A last look at Dixie

March 10, 2021

A fast post for a slow day. We’re wrapping up here and leaving Saint George I tomorrow morning. Weather today isn’t conducive to a long or challenging ride, or even a ride at all. Windy all day, a high of 50, with prospects of rain in the afternoon.

It’s better than the days ahead though, from the looks of it. In all likelihood we won’t be on our bikes again for at least the next several days. We’ve got a last blast of winter coming, and there’s a chance for snow on the valley floor tonight. We’d better get out for something while we still can.

Rachael opts for a walk - an eleven mile out and back on the Bearclaw Poppy Trail. Starting out right from home again in the same direction as the Zen Trail, it’s another rugged and rolling route popular with the mountain bikers as well as walkers. This town has proven to be such a great base for outdoor activity, with so many possibilities just outside the door.

Rocky leaves early to make sure she can get her walk in before the threatened rains arrive, and returns with proof that she didn’t just sneak off to a coffee shop and hang out all morning with a good book.

On the Bearclaw Poppy Trail, looking north toward Pine Valley Mountain. Such a different look to the world today.

Image not found :( — The view south is brighter, for the moment.

A maze of BMX trails. I recognize this spot that I looked down on from the Zen Trail last week. It made Rachael anxious walking through here, wondering if some biker was going to suddenly appear over a mound in front of her and plow her under.

I might have taken a walk myself, but I decide to save my knees in case we try to fit in walks in the next several days. After yesterday’s ride up to Pine Valley I’m not feeling deterred by the thought of a ride in cold, windy weather. I plot out a course that stays close to home though in case rains come in early.

First though I fritter away the morning on the very urgent, time sensitive work of plotting out the route for our ride from Minneapolis to New York. We leave in only about two and a half months, so there’s no time to be wasted. Finally I make it out the door at about noon. It’s 50, the warmest it will be all day.

My route starts by cutting north through town to the Red Hills Parkway, the beautiful route we saw for the first time just a few days ago. It’s still beautiful today, but has a much different feel in today’s conditions.

The fruit trees have exploded into blossom just in the last five days.

Pine Valley Mountain, from the Red Hills Parkway Trail. It’s a good thing I rode to Pine Valley yesterday. I don’t think I’d want to be up there today.

On the Red Hills Parkway Trail. The colors really stand out in a different way under this sky.

At the summit I cross through an underpass beneath the parkway to Pioneer Park for a quick look around. It’s another hiker/biker hub, one that looks like it would be and incredible place to explore. With a few more days we’d surely drive up here and take a hike through the red sandstone. If we were here long enough I imagine we’d get our hands on a pair of mountain bikes and test out some of the easier trails.

In Pioneer Park, looking across downtown to Black Ridge.

Back on the bike, I drop back to town and through Middleton Wash to the Virgin River Trail. No chorus of frogs today, but I do a better job of navigating this time. Once you get your bearings it’s really quite an easy connection to find.

Back on the Virgin River Trail again, I look at the darkening skies and briefly consider bailing out on the rest of the planned ride. I pull up the weather forecast and am reassured a bit - with only about a 25% chance of the rain for the next several hours, I decide I’m feeling lucky and continue east to check out the Cottonwood Wash Trail. This is a short dead end spur up a wash that feels like a ride into a box canyon. Rachael has been here and told me it’s a great little trail to explore, and she’s right.

On the Cottonwood Wash Trail. If you can remember back that far, this is the rightmost option at the spot we passed a week ago, where both forks were marked as a 12% grade for the next half mile.

On the Cottonwood Wash Trail. It feels like we’re threading up a box canyon, but we’re not.

To state the obvious. An odd place to end, but it looks like they just ran out of money or asphalt. There’s a road another quarter mile on, so maybe the plan is to connect up someday.

Turning back, it’s alarming to see how dark the sky to the west has become. Still twelve miles from home, I’m envisioning a cold, wet, uncomfortable hour in my near future. I pick up the pace a bit and focus on just getting back quickly, but it doesn’t amount to much. I push through a mile or two of windy drizzle but nothing serious and by the time I near home I’m coming out the other side of the cloud formation and in the clear again. Just as I’m rounding the last bend before climbing the ridge to the apartment, the sun briefly breaks through and gives a brief glow to Red Mountain.

A brief break in the clouds lights up the nose of Ted Mountain.

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Ride stats today: 32 miles, 2,500’; for the tour: 3,433 miles, 147,200’; for the year: 51 riding days, 2,158 miles, 90,200’, and 3 flat tires

Today's ride: 32 miles (51 km)
Total: 3,433 miles (5,525 km)

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