Salt Lake City

September 6
A warm, sunny morning! Just a few more hours of driving brought us to Salt Lake City - got to see some of the Bonneville Salt Flats along the way.

We stopped at a bike shop, where Rudy acquired a new tire, and I bought some 'gu's for the race, then we stopped by the Wasatch starting area, then drove a bit up Farmington Canyon on Skyline Drive to find a spot for the night - kind of sloped parking, but we managed! Rudy read his Physics book for a while and I put together my drop bags for Wasatch - really worrying that I don't know what I'm doing! I'm traveling pretty light and just have some replacement gels and snacks in the drop bags - a couple have socks and one has extra batteries. I've only done one 100-mile and three 100k's, but so far I haven't needed a lot of 'stuff' so I don't have much for emergency supplies...will probably bite me in the butt one of these days...A little more chilling out/cleaning up, then some veggie stir fry for dinner, then watched SLC Punk!


September 7
Another cool morning, kind of in a draw, so sun took a while to warm us up.

metamorphics!

cool folded rocks!

We checked out a few camping options, then chilled at a nice little park in Ferndale - near this Layton Castle.

Mid-afternoon we headed Back to East Mountain Park to meet Dad! After some chatting (and decompressing for Dad - went through some rush hour traffic) we headed to the first crew access point for the race at Big Mountain Pass, then parked off a side road for the night.

Sunset from Big Mountain Pass

 Heated up some soaked split peas + lentils + veggie 'gruel' for dinner. I made the discovery that red wine + caraway rye bread is pretty delightful. With these less active days, the little things are more interesting to me I guess! The evening included more visiting and an early bed (gets dark ~8 now!)

September 8
Earlyish morning, some driving to be done today! Rudy and I left at 8 to see the new Barr Engineering office in Salt Lake City - one of my coworkers met us, showed as around the office, and shared some delightful breakfast and conversation with us at Eva's Bakery - cool to see this new Barr branch as it is getting going. Rudy and I took a short stroll through Temple square before meeting back up with Dad (who enjoyed a little morning hike on part of the race course while we were out) to check out the other crew access and the finish area.

'Sign Art'

Temple Square

Then back to Salt Lake City for pre-race check in and meeting and getting to see our Minnesota buddies also participating in Wasatch!

Go Minnesota!

Pre race was wrapped up by 5, so a little stressful drive to the start area to camp for the night, but we made it with plenty of time to chill out, chat with some fellow runners camping out, do a little organizing for the early morning start, and have a simple pasta dinner - in bed by 9, but not much sleep happening!