Wild Horse Plan B

 

Tim, Kellen, Joe, and I were all registered to ride the Wild Horse on Saturday and were not too happy when the organizers rescheduled the event based on an ominous forecast.  In light of Saturday’s weather they absolutely made the right call.  Regrettably, I will not be able to be there for the new date May 30^th.  Hopefully, the organizers will get good support and be able to put on a successful event.  Since Kellen, Joe, and I all had other obligations in Salt Lake this weekend, we agreed to meet Tim for a road ride on Saturday morning as an alternative to the Wild Horse.

It was cold and raining when we started, but we pressed on with the irrational optimism that conditions would improve.  After a little side trip to Tibble Fork Reservoir, we started up the Alpine Loop with only brief interruptions in the rain.  As we climbed, the rain gradually changed to snow.  The temperature at the top was 38 degrees Fahrenheit.  There is one lesson that we should have learned over many years of similar misadventures, including Fish Creek.  It is not that big a problem to climb in a storm.  You generate a lot of heat and are not really moving that fast.  The time you get into trouble is on the descent.  The upper portion of the Alpine Loop was still gated and closed to traffic which generally was a positive thing.  However, the downside is that parts of the road were littered with a substantial amount of rock fall which had not been cleared from the winter.  On the way down, we maintained a high level of vigilance for the bigger rocks which could have resulted in immediate catastrophe.  But we were also pretty attentive to the smaller rocks because no one was eager to attempt a tire change given the state of our cold hands. 

By the time we reached the Ranger Station at Timpanogos Cave, we were pretty desperate to get out of the weather.  We went in, took off our wet jackets and soaking shoes, and drank the hot chocolate they offered us.  Thoroughly soaked and shivering, we decided our best option was to cut our losses and call for a rescue.  Since there was no cell service in the canyon, I borrowed the phone in the Ranger Station.  Dawn was comfortably ensconced in a restaurant in downtown Salt Lake City with Thomas and Claire when her phone rang.  Seeing an unfamiliar number, she promptly put the phone back in her purse.  With no rescue forthcoming and against the better advice of the rangers, we put all the wet clothes back on and went back out into the storm which had only intensified during our stop in the Ranger Station.  We rode the last couple of miles out of the canyon in an icy blinding downpour. 

Conditions began to improve by the time we got to the Suncrest climb.  The final ten miles from Tim’s house to the hotel were largely downhill.  The rain had mostly stopped and it was at least twenty degrees warmer.  By the time I arrived, the bad parts of the ride were already fading in my memory.