Moab to NW Utah - STR-2021-22

Friday, 23 July

After our breakfast treat at the Doughbird in Moab, we headed west to Ferron, UT, to play golf at the Millsite Golf Course. We enjoyed a very scenic drive and very little traffic.

The course was carved out of desert canyons and mesas. Because of the extreme drought, they have not watered the fairways, and only limited watering of the greens. It would be an understatement to say the course did not look as nice as the photos on the website.

Photo of the par 3 seventh hole - the top of the cliff on the left is where the green for hole 10 is located (hint - don’t hit long on #10).  You can see how brown the fairway is, and some of the canyon/mesa challenge the course offered. The waterfall that is normally at the end of the canyon was not in evidence - likely due to a combination of the drought and the spillway construction work for the lake that feeds the waterfall.

It was obvious that any shot we hit was going to bounce like a ping pong ball as the fairways were almost grass-less and hard, or like landing on concrete. Kris started strong and stayed out of trouble. Her two birdies on the front nine offset her double bogey, so she made the turn leading at even par. While Darrell played the back nine at even par, Kris played it even better to take honors on the day with 4 birdies, 12 pars, one bogey and one double bogey.

After golf, we drove back to the center of town to have a better cell signal to make some phone calls and get online to do some future trip planning.

Our campsite for the night was at Millsite State Park, right next door to the golf course. Sprinty scored a full-hookup, pull-through site on fairly short notice.

Saturday, 24 July

Today, we focused on some errands in the Salt Lake City area. In the last blog post, we spoke of the reappearance of the Three Stooges (dash warning lights indicating safety systems, like the ABS, were not functioning). This time, we got the code reader out before the warning lights cleared and confirmed that the likely cause was a rear wheel sensor. Sprinty had the right rear speed sensor replaced in April - now it is the left rear. The speed sensors are a known weakness in Sprinters that have been upfitted into RVs. Fortunately, the rear wheel sensor replacement is a 20-minute chore - so we ordered the part from Mercedes dealer in Draper, UT, neat Salt Lake City. Even though it is under extended warranty, Mercedes service is backed up due to a Sprinter emissions recall, and we did not relish the thought of days, maybe even a week or more, in a hotel while Sprinty got fixed.

Since we were going to the Mercedes dealer for the part, we arranged for an Amazon purchase to be picked up at an Amazon locker in Provo, UT, near Salt Lake City.

Our errands took most of the day and by the time we were done, it was hot and hazy. Salt Lake City is one of many areas of the country experiencing significant temperature departures from normal. And Los Angeles-like smog.

Computer model projection for temperature departures from average on July 28, 2021. (WeatherBell.com)

We elected to chill (literally) at our campsite at Deer Creek State Park near Midway, UT. As we drove up Provo Canyon, the Provo River was filled with rafters and kayakers. The traffic on the river mimicked the traffic we experienced driving in Draper, UT. Many a time, we saw so many boats floating on the river, so close together, it looked like you could have walked across the river, stepping from one boat to another, and never get your feet wet. For miles and miles along the river.

Sunday, 25 July

Today's activity was bike riding. We selected the Historic Union Pacific Rail Trail State Park. The Historic Union Pacific Rail Trail State Park is a 28-mile, high-elevation trail that follows I-80, from the charming streets of Park City through the smaller communities of Wanship and Coalville to Echo Reservoir. In 2010, this incredibly scenic rail-trail joined the Rail-Trail Hall of Fame.

The rail-trail follows the route of a historical railroad line that transported coal and silver ore during the region's mining heyday in the 1860s. To help commemorate this heritage, Summit County's Restaurant Tax Grant Committee provided the Mountain Trails Foundation with funds to place 16 plaques along the trail. These markers highlight the early Mormon settlers and ill-fated Donner family wagon train, the trail's intersection with the once-influential Lincoln Highway and the excavation site of Ice Age mammoths, among other historical sites and events.

The bike ride was also our first test of our Sena R1 Smart Cycling Helmets (www.sena.com) that we picked up at the Amazon locker yesterday.

Kris styling her new Sena helmet

The Sena R1 Smart Cycling Helmet is a bike helmet that features built-in speakers and mic giving the ability to communicate with others in your group with a range of up to a half-mile. It uses noise cancelling technology to handle wind noise. Paired with a smart phone, you can listen to music, hear GPS navigation, and take phone calls. Yup, you guessed it, the Smart bike helmet is smarter than its users. At least for now.

A review of parking options using Google Maps of the Park City end of the trail found no obvious car parking, much less Sprinty parking. We decided to use the Star Pointe Trailhead located off Promontory Ranch Road, about mile marker 6. We rode north first, which was a gradual downhill that followed between the east and west lanes of Interstate 80. From Google Maps, this looked uninteresting, but the ride was much better than expected. The Interstate is elevated from the valley floor, there was a creek along the valley floor, and we enjoyed some of the wildlife.

The trail (and Interstate 80. And the historic Union Pacific railroad) paralleled the Old Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental paved road - from New York to San Francisco.

We rode to mile marker 12, turned around to ride back past our starting point into old town Park City.

Another interpretive sign spoke of the volcanos that poured steam, ash, and molten rock across this land. Interestingly, surface volcanic (igneous) rock is an exception in Utah, since most of the state is covered in layers of sedimentary rock, deposited over hundreds of millions of years on the bottom of ancient seas.

As we neared Park City, we saw a number of walkers and bikers stopped on the bike path looking to the creek below. Down below, we saw a moose feeding on the leaves in the creek - which was all of maybe 60 feet from the bike path, and 100 feet from the apartments on the other side of the creek.

We arrived at Main Street in old town Park City to find that the weekly Park Silly Sunday Market was going string. The Silly Experience includes open air markets, street festival environment, vendors, live music, delicious gourmet food, and fresh produce from local farmers. Very, very crowded and loud - did not look Rad ebike friendly. Too crowded to comfortably walk our bikes down the closed off streets full of pedestrians.

The ride back to the trailhead was mostly downhill, as it should be. The elevation gain from the turnaround point at mile marker 12 back to the trailhead where we started was 420 feet. The elevation gain from the trailhead to old town Park City was another 440 feet (total 864 feet).

Along the way, we stopped to check out one of the plants. Our Seek app identified it as a Rocky Mountain Bee Plant.

 Kris identifying the Rocky Mountain Bee Plant

When we left our campground this morning, we had not made any reservations other than a tee time for golf tomorrow. We decided to see if we could get a site at Jordanelle State Park near Heber City, just south of Park City. Utah is one of the states in ReserveAmerica which does not let you make a reservation the day before or day of. Unreserved sites remain available on a "walk-up" basis. After the bike ride, we checked online and found six walk-up sites showing as still available. Reviewing the site details, we saw that site 75 would be the most ideal - curb side facing the lake.

Arriving at the state park, we were able to secure site 75 for the night. Wah hoo!

We liked it so much, we walked back up to the office to reserve the same site for tomorrow night as well. As the site post had a reserved slip on it for the same two nights for a different person, we concluded the site must have just been cancelled - likely within the last 24 hours. A side benefit to waiting to the last minute is that we did not have to pay the ReserveAmerica booking fee. (Not to worry, Sprinty had a couple of backup plans, as usual, in case Plan A did not pan out).

Monday, 26 July

Today's activity was golf at Soldier Hollow Golf Course in Midway, UT (Heber City). In arranging golf for today, we found it as challenging to get a morning tee time as getting a tee time in Florida in the peak season. The best we could do was a noon tee time.

As is typical with popular golf courses, we were paired up with a nice guy named Tyler. Darrell opened with a par, taking the lead. Kris kept it close, with Darrell slightly leading at the turn. The back was frustrating as the groups in front of us were slow, and the group behind us kept pushing us. Neither of us played our best game on the back nine, but Darrell hung on to take honors.

We enjoyed another peaceful night at Jordanelle State Park.

Tuesday, 27 July

For our final activity in Utah, we rode our bikes on the Weber River Parkway Trail in Riverdale, UT. The bike path follows the Weber River.

We added a couple of side trails to round out the ride at 20 miles. Our Sena bike helmets worked well, including being able to use the helmet's Bluetooth for Darrell to take a phone call he was expecting. Super awesome to carry on a conversation with your riding partner who may be 20 to 200+ feet apart - all in a normal voice.

Before we left Utah, we made a stop at Starbucks for Darrell to pay up for yesterday. Then Sprinty was off in search of his next adventures. Deets in the next blog post.