Oct 23, 2011

100-10 Bike Trips

During the first few years after having been to Woodbadge I became quite involved in Varsity Scouting so that I could fill my ticket from Woodbadge and accomplish my goals. I started out by becoming involved in the Varsity Committee for the Hobble Creek District where we lived. I was involved in training courses and activities with the boys in my team and enjoyed the experience. It was only a few short months though after becoming the Varsity Coach in my ward that our ward was divided and much to my surprise I ended up with my family in a whole new ward the First Ward. I was worried as things began to develop because I knew the Varity coach real well and didn’t want to be the coach in his stead. Well I was worried for nothing because the Bishop (B Ray Anderson) and 1st Counselor (Wynn Everett) came to see me and I was soon called as the Scoutmaster. I loved the job as Scoutmaster also but never could quite get the orange of varsity scouting out of my blood. I became involved however in more District planning and a few years later had the opportunity to plan an event that would cross all the scouting lines and be something any of the boys 11 to 18 could do. It was a hundred mile bike ride in less than 10 hours and we called it the 100-10. A friend from work and I were on the committee and decided that if we were going to host it we had better ride in it. So since we worked together at Signetics we decided to ride our bikes to work in preparation for the event. I would leave home around 10 pm in the pitch blackness of the night with only my small headlight letting me know what was on the road ahead of me. We got to where we quite enjoyed the ride and did it for nearly two months solid prior to the June event. We rode on cold nights and we rode several times in the spring rains that were also quite cold. The interesting part of the ride was that I could truly say to the boys that I rode uphill both ways to work and home every day. There is a joke now days about how grandparent s say they walked to school uphill both ways in 5 feet of snow and the kids love to use that on us whenever we might say “In my day!” Anyway it was true because I would ride down off the hill into Springville where I would stop by Steve’ Claybrook’s home and start the ride on into work with him. There was Ironton hill that I found to be quite steep that we would ride up and over and down both ways and then there was the hill that took us back up to Signetics as we got to Orem. On the way home it was reversed and we would ride down out of Orem only to face the ride over Ironton and the ride back up onto the bench into Mapleton.
It was good exercise and I got to where I could ride it quite easily so that when the day of the 100-10 came I was able to easily make the ride in just under 9 hours. That 100 miles was a long way though and I gained a great respect for it. The event was a lot of fun and as I remember Ben, Jeff and Hayden all rode on it with me. We often talked about it but after the ride Steve and I more or less stopped riding into work. The year quickly passed and it soon seemed time was here again to plan the next ride for our district 100-10 mile bike ride. It had been such an easy ride the year before that Steve and I were not nearly as diligent in our preparations this time. We rode a few times into work since we were still on the graveyard shift together but not nearly as well as we had the year before. It seem to be a lot wetter year also and riding in the rain really wasn’t as much fun. Again though the ride came and I joined in it with my scouts. Orin Bawden was my assistant scoutmaster and so since he was a little heavier fellow he drove a van to bring up the last rider and give assistance as needed. I started off on the ride thinking that I would stay with the last boy but only 10 miles into the trip I knew I would never be able to finish at that rate so I talked with Orin and decided to let him do his job and I would ride on ahead to be with my sons. Well it was around the 64th or 65th mile when I finally started to catch up with them. I had ridden hard for the last 50 miles and as I caught up with them about 5 miles before our designated lunch stopping place where we would eat lunch and rest for 20 minutes or so I hit the wall. I nearly felt like I was going to die as I struggled to keep on my bike and peddle fast enough to stay with the boys who seemed to be quite relaxed and having fun going SLOW or so they told me. Anyway they raced on ahead and started their lunches as I slowly made my way behind them. I finally got to the resting area and sat down under a tree and slowly ate my lunch. The boys however were ready to go cause they wanted a record time and didn’t really care if I rode with them. Miracles do happen though and by the time my food started to hit my stomach and they were getting ready to go I got my second wind and was able to stay up with them fairly well for the remaining miles. We finished the ride in just under 7.5 hours. L learned my lesson though that day and had I been involved the following year there would have been some more riding to work regularly.