Bugs in my Hair, Cat Pee in my Nose

When I was in Utah for work last month I would try to ride everyday when I got out of class. Still trying to overcome my on-going knee issues I would keep my road rides down to about 40 miles of mostly flats. One of the easiest rides was from the hotel due West along the shores of the Great Salt Lake.

If you've never been to the Great Salt Lake, search your memory for the nastiest puddle you can remember and multiply it by 1 million. You can smell the water before you see it. I would describe the smell as a combination of dirty wet dog, cat pee, cow manure, and sulfur. During intervals as my heartrate and breathing would increase I could actually taste the putrid air. Then there are the bugs, more bugs than I have ever seen in one place. As I rode along the shore I would go through clouds of them so thick you couldn't see the other side. After each cloud I could feel hundreds of bugs crawling in my hair under my helmet. Only water like this would make so many bugs. Yum, want to see if you can float in it??

Yet the Great Salt Lake and the surrounding salt flats are an amazing place. It is the only body of water I would truly consider a desert. If you drank it you would die of dehydration. As I rode west along the shoreline, the tall buildings of Salt Lake City would sink to the horizon and the stress of my work training would go with them. When I looked back and saw nothing but the peaks of the Wasatch Mountains I was at peace, if only for a moment. In Utah, you truly can ride off into the sunset.

There is beauty everywhere, even in a wasteland like the shorelines of the Great Salt Lake. It is riddled with abandoned vehicles, buildings, train cars, couches, and even water slides, each harboring it's own unique photo. Jeff and I spent a night with the stench and bugs trying to find some beauty along the shoreline. Here's what we came up with, remeber "...the eye of the beholder."