HOW Day 7
Wendover, UT to Bringham City, UT
The day started by riding along the Bonneville Salt Flats, famous as the location for world land-speed records, but for me it was really impressive just the sheer size of it all.
We then continued into the craggy, volcanic Silver Island Mountains, so-named for the silvery appearance this “island” range displays from a distance as hot air rises from the vast remains of ice-age Lake Bonneville.
We then detoured off Silver Island Loop Road and ascended through impressive Silver Island Canyon where we rode an unmaintained two track that it eroded and rutted near its summit. The pass is named for the mid-19th-century families whose wagon train became stranded in the snows of California’s Sierra Nevada, where some of the emigrants are thought to have survived by eating those who had died.
We then continued north along TL Bar Ranch Road, on a county road that lies at the base of the Pilot Range (where a peak is named for its role as a landmark to emigrants heading west across a landscape that has changed little since). Water coursing down from the mountains leaves ruts and washes here and there.
We then passed the railroad stop of Lucin, where ponds at an incongruous oasis recall the bygone era when steam-powered locomotives watered here.
We then rode the Transcontinental Railroad National Back Country Byway, which follows the historic Promontory Branch of the world’s first transcontinental railroad.
The toad is built on top of the old railroad tracks and at times the road detours suddenly in places to avoid deteriorated old wooden trestles and badly eroded segments.
Everywhere we looked we saw historic artifacts that enriched our journey through this chapter of American history.
We passed the Long-abandoned townsites like Kelton and Terrace, and their cemeteries, recalled the era when the railroad tied isolated farms and rural communities to the world and its markets with a lifeline of steel.
After 90 miles, we arrived at the eastern terminus which is the Golden Spike National Historic Site, where the fabled, final “golden spike” was ceremoniously driven on May 10, 1869.
We stopped to visit the site and enjoyed the 119 coming past us a number of times snd blowing off her whistle.
From Golden Spike, we rode n a Highway which pasts the turn for Thiokol Corp.’s outdoor rocket display, which is a contemporary bookend to the saga we had just experienced of human migration towards new frontiers.
Facebook Post of HOW Day 7
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