Tour of Utah!!!

It's one of my favorite times of the year. The Tour of Utah is here again. This year, there are some pretty big names riding and I was able to get photos of a few of them. Stage two of the race started at the XANGO headquarters by Thanksgiving Point, which is right by my house. I watched them sign in to compete for the day and then watched the start of the race. Beforehand, several of the big names were giving interviews, so that's where I got my photos.


1. George Hincapie - Current US National Champion, former teammate of Lance Armstrong - including all 7 of his Tour de France victories, Tour de France participant for 15 years, winner of several other races, one of the oldest cyclists in the race and all around classy guy. Lots of respect for him and I was thrilled to hear he was racing this year in Utah.

2. Levi Leipheimer - 3rd place Tour de France, former/current teammate of Lance Armstrong (US Postal and Radio Shack), winner of the Tour of California several times and former SLC resident. Levi won stage 2 this year on the climb up to Mount Nebo. He currently sits in yellow, meaning he is the current race leader, riding for Mellow Johnny's and Radio Shack.

3. Franciso Mancebo - top 5 finish in Tour de France on two different occasions, former Spanish national champion, and winner of the Tour of Utah last year (while riding for Rock Racing). This year he is riding for Canyon Bicycles, which is a local company trying to put together a pro cycling team. Very excited about that.

4. Bob Roll - former Tour de France competitor and stage winner and now one of the most entertaining commentators on Versus for the Tour de France. He also helped Lance through some tough times when he was diagnosed with cancer and helped Lance see that there is at least someone who finds all the misery of riding the tour fun.

If you are interested to see a stage of the tour, I would suggest Sunday's stage. It goes from Park City, down Provo Canyon, over Suncrest and up to Snowbird. Very tough stage and lots of places to see the cyclist. We have typically gone to Suncrest and after they go through there, we've headed up to Snowbird to see them again there. The race starts at 11 in Park City and they expect the riders to be at Snowbird around 3:40. It's a steep climb to Snowbird and driving it gives you a new respect for how easy they make it look on the bike. So, if you are able to go, you'll have a great time. Bring your cowbell and get ready to cheer them on.

Here's the link to the Tour of Utah site, if you'd like more information on the teams and the stages. It includes maps of each stage so you can pick where to camp out. http://www.tourofutah.com/

Cabin Trip 7/17 - 7/25

We took a week and went up to the cabin in Island Park again. It was another wonderful trip full of relaxation and adventure. Paul came up on Monday and stayed with us the rest of the week. Plus we had some friends that were camping over by MeadowView Ranch.

Bailey and their son Auston

Mid-week, we took a trip up to Great Falls, Montana to see another portion of the Lewis & Clark trail. Lewis & Clark were warned by some Indians that there were some falls up ahead as they traversed the river and thought it would be just a couple of days delay. Instead it ended up being quite a few months delay as they pulled their boats out and walked around the multiple falls in the area.

On the way back from Great Falls, we had 2 interesting things happen.

1. We stopped and fished the Missouri river. We were only able to spend about 15 min fishing because the mosquitoes were so thick. I escaped to the truck with Bailey and watched the caddis and mosquitoes cover the truck.

2. Outside of Helena, we were detoured off the freeway due to an accident in the construction zone, which blocked the only lane. Luckily, their frontage roads ride right along the freeway and have speed limits of 60 mph. So, we didn't lose too much time. We passed through a small town, named Craig, probably in existence only for fly fisherman, as we got back on the freeway. On the on-ramp, we noticed a semi truck off to the right and a drunk girl on the left trying to walk the white line. She was laughing and having a good time, though it was a horrible place to test her own sobriety. We figured she was 16 -18 years old and probably with the truck, so we didn't stop. We entered the freeway and about 3/4 of a mile down the road, we see another person walking. This was another girl around the same age, but dressed in a bikini top and a skimpy pair of shorts. She was visibly drunk and also trying to walk the white line of the emergency lane. It took a minute for all of us to register what was going on, and by then we were too far down the road to stop, so I started calling every number I could find to get a hold of highway patrol or sheriff cars to go help her. I got answering machines on all of them. I checked online in the Helena newspaper to see if there were any articles about the girl, hoping and praying she wasn't splatted by a truck, and didn't find anything. So, I choose to believe that she made it off the freeway without harm.

We saw lots of animals this trip, as usual. But, this time we were treated to a moose cow and her calf right next to the cabin. We watched them from the back porch for a while and then from the window in the family room as she ate shrubs and grass around the wood pile at the side of the cabin. Here is a picture.

On our last day, we went to fill up the water bottles at Howard Springs and came across two bull moose in the Henry's Fork river that runs through Mack's Inn. Here is a great picture of them. They didn't seem to mind all the people snapping photos of them while they ate. Beautiful and powerful animals.
We're headed back up over Labor Day and I'm sure we'll have a great time again.