Big monkey wrench thrown into travel plans.I hadn't even made it to the first exit when I got stopped by a lady trooper and told it's illegal to ride in the shoulder of I-15. She didn't know about I-80 but if that's the same story, I have no alternate routes that will get me to Burning Man even for the last day.
She told me there was an alternate route to REI, that State Street goes all the way into SLC. Checked the map. What a joke. There's a few mountains between where it ends and where it starts up again. With no roads at all that I can see. So I rode State to Pleasant Grove anyway, and there it dead-ended, closed for construction. East to 100E, north to 1100N, west to State again, north to Main, west to Redwood Rd, North to 10400, East to the REI in Sandy, UT. I haven't even been in yet; chilling at the Paradise Bakery and Cafe, affiliated with Panera Bread: coffee, wifi, power, and restrooms.
I hate sidewalks that end with no ramp and no warning, and that seems to be the rule rather than the exception here. Bitch, bitch, moan, moan, I know. But it beats the shit out of my trailer wheels when I have to go over a curb. I'll have to build a trailer with a suspension.
A blog reader sent me a link to Utah bike laws: statute 41-6a-102(51)b seems to indicate bikes are OK in shoulder. But it might not apply to Interstate routes.
Anyway I only made 28 miles by the I-15 route, but add at least 6 miles to that for the route I was forced to take: 34 miles for day 25. Start day 26 at mp 293.
Only had two catnaps today, maybe an hour each. "Concerned" people always calling cops on me when I nap anywhere near the roadside. So fucking easy to flip open the cellphone and dial 911. That's concern? Tonight could be bad.
last updated 2009-08-24 20:05:01. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com