Extra pics from the Gran Fondo

 Eric and I midway through the ride

 This was our starting group

About 1/2 way through the ride, we get to climb this hill

Gran Fondo 2014

Well as most of you know, my big bike ride this summer was the Cache Valley Gran Fondo. After doing 100 miles last year, both Eric and I thought doing a 50 mile ride this year might be a lot more enjoyable. Just like last year, we started out adventure by going up the day before and just enjoying the town of Logan. On the morning of the ride, the hotel was nice enough to open up their free breakfast at 5:00 am (instead of the regular 6:00) so we could fuel up before our ride, which started at 6:30 am. For not having practiced as much as we wanted to, we both felt we did very well by averaging 17.7 mph over the full course of 50 miles.

 Getting the bikes ready (we have to take them apart to fit them in the trunk of the car)

 Hundreds of us line up at the start line

and we are off!

 50 miles, 3 hours and 10 minutes later at the finish line

We did it! 

 Keith, Eric and Joseph at the end of a great ride

But wait, there is one more great adventure. Keith decided to take advantage of one of the activities that was part of the Gran Fondo Downtown festivities. Yes, Keith jumped off of the equivalent of a two story building to free fall onto this inflatable mat. Way to go Keith!

The last leg of our Mt. Whitney trip

After visiting Great Basin National Park, it was time to go home. We decided to go through Ely Nevada because they had a historic train museum from the Nevada Northern Railway. At this national historic landmark, visitors are allowed to walk through the dirt and grime of a living running train shop where they restore and run their steam and other locomotives. As we approached the steam engine I asked how long it takes to warm it up to back it out of the train house so that they could take it on a ride and the conductor said 5 hours. He asked if I wanted to help and of course I said yes. He let me help shovel coal to fire up the boiler. It was a lot of fun and a great way to end our trip.

Restored steam locomotive

Debra walking through the train house

 Shoveling coal into the fire box of the steam locomotive

Walking around the train yard

Great Basin National Park (Part 2 of 3 of our vacation)

Well, here is the update of the next part of our trip to California (AKA Mt. Whitney hike).

After we finished the hike, I headed back to Cedar City to pick up Debra. She had been staying with her mom while we were hiking. When we got to Cedar, it was nice to finally have a shower and clean up. We debated if we should just stay in Cedar and do a local picnic or something but in the end we decided to go with the original plan to go camping. We went to town and stocked up on a few camping supplies and headed out to Nevada to camp at Great Basin National Park. We left early in the morning and it was a long drive through the middle of nowhere to get there. I think we might have passed 6 cars driving over 100 miles but in the end it was worth the drive. Great Basin is an island of mountains in the middle of the desert. Once we got to the higher altitude the temperatures cooled off enough that it was very pleasant. We picked up our tickets to Leaman's cave for later in the afternoon and then found a campsite. After setting up our tent we rested a bit and then headed back to take our turn going through the cave. The cave was typical with lots of fun things to see.

 Waiting our turn to go in the cave

 Once inside the temperatures were just right

 Lots of fun stalactites

 Fun tunnels

 and caverns

 Something that looks like a giant wedding cake

 Working our way through the passageways

finishing up in the grand ballroom

Once we were finished with the cave tour, we did the scenic drive up the mountain side to take in the views. At the end of drive we did a 3-mile hike to a Bristle Cone Pine forest of trees that were 3,000-4,000 years old where we saw some of the oldest living things on the planet.

 Hiking up to the top of the mountain

 Debra inspecting the forest

 Taking a rest in the shade (After Mt. Whitney, I do admit I was still a bit sore)

 this is what a 3,000-4,000 year old tree looks like

Waking up in the morning inside our little tent.