May 6

Rolled through Salt Lake City almost entirely on multi-use trails today, ending our day at the Lazy B Ranch in Riverton. On our way, we passed through affluent newer neighborhoods, well-kept older neighborhoods, industrial districts and a grittier part of the city, where I had a mildly tense interaction with two young men who appeared to have made some bad life choices. All ended well: “Nice bike. You have a nice day,” and “You too.” Moving on, we were stopped by a very nice woman and fellow cyclist named Cathy Price, and her son, Rylan. Cathy said she had seen “rollingwithjax.com” on Jax’s trailer, checked out the site and knew the area we were going to ride through. So she intercepted us to offer a bottle of water, give us route information (more goat head thorns coming) and cheer us on. We had a nice conversation, but the wind was coming up and it was threatening to rain, so we had to move on.

We arrived at the Lazy B, where our friends Lillan and Damien live, and are staying in the main house, thanks to the generosity of the owners, Bob and Tracy Brown. It’s looking like rain and thunderstorms for the next few days and my improvised rain cover for Jax’s mesh-sided trailer has disintegrated, so I’m taking a day to rig up a new one, clean and lube the bike thoroughly, buy dog food and look for thorn-resistant inner tubes.

Not pictured above are our equally awesome co-hosts, Damien Rome and Lillan Roquet!