The Dreaded "C" Word

Yesterday was the hottest day yet this year in Salt Lake.  91 degrees, with a south wind.  Like a blast furnace, when you’re in the full sun and fully exposed.  In the shade, not so bad, which is one of the things I’ve always liked about Salt Lake.  Where I grew up, in Southern Illinois, the heat confronted you wherever you went because it was a humid heat.  Even in the shade, it confronted you.  It struck you like a sledge hammer whenever you walked out the door.  Here in Utah, however, it’s different.  Generally speaking, if you can find shade, you’re ok, because it’s a dry heat.   

But then there’s the blast furnace effect.  Like Mark and I experienced yesterday as we went for a bike ride.  A 17-miler.  A “short” ride, as Mark had billed it before we set out.  We rode up 3900 South, then headed north on Wasatch, through an intricate maze of bike/pedestrian paths over the “spaghetti bowl” that is the interchange of I-215 with I-80.  I-80 comes from the west towards Parley’s Canyon, which leads up to Park City.  I-215 leads south along the feet of the mountains.  

A picture of part of the bike trail, coming back south.  The fence to the upper right demarcates the trail, which in part
is a series of switchbacks.   The most difficult part of the ride was climbing the last switchback.

We negotiated these bike paths and ended up in a neighborhood above Foothill Boulevard, which eventually led us above Hogle Zoo to the mouth of Emigration Canyon.  The dreaded “c” word.  “Canyon.”  Which implies ascent.  (I have been to Hogle Zoo many times, but have never been beyond the zoo, which is on the road that leads up Emigration Canyon.) 

I was pleasantly surprised, however, by the road up Emigration Canyon.  It wasn’t a steep climb.  It made me think that perhaps the “c” word isn’t so bad.  

For those who read this who aren’t Mormon (or for those who are, but aren't familiar with their history), Emigration Canyon is so named because it was down this canyon that the original Mormon pioneers made their descent into the Salt Lake Valley.  In fact, there is a state park at the mouth of Emigration Canyon that marks the spot where Brigham Young, sick, raised himself from his bed on the back of a wagon and, surveying the Salt Lake Valley, said those now-famous words, “This is the Place.”  Not surprisingly, the state park is named, “This is the Place State Park.”  In 1947, the centennial of the arrival of the pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley, a monument was erected on the spot.

A commercial photograph showing This is the Place Monument,
looking out over the Salt Lake Valley.

Yesterday marked a psychological turning point in my cycling journey:  I entered a canyon, and I climbed, and it wasn’t so bad.  Actually, not bad at all.   I still fear the dreaded Cottonwood Canyons, however.  The day that I cycle all the way to the top of Big or Little Cottonwood Canyon, I will know that I am ready for Corsica.  I think …

The bike trail along the entrance ramp to Foothill Boulevard, Mount Olympus in the distance.

Further south, along I-215.  Mark is checking his Garmin.