Editor's note: Columnist Lee Benson is bicycling the length of Utah along U.S. 89, a k a State Street, starting at the Arizona-Utah line and ending at the Idaho-Utah line. His columns will chronicle what he sees, hears and avoids along the way.
It's easy keeping track of Highway 89 along its first 323 miles through southern and central Utah.
There is only one section not rideable on a bicycle — about 17 miles that connects with the I-70 freeway by Richfield. But even if you ride the freeway down there, you're as likely to run into a jackrabbit as someone telling you to get off.
But at Mapleton that all changes.
From southern Utah County to northern Weber County, for 70-plus miles, Highway 89 loses its identity as it is swallowed by urban Utah.
From the vantage point of a bike saddle, the change from rural to rat race is abrupt. One minute you're counting cows, the next you're counting McDonald's.
Suddenly, within the first five miles, there are more intersections and traffic signals than in the first 300 miles combined.
I started counting fast-food franchises in Springville and stopped in Lindon. I was already at 97.
I passed car dealerships and gas stations and convenience stores and shopping malls and supermarkets and book stores and health-food stores and office towers and carpet cleaners and restaurants and movie complexes and hospitals and dentists' offices and veterinarians and schools and churches and way too many "Checks Cashed Here" places.
And I can tell you this: If you're out of work, there are plenty of job openings along the Wasatch Front. It seemed like half of the aforementioned fast-food places had "Now Hiring" on their marquee.
In Springville, there was a sign announcing openings for bus drivers in the Nebo School District. In Orem, a moving company was soliciting piano movers. In Ogden, a muffler shop could use your services, no experience required.
The Wasatch Front: It's where the jobs are, it's where the cars are. There is barely a break from city to city. If you ignore the freeway and stay on 89, it goes like this: Mapleton-Springville-Provo-Orem-Lindon-Pleasant Grove-American Fork-Lehi-Thanksgiving Point-Draper-Sandy-Midvale-Murray-South Salt Lake-Salt Lake City-North Salt Lake-Woods Cross-Bountiful-Centerville-Farmington-Fruit Heights-Layton-Uintah-Washington Terrace-South Ogden-Ogden-Harrisville.
Then it's back to fruit orchards again.
You're never alone, but it's easy to get lost. I kept losing 89. One minute I was on it, the next I was on some city's 2320 North.
I still don't know how 89 gets around I-15 at the Point of the Mountain south of Salt Lake City.
From Thanksgiving Point, I first tried the frontage road to the east, only to discover it's closed at the quarry.
I backtracked and tried the west frontage road and successfully broke through into the Salt Lake Valley next to the prison, eventually hooking back up with 89 at the South Towne Mall.
In some places, 89 isn't the best way to go. In Farmington, for instance, a woman walking in front of the courthouse said I'd be better off taking Main Street and hooking up with 89 a few miles north. Otherwise, I'd be in a maze of freeway entrances and exits and might wind up in Reno or Cheyenne. In Ogden, it was easier to stay high on the bench before dropping down to 89.
Despite the much faster pace along the Wasatch Front, the going was much slower, due to all the red lights.
Waiting for the lights to change, I found myself drawn to newspaper headlines about the Destiny Norton case. For a week I had been out of touch — concentrating only on getting from A to B — and now, absorbing the gruesome details of the little girl's death, I found myself wishing I still was.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I came into Harrisville and caught the scent of cows and hay once again. Not because I have anything against city living. It's where I choose to live, too. But because it's really no place for a bicycle, or to try and keep track of the highway that runs through it.
Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.