaranteed to get a decent picture.

IMG_2032Fortunately the climbs kept us warm on the way out. While there were a couple downhill and flat sections, it was mostly uphill. That is until we hit the summit of the last climb…6150 feet above sea level! Mind you, St George is around 2,600 feet, so there was lots of climbing, though it never got very steep. It was cool to see my Garmin Edge 705 read exactly the same as the summit sign.

Then we descended down into Enterprise and that was one super-cold descent! I was thinking to myself that it was a mistake to continue on; we should have just turned around at the summit! IMG_2034But we descended all the way down to Enterprise which wasn’t that much further. Even though it was only 35 miles away, it was like a totally different climate zone…snow as far as the eye could see. It must have been 40°F and we were both shivering from the frigid descent. Nothing like traveling to a warm place so we can climb to where it’s the same temperature as home!!!

We stopped at the first convenience store to refill bottles then tried to get warm standing in the sun in the parking lot. Then we finally got on our bikes and headed back. The first couple miles we were still cold, but we slowly warmed up during the climb. By the time we reached the summit we were fine and started to enjoy the ride again. From that point on it was mostly downhill, and now it was warmer than when we came up. By the final miles into St George it actually felt warm, giving me a taste of spring weather to come.

On Sunday we did a 1-hour easy spin. It was colder, even for St George. It barely hit 50°F. Then on Monday we went back up Hwy 18 to the turn off to Pine Valley, which we wanted to explore. It was really windy and our legs were still fatigued from Saturday’s 4-hour ride so when we went through Central we decided to turn around early. It looks like the road stays paved all the way to Pine Valley so we’ll keep that as a ride for next time we visit.

I pushed the pace all the way back, trying to make the most of the last day of our trip. Even though it was just under a 3-hour ride, my legs felt thrashed. Mission accomplished!

No power data, but here are my rides on Garmin Connect: