Today, Friday, October 3, 2014, marks the fifth anniversary of our arrival in Salt Lake City. We left Maine on September 30, 2009, and never looked back; our transplantation from east to west has been such a good thing for us (despite our families wishing we were just a little closer). We have loved the skiing (obviously), the access to the outdoors, the weather, the dearth of mosquitoes and blackflies, watching the Tour of Utah grow, having folks come visit us so we can share our Utah with them. In celebration of our fifth move-iversary, here are some specific highlights from the past five years.
Year 1: October 2009-September 2010. In our first year, everything was new! We learned that Alta was our favorite ski mountain; A was zookeeper for a day; our friends P and C visited, plus T, plus H's folks, plus A's folks, plus we got the first installment of annual ski guests just a month after moving into our new house; we climbed Timpanogos and Timpanogos Cave; we saw the races on the bizarrely beautiful Bonneville Salt Flats; we got up close to mountain goats at Ben Lomond.
Year 2: October 2010-September 2011. We had lots of visitors in our second year: H's folks; my best girls; P; R; and the ski guests. We got an incredible 723.5 inches of snow to ski on! And after skiing ended, we got MTBs. We watched some impressive speed skating. We went to St. George, the Ashley National Forest and began our Moab tradition.
Year 3: October 2011-September 2012. By our third year, we were beginning to settle in. The ski guests came back; H's parents came back; and H's brother and his family came out to see what all the fuss was about. We had a great hike up Timpanogos with all those mountain goats, plus some other good hikes, including along the Mormon Pioneer Trail. We went camping in the Uintas in June and then again in September with B, and went back to Moab.
Year 4: October 2012-September 2013. The return of the ski guests. The return of P. A went to MTB camp (Trek Dirt Series). H's folks went to Moab with us. We went to Lake Powell with A's family. We camped at Capitol Reef National Park (well, just outside), went to Jackson, Wyoming, for our anniversary, and went back to Moab. We had a great hike up Honeycomb Canyon (at Solitude) and down Silver Fork Canyon.
Year 5: October 2013-September 2014. This last year, well, it was another good one. H got first chair of Alta's season. We had two rounds of ski guests: my brother and C. We finally got into East Castle! Once the skiing ended, we did some fantastic hiking: some particular favorites were Bowman Fork, Storm Mountain/Ferguson Canyon and the Brighton Ridge Loop. We went to Sun Valley, Idaho. And our Moab trip was, as usual, fantastic.
And now we start our sixth year in Utah (where does the time go?) and there's still so much we want to do. Thank you for following along with us thus far and stay tuned right here for the continuing adventures.
Showing posts with label Bonneville Salt Flats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bonneville Salt Flats. Show all posts
Friday, October 3, 2014
Saturday, August 21, 2010
wheels on salt
You ever see The World's Fastest Indian, that movie where Anthony Hopkins plays an old Kiwi who schleps his Indian motorcycle from New Zealand to Utah to try to set a Speed Week land speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats? I saw it too but even better: H and I went out to the Bonneville Salt Flats for Speed Week ourselves. We just did a day trip, which was plenty. It's a long ride from SLC - over 100 miles each way - although 80W is straight and flat and there's really no traffic once you get west of Tooele. And it's bloody hot out there on the salt, 90+ degrees with no shade and the glare reflecting off the bright white flats. But the salt flats have a stark, otherworldly beauty that I'm really drawn to ... and dang, those cars and motorcycles are wild!
We took a vacation day so we could go mid-week and the crowds were nonexistent. We drove the little Subaru right out onto the salt, nabbing a parking place not far from the starting line. There are three courses: the short course (4ish miles long), where the amateurs have to prove themselves; the combo course (5ish miles); and the long course (7+ miles, plus your vehicle has to go over 200 m.p.h. to even get on this course - it's where the big dogs run).
Despite the fact that all these people - mostly old, rich white guys, the only ones able to put the time and money necessary into these vehicles - are here to try to set records, whether personal or course or world, the atmosphere is really chill. Spectators can stand right next to the vehicles at the starting line; you can walk up to the cars and 'cycles as they wait in line for their start; if someone needs a push or a part, there's always someone willing to help out. People are friendly too, happy to answer questions from a couple of newbies.
We hung around the starting line for a couple hours, taking pictures, talking to folks, watching these crazy machines rush out of sight and over the horizon within seconds. (By the way, the Bonneville Salt Flats is so big and flat that it's one of the few places on the planet where you can actually see the curve of the earth, so once the racers got out three miles, they disappeared from sight.) We reapplied our SPF50 once, and donned long sleeved shirts and - miraculously - managed to not get sunburned.
After a while we drove a couple of miles down the salt flats to where the pits were set up. The pits stretch for three more miles along the race course (but back away from it so there's no danger). We strolled about, looking at the crews working on their vehicles, and turning to watch every time a racer blew past the 2-mile marker. We were soon able to tell who was fast - and it really wasn't worth watching if they weren't going at least 200 m.p.h., frankly.
These guys are nuts, going so fast, but they love what they do and they seem very supportive of each other. They're pretty respectful of the salt too: I saw no trash strewn about anywhere; and at the starting line, most vehicles are pushed out by another non-racing vehicle until they come up to speed, in part so they don't spin their wheels and destroy the salt in their acceleration. It's not something I want to do myself, and I'm not sure I need to go back to see it again anytime soon, but I'm sure glad we went to check it out.
Stark and otherworldly - am I right?
We took a vacation day so we could go mid-week and the crowds were nonexistent. We drove the little Subaru right out onto the salt, nabbing a parking place not far from the starting line. There are three courses: the short course (4ish miles long), where the amateurs have to prove themselves; the combo course (5ish miles); and the long course (7+ miles, plus your vehicle has to go over 200 m.p.h. to even get on this course - it's where the big dogs run).
In 2006 on the BSF, this guy set a land
Despite the fact that all these people - mostly old, rich white guys, the only ones able to put the time and money necessary into these vehicles - are here to try to set records, whether personal or course or world, the atmosphere is really chill. Spectators can stand right next to the vehicles at the starting line; you can walk up to the cars and 'cycles as they wait in line for their start; if someone needs a push or a part, there's always someone willing to help out. People are friendly too, happy to answer questions from a couple of newbies.
This is Billy. He would come within 2/10ths of a mile
of the record on this run - over 206 m.p.h.
We hung around the starting line for a couple hours, taking pictures, talking to folks, watching these crazy machines rush out of sight and over the horizon within seconds. (By the way, the Bonneville Salt Flats is so big and flat that it's one of the few places on the planet where you can actually see the curve of the earth, so once the racers got out three miles, they disappeared from sight.) We reapplied our SPF50 once, and donned long sleeved shirts and - miraculously - managed to not get sunburned.
Getting a push at the start
After a while we drove a couple of miles down the salt flats to where the pits were set up. The pits stretch for three more miles along the race course (but back away from it so there's no danger). We strolled about, looking at the crews working on their vehicles, and turning to watch every time a racer blew past the 2-mile marker. We were soon able to tell who was fast - and it really wasn't worth watching if they weren't going at least 200 m.p.h., frankly.
The salt is really not that good for your Mad Max-ish Jaguar
These guys are nuts, going so fast, but they love what they do and they seem very supportive of each other. They're pretty respectful of the salt too: I saw no trash strewn about anywhere; and at the starting line, most vehicles are pushed out by another non-racing vehicle until they come up to speed, in part so they don't spin their wheels and destroy the salt in their acceleration. It's not something I want to do myself, and I'm not sure I need to go back to see it again anytime soon, but I'm sure glad we went to check it out.
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