Kevin – Saturday. A late Friday night rodeo date and blog session kept us up way past midnight, so with a fairly easy day anticipated for today, we slept in until 7 AM. (GASP!)
After a simple breakfast, the RV was put to bed, hooked up to the truck and we pulled out of Evanston at 11, headed to Coalville UTAH! Yes, Dear Reader, we are now in the Land of Zion. Saints be praised.
In the afternoon, Denny and I were making final arrangements for the symposium and encampment on the 24th of July. More details very soon, but here is the general lineup.
When the trek route and schedule were plotted out, the Echo Canyon section looked to be fairly straightforward. Once the trail intersected Echo, there really wasn’t anywhere for the pioneers and detachments to go but straight downhill. Modern road construction has heavily modified the original narrow canyon and obliterated the original swales. A few locations used by the early Saints are still identifiable, and we plan on reviewing them tomorrow (Sunday) as we didn’t have time today.
When you travel Echo Canyon, look to the north and there’s that little road that used to be (in sections), the Donner and Pioneer road, the Pony Express route, access for Johnston’s Army of 1857 and the old Lincoln Highway. The first telegraph line came down Echo and the train tracks do so as well. These transportation, communication and supply corridors were and are key to our developing civilization and history. Every nation has such kind of places where the intersections of people, places and things yield a rich history in a compact place. And I only have time and resources to study one aspect of this magnificent canyon’s history. But here’s my favorite Jim Bridger story (again).
Since it was another fairly warm day and we’d used most of the afternoon on other important tasks, we decided to just wait until 6 PM when it’s cooler to start our downhill bike ride. We dropped the truck in Henefer at our stopping point and took the bike carrier car up Echo Canyon Road which parallels I-80. We started at the Echo Canyon Road overpass which is about ¾ mile southwest of the Echo UDOT Port of Entry Station. While the railroad access road continues further, we thought it wise to not push our luck even though it was later Saturday evening and no one from the railroad was likely to be working the section to fuss at us.
Our start was 16.2 miles from Henefer. While it is truly a downhill section through Echo Canyon, it’s not a strong downhill. The grade loses only 720 feet in 12 miles down Echo (60 ft/mi) while the last 4 miles to Henefer are pretty much flat in the Weber River valley section. One can imagine the oxen/mules/horses were having a much easier day of it compared to some prior weeks.
We saddled up at 7:50 PM. It was delightful to move from sunshine to shadow then back to sun as we passed by the rocky projections coming in from our right as we made our way downcanyon. The roadway radiated heat from being in the sun most of the day, but when we passed the side gullies there was a cool breeze that was most refreshing. We did pass by a rattlesnake sunning itself on the warm asphalt. We did not stop to say hello.
There were, as stated above, a plethora of historic markers for various events, but we were disciplined with a schedule to keep this evening. I didn’t stop to take any pictures except one at the little town of Echo. Such self-discipline.
We ended at Henefer after biking for 1 hour 38 minutes. That averages out to a shade over 10 miles/hour. Considering we are not hard-core bikers and that we did have a fair head-wind and that it’s a very gentle downhill and that we weren’t in a particular rush, we were OK with that speed. It was a fun way to spend one of our last days on our bicycles - peddling TOGETHER side by side, visiting and enjoying the beautiful scenery. And we timed it pretty much perfectly to coincide with the fall of night.
