Lost Creek Reservoir Ride

Let me preface everything by saying almost one month ago, we had a family reunion out in Taylorsville, Utah. It was about 22 miles away from home. I decided to ride my bike out there and back. That day, I rode a total of 48 miles on my bike, and for at least 1/2 of the ride, I had a HORRIBLE head wind, but I was proud of myself for being able to ride 48 miles.

With that said, I'm a member of the Bonneville Cycling Club (BCC). I've been a member for probably a little over a month and because of my schedule I haven't been able to go on any of the group rides.

I had today off, so I decided to see if BCC had any group rides today, and they did. They were meeting at 9:00 a.m. up in Coalville, UT and were going to go on a 50 mile ride. The description of the ride is: 50 miles / O OPEN Pace / 3-4 Mild - Hilly / f Summit/Wasatch Counties area

We did this ride last month, but it's so wonderful let's do it again: Quiet rural roads from Coalville, thru Echo and Croydon, with minor rolling hills and a gentle climbing. There's one last 1/4 mile climb to the beautiful reservoir, but then it's downhill back to Croydon again. Since this is an 'out and back' ride, you can choose to ride 20, 30, or 50 miles. Backside Friday rides are social: ride at your own pace, but we will regroup several times along the way. Please check your email or call before coming up if the weather looks iffy.

I thought since I was able to do almost 50 miles a little less than a month ago I'd be able to do this. And rolling hills...how bad could it be?

OMG!!! This was a bike ride nightmare! The rolling hills ended up being more like mountains! I was doing pretty good on the ride until the further we got in to the ride, the harder the "rolling hills" got.

15 miles in to the ride we got to a town called Croydon, Utah. This is a SUPER small town. It has a population of like 146. But, we stopped there for a minute so people could get more water, etc. A couple of people from the group decided that they needed to start heading back. We only had 10 more miles to go before we were going to head back, so I thought I'd do the last 10 miles. It just got harder and harder.

You ride as a group, so, I could tell I was starting to get tired, hot, hungry, everything and I was slowing down. So, I told the other lady that was riding with me to go ahead.

Needless to say, I didn't make it to the 25 mile mark. I think I made it about 24 miles. I had to turn around and start walking back. I was just exhausted. I had NO energy and I was starting to feel weak.

As I was walking back, some guy pulled up next to me and made sure I had enough water left, which I didn't. I had water, but I knew I wouldn't have enough. So, he so kindly gave me more water and then he went on his merry way.

At this point I just kept thinking, I have NO clue how I'm going to make it back to my car. I knew I was physically not able to ride my bike back 24 miles. I had NO clue what I was going to do. I had my cell phone with me, but we were out in the middle of no where, so I didn't have any coverage. At this point, my only goal was to get back to Croydon where I knew I could get cell phone service.

God must have shone down on me or something, because then this old guy pulls up next to me and he has his granddaughter in his truck and he asks me if I'm having trouble. I told him I was EXHAUSTED, and to make a long story short, he gave me a ride in to Croydon.

As soon as I got back in to Croydon, I sat down at the park and I called my friend Georgina. She was going to do the ride with me, but she ended up having to back out at the last minute. But Georgina is a godsend. She ended up dropping everything she was doing to come up to Croydon to pick me up to take me back to my car.

Needless to say, I'm tired. I'm disappointed in myself that I couldn't finish the ride. But...it's not going to stop me from biking still. I'm just not as good a biker as I thought I was. Lol. Georgina and I are going to still go biking, we'll just have to be real careful as to what rides we go on.