SPECIAL FEATURE: I ALMOST DIED TODAY!!
This day started off so beautifully. key word: Started.
We all woke up to the birds chirping at 7am in our little dirt patch campground and got ready, ate some nice breakfast, and got ready to start our beautiful ride.
Today we were gonna on the I-70 highway (a very scary highway because it’s 99% all semi trucks and the speed limit is 80 which means everyone is going 90). so basically we were needing to be super super careful. We decided to ride as a group to increase our odds of the semi-trucks not hitting us which made us ride in a beautiful single-file line. This was a great little ducks-in-a row situation until we were riding right behind each other and Daniel got a flat tire which means he unexpectedly stopped which means Puja unexpectedly stopped which means I stopped which means Matthew stopped and like dominoes, we fell over in slow motion. I could see and anticipate the fall but not soon enough since we were clipped into the bikes and so close to each other so I fell and Matthew fell. Luckily we fell on the opposite side of the trucks into bushes and Daniel fixed his flat. I also want to highlight Utah is probably the most beautiful place in the world and our scenery in this morning ride was so so beautiful: tons of canyons and arches and red rocks in front of us made for such a breathtaking ride. It’s crazy that this kind of scenery is just on the side of a random road where in California, it probably would’ve been this humongous attraction site to see canyons that charged $50 to enter.
Anyways No harm so far. This is where things take a turn!
SO then we have this giant fun mountain to descent. Because we’re all different weights and speeds, the downhill is where we all separate.
Everything is dandy except for the fact that the road is all loose gravel which SUCKS on a road bike because it’s just vibrating and moving. So I’m riding down the mountain, having a good time when all of a sudden, a bunch of orange cones start lining the road which basically means all the semi-trucks ARE NOW SHARING THE ROAD WITH US. Aka Wtf.
So now I’m trying to brake, while riding super fast on downhill gravel while a semi truck is literally two millimeters away from me sharing the same road as me, and going 80 MPH. THIS IS WHEN I GET A FLAT TIRE (but I don’t realize it yet) so I’m actually just descending down this mountain while my tire is like wiggling all over the place on the gravel while I have 1cm of space before this truck hits me. That’s when the loose gravel starts making the tire spin out of control and because I’m going so fast, there’s this tiny line between if I go left, then I will literally die and get straight hit by the red semi-truck which is right next to me. By a literal miracle because I have lost control of my tire at this point, I realize I need to fall to my right if I want to survive so I go completely to my right while I fall into a downhill patch of bushes and gravel and I’m falling FAST. So now I’m trying to brake but my shoes are clipped in and I have accepted that I’m going to fall but I can’t stop it because I’m going too fast into this bushes so I brake and my bike falls and I go FLYING like a movie cartoon into a bush face-first. I think I was in the air for 10 seconds- it was quite theatrical. Anyways now I’m head to toe in shrubs and plants sticking out of my head and I have no idea where anyone is but I know I need to make it down this mountain because no one else is here and there are so many semi trucks zooming down the road.
So I go over to the left side of the highway where they had blocked the road but were doing construction. So I start descending down when the construction worker in the tractor sees me and shakes his head disapprovingly and mouths “go to that side” and I look at him, with the most insane look on my face and say “i’m about to die if I go there”. He clearly doesn’t care but also probably doesn’t get paid enough to deal with random girls on the highway on a bike so he just ignores me and moves on.
So now I’m descending down this mountain with both my brakes on when all of a sudden, I hear a faint voice calling my name. “Sasha… Sasha” Am I hallucinating? Have I died and I’m dreaming?
No- it was indeed Matthew sitting on the other side of the mountain with a flat tire. OMG! A familiar face! I quickly crossed the highway to sit with him when we called Adam to come get us. After finally getting rescued, we didn’t make it very far until we found Puja sitting a little bit below on the side of the mountain with her bike because her chain had fallen off!
Wow- this mountain had taken out all three of us!
Adam drives us to the bottom of the mountain where we meet up with Daniel and start biking again together.
This is all swell and dandy until it starts being 101 degrees outside and it was SO hot and we are booking it on the side of the highway- all 5 of us are moving FAST. we finally reach the gas station Love’s- where there was a police investigation outside but the water inside was the best water and ice I have ever had in my life. I have never wanted cold water so bad and thank the world for good water. We then met Adam in the park where we had a long, and much-needed rest in the park where we met this man who was a bit interesting and told us about his drug-selling days in the past.
At this point, we start biking again on the ride when we get TWO more flat tires. At this point, we are up to 5 flat tires and we are all exhausted from the tire wires that are giving us flats on the highway. Shoutout Nancy, my GOAT for fixing all the flat tires in 5 minutes.
We are just about to reach the campsite when we find this funny looking gas station that looked like an Alien/UFO site called Jackass Joe’s. We go inside and it feels like a movie arcade simulation with clouds and funny socks and jerky and a plethora of other interesting things (including an interesting worker iykyk).
Finally we make it to the camp site at Thompson Springs after a brutal 70 miles, 5 flat tires, 1 milkshake, and 5 exhausted Stanford students. We end the night with a yummy taco dinner from Adam and shower and sleep.