Transcontinental Rail Road Ride

This is J.W.'s first Post!!

My buddy Justus and I decided to go ride the old Transcontinental Railroad trail here in Utah. We were looking for something close and not still covered in snow. The trail is mostly the old railroad grade that was finished here in Utah at Promontory on May 10th, 1869. This is the Golden Spike location. The trail has historic information along the way and goes through a couple of ghost town cemeteries.

We made it a overnighter and rode from Golden Spike Historic site to Lucin, Utah. Then we turned south for Wendover, Nevada. That's where the Bonneville Salt Flats are.

We gassed up and started back home. We rode until 11:30 at night and camped for the night. We cooked our tinfoil dinners and went to sleep, at least I tried. The ground was very hard and Justus is a pretty good snorer. The next morning we woke up at about 7:30, broke camp and had breakfast and headed back to the truck. We got there at about 1:00 pm.

We stopped and took in all the info and sites along the way. In all we rode 16 hrs or so including stops and for 290 miles!

The trail is mostly flat rail road grade and is super easy riding but here is the amazing thing.
On the first day Justus stopped and had a flat, not a big deal we had a flat kit and even a small DC compressor. We had it fixed in probably ten minutes or so and started again. After about 3 miles Justus had a flat again in the same tire. What are the chances? We fixed it up and started again. Maybe 5 miles later Justus has another flat same tire, but this time there is a old rail spike sticking out of his tire. Justus is pretty pissed by now and were starting to think we might run out of plugs for the tire. Then it donned on me, that stinking spike must have been sucked up in the tire from the first flat! Then it punctured the tire two times from the inside out. Not a single flat after that for the rest of the ride. So if you ever decide to ride a railroad grade bring a flat kit and spin the tire after fixing to see if the little bugger is still in there.

We saw some antelope, rabbits, lizards, hornytoads, several birds, and one other person on the trail. There was a ton of sun and the temp was great! The views were awesome and it was fun to think about the old trains working their way along the very grade we were riding. We visited two cemeteries and three places were towns used to be. There are signed along the grade giving mileage from SFO and a brief history of the location. Most of the ride is in the complete middle of nowhere the closest to anything we ever got was about 10 miles from highway 30 for about 5 miles of the grade, excluding Wendover.

It was a complete blast and I can't wait for the next trip!