Travels By Trike: St. George, Utah

November 1 & 2, 2015

Garmin Info with Maps

Ride with BROL member Glidemaster to Snow Canyon

Virgin, Utah

I knew we were pushing our luck with the weather and we were grateful to enjoy Zion on a couple of glorious days. Our original plan was to leave Zion and then head to the Grand Canyon. It would take about a week to ride there and the weather was already cold. Snow was forecast in the Grand Canyon over the next week. We expected it would take another week to get to Phoenix where the weather would finally be warm. I'm not a winter weather person and decided that was too much time in the cold and probable snow. I needed to get where it is warm sooner. The decision was made to go west to St. George from Zion. We could be in the desert in a few days instead of a couple of weeks. This sounded much better to me.

Share the road

There was some weather in the forecast for Zion that Maryann and I were hoping to outrun and we decided to push on after 2 fabulous days camping with April and David. We really enjoyed their company. I'm not sure I would have known to do the Angel's Landing hike without April's guidance. In the morning, we all went back to Flanigan's Hotel for another tasty buffet breakfast, saying goodbye and starting our ride.

David and April on Angel's Landing, Zion

View from the road

There was a nice bike path to start out of Springdale and then we were on Hwy 9 for most of the day. There were lots of small towns to go through: Rockville, Virgin, La Verkin and Hurricane. We stopped at a park in La Verkin using the picnic tables to make some lunch. The park had pecan trees that were loaded with nuts. Squirrels were throwing them hard to the ground below to break the shells. We made sure to stay clear of the pecan bombs. A couple was busy in the field picking up pecans that had fallen from the trees. They carried away a big bag that was clearly very heavy for them.

Out of Springdale

German friends on recumbents

It was a nice day. We were passed by our friends Stefan and Daniella, the recumbent riders from
Germany. It turns out we are all headed for the same warm showers host's home in St. George. In Hurricane, we stopped at Walmart for more cooking fuel. From there, we didn't have far to get to St. George. I've heard a lot about this town and was looking forward to seeing it. There is also another Utah Trikes store here and I wanted to stop in and say 'hi'.

St. George has lots of bike paths. We called Bob, our warm showers host, and he gave us great directions. Google maps also had the paths showing and that made following the directions really easy.

Bob tries out Larry

Carol tries out Myrtle

Bob and Carol live in a beautiful upscale neighborhood above a country club. We arrived and Stefan and Daniella, not surprisingly, were already showered and settled in. There were lots of other people around too. Kids, friends visiting and more little kids too. We got the bags off and let everyone have a go on the trikes. It was really fun and I thing they enjoyed it too. Bob and Carol had just finished a cross country ride on a tandem and we all talked touring. One of the sons had a couple of friends visiting so Bob got the motorhome out of storage so they could all sleep in the driveway. All of us cyclists got our own rooms. Amazing! Carol made us a gourmet dinner of stuffed squash, grilled steak, baked potatoes with all the fixins' and 4 homemade pumpkin pies. She is the executive director of a women's shelter and one of the volunteers had baby sitter issues so Carol was also looking after 3 little kids. The amount of stuff that was going on in this house was astounding. Bob and Carol handled it all calmly and with ease. Truly impressive!

Germans with Bronco and Carol

Bob trike out the Catrike

In the morning Bob cooked us all a terrific breakfast of french toast with lots of coffee. He also gave us a history lesson of the Mormon religion and explained the different sects. It was all very interesting and educational.

Maryann fixing flat 3 of the trip

I had heard from a fellow triker who lives in St. George I know from the BentRiderOnline website. Glynn invited us to stay at his home in Paradise Valley. This was an uphill 10 mile ride, mostly on bike paths, to another beautiful development. He showed us his Azub trike with a Rohloff Hub and Schlumpf mountain drive. I tried to take it for a ride but my legs were too short to reach the pedals. Maryann was able to ride it. Then he led us on a ride into Snow Canyon State Park. The paths went through canyons that were all different colors of red rock. It was cool! The weather forecast called for very strong winds in the afternoon. Our ride into the Canyon was fine but the ride back was into a fierce headwind. Glynn is also an avid photographer and has been taking pictures since his days as a serviceman in the Vietnam war. He showed me some lovely prints. For dinner, Glynn suggested we go to his favorite restaurant, The Cliffside, with a beautiful view overlooking the city of St. George. We enjoyed a nice meal with a couple of glasses of wine. We talked trikes, travel and touring. He gave us the news that Utah Trikes had closed in St. George because they couldn't find qualified people to work and put together trikes. It was very nice to meet Glynn and for him to put us up.