Pine Valley

March 9, 2021

We’re coming up on the end of our stay here, and leave the day after tomorrow. I feel like we’ve done a pretty thorough job of exploring it. We’ve ridden nearly all of the significant bike paths around town and have taken several excursions - Utah Hill, Snow Canyon, Veyo. If we were staying longer we’d start repeating ourselves.

Yesterday though, I learned of another ride I’d missed in studying the map: Pine Valley. I heard of it from a garrulous older man out on a fitness walk who stopped to chat while I was stopped on a bridge over the Virgin River, posing the bike for a shot. He offered to take my photo with the bike, but I said I didn’t want to spoil the shot so we moved on to other topics. In the course of things he asked how old I was, was impressed on hearing my response, and declared himself to be 66. He’s a believer in fitness, as is obvious - he looks like a gym rat and is built like a tank. He said I look like a movie star, so perhaps he was putting the moves on me. I pointed out that my wife was waiting and it was time to move on, so we soon parted ways.

An interesting brief encounter. If I’d been quicker on my feet I’d have asked him to pose with my bike. It would have made a good shot.

Anyway, the ride: to Pine Valley, a mountain village tucked up in a village on the north side of Pine Valley Mountain. He said it will surprise me and make me think of the North Cascades.

The ride I map out starts in Veyo, bikes north on Highway 18 up to Central, and the then turns east on the Pine Valley Highway, a minor road that follows the upper Sant Clara Valley into the mountains but doesn’t show up on the map unless you zoom way in. It’s a climb, topping out at 6,800’. I’ve almost waited too long for this ride, because the weather is changing fast - it’s much colder today and will be quite windy by midday.

Cold and windy. Not Rocky’s type of ride exactly, but I tempt her by pointing out that we could stop at the pie house again at the end of the ride. She doesn’t bite, but notes that the Raven will have an empty seat that could hold an extra slice on the drive home.

I get an early start to try to get in the ride before the winds build up too much. When I pull in to the Dollar General store in Veyo and park the car at 8:30 it’s about 45 degrees, partly overcast, and a mild south wind is blowing. It will help me uphill, and retard and chill me on the return.

Leaving Veyo, with the thought of a slice of raspberry rhubarb pie at the end warming me up as I ride north.

It’s seven miles north on 18 to Central, climbing gradually most of the way. We’re still in Volcano Country here, and several small cinder cones rise up on either side. Up around 4,500’, it feels like the high desert until I drop into the grassy Santa Clara valley that surrounds Central. It’s chilly but not a bad ride with the mild tailwind pushing me along.

Image not found :( — A few miles into the ride, looking back south.

Dropping toward Central, that small cluster of structures at the low point of the road. I don’t like that I’ve just lost the shoulder, but traffic is light, it’s a straight road, and it’s only a couple of miles.

There’s nothing much in Central when I get there - a fire station, I think a closed diner if I’m remembering right, and a few scattered farmhouses. nothing to slow me down much. I turn east on Pine Valley Highway, which is a grand sounding name for a dead end, empty road snaking up into the mountains. Looks perfect. As I leave town, a congregation of about twenty jays noisily chatter in the junipers beside the road.

A house in Central, looking elegant in its simplicity.

It’s steadily uphill all the way to the town of Pine Valley. The wind is picking up already and funneling up the valley, so it’s a cold but easy climb. About half-way to the town I start seeing residual patches of snow in the sheltered spots. To the south, Pine Valley Mountain is dramatically beautiful with its north face carrying quite a bit of snow still. Not really grandeur like the North Cascades, but it does remind me of the Strawberry Mountains from or visit to John Day last spring.

Two miles in, and we’ve risen above the pastures and are biking through a juniper forest. We’ll enter the national forest soon.

The north face of Pine Valley Mountain. Between here and there is the deep basalt-lined channel of the river.

An attractive juniper shares the stage with the star attraction.

Nearing Pine Valley, I cross a cattle guard just as a truck crosses it going the other way. After it passes the cattle guard rings, with a tone that dampens and finally dies out about ten seconds later. I decide to capture the sound in a video, so I stand next to the cattle guard for about five minutes waiting for a car or two to come by. One finally does, which is enough - It’s getting cold standing here in the wind, so I drop down to town as soon as it passes.

When I get home later and play the video I can just barely hear the sound of the cattle guard because the roar of the wind almost completely drowns it out; but at least I can scrape off a photo for the memory book.

The singing cattle guard. It was better from the truck though - maybe the added weight created a stronger vibration.

The town of Pine Valley, a former logging and sawmill town tucked against the base of the mountain. Today, with this snow cover, it has the aura of a Shangri La.

Approaching Pine Valley. There’s a strong cross wind blowing up valley, and it’s quite cold. Note the large white structure, the town’s most noteworthy feature.

Pine Valley is a former logging and sawmill town. Yellow pines harvested here were shipped up to Salt Lake City to create the organ pipes for the tabernacle. The timber industry is long gone and it’s just a quiet village now, but it looks like it was prosperous a century and more ago, with some fine period houses lining the road.

More detail about the chapel and its history. It’s closed for Covid, which is too bad. I’m sure it’s worth a look inside.

The pavement continues into the hills a couple of miles further, ending at a BLM campground beside the Pine Valley Reservoir. I don’t quite reach the end though, because the pavement disappears below a layer of snow before then.

The ride back is as expected: downhill all the way, with 15-20 mph winds. I’ve brought protection - warm gloves, long leg coverings, a wool shirt - but nothing more than the parka I’ve been wearing all along is really needed until about halfway down when I finally break down and pull on the long gloves.

A beautiful ride, one I’d like to repeat someday if we return here. On a different day of the week though, because it turns out that Veyo Pies is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Good thing I didn’t talk Rocky into joining me after all.

I didn’t stop for much on the way down, but the light was better crossing Central’s valley this time.

Video sound track: Poinciana, by Ahmad Jamal

Heart

Comment

Link

Ride stats today: 35 miles, 2,700’; for the tour: 3,401 miles, 145,000’; for the year: 50 riding days, 2,136 miles, 88,000’, and 3 flat tires

Today's ride: 35 miles (56 km)
Total: 3,401 miles (5,473 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	8
Comment on this entry	Comment	0