Golden Spike & Torrey, pics

[stanf]

Well, I'm a little late getting these up but nothing like a leisurely Memorial Day weekend to get caught up.

 

First off, this was my second Torrey and thanks go to all who made it happen; Laney and Dennis for the nice name tags, Dick for being the "un"official spokesman, most of all, the hospitality of Randy and Jamie and all the "cooks" who put on such a great feast.

 

I started my trip this year with a couple of days at the Golden Spike Historical Site in Promontory. I had just finished "Nothing Like It In The World", by Stephen Ambrose, which detailed the construction of the Trans-Continental Railroad and the competition between the two companies, the Union Pacific laying track from Omaha to the East and the Central Pacific laying track from Sacramento to the West. For those of you, like me, who have skipped the 30 mile detour off the interstate in the past, it's worth the visit, imho

 

This is the entrance and in the background are replicas of the two locomotives, The Jupiter from the West and No. 119 from the East, pulling up to face each other in a reinactment of the final "golden" spike ceremony of 1869.

 

Around 10am each day, the two locomotives arrive from a local round-house about a mile away. They are exact replicas, to 1/4". I shot this in b/w to imitate the well-known photo of the event by A.J. Russell in 1869, "The Last Spike", in it there are a few hundred people swarming over the engines and straddling the telegraph pole, shaking hands, etc. Lots of reference material here, scroll down at this site to see the actual photo.

 

On Friday, I rode the Burr Trail, which seemed to be the popular ride this year. Almost everyone I talked to planned to ride it and it's easy to see why...as the following 3 pics show.

 

Saturday was "group ride day". Here is Roger(Signman) & Sue in front of the bakery, finishing their coffee before leading our group through Sweeper Madness and FishLake Loop.

 

At the end of Fish Lake, Rog and Sue decided to head back early. The rest of us, Todd, Barry and Greg followed up on a tip from the owner of the mini-mart at Fish Lake Resort. She told us a good place for lunch was the Big Rock Candy Resort, about 5 miles north of Marysvale on Rt. 89. Not only was that a pleasant ride, the food was excellent and very reasonably priced. We were pleased to discover that this indeed, was the actual place written about at the turn of the century by a railroad worker, or hobo, depending on the story and put to song by Burl Ives. Yes, there really is a Lemonade Springs nearby and they still bottle the water to sell for it's mineral qualities. This makes a nice lunch ride coupled with Sweeper and FishLake, returning via Rt 62 and 24. Here's the obligatory tourist, "we were here" shot. That is btw, the Big Rock Candy Mt. behind the restaurant.

 

The next day, Sunday, most had left by the time I rolled out of my tent. I know I said I'd come over and see everyone off, sorry I solo'd over towards Moab, tentatively for lunch and got corraled at Dead Horse State Park instead, then into CanyonLands. Here's a view from Dead Horse Lookout, the site where legend has it, they used to corral wild mustangs. Some got left behind, still barricaded at the point and didn't survive, hence the name. The blue ponds in background are solar evaporation ponds for mining potash.

 

Sunday night, it seemed the weather started to change. I slept in Monday listening to rain spatter the tent, then departed for the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. It definitely was a cooler ride heading south on 12. Saw many deer, some rain and wind. It was overcast at the Dunes and windy.

 

Tuesday I headed on home, one good thing about the weather changes were relatively cool temps passing through Vegas and Baker..only 85 !

 

Once again, a great Torrey XI, great rides, great company, see you at the next one

[Whip]

Stan

 

Where did you take this pic from???

 

I never saw this view.....

 

 

Whip

[stanf]

hey, ya gotta be lookin'

 

Larry, it's at the very beginning just before dropping into the canyon.

 

Where was your designated camera operator?

[Whip]

"Where was your designated camera operator?"

 

I know she was back there...but she may have been watching the "Lawman"....he can be very entertaining

 

Whip