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Why Will2Will? At first we were going to call it the Bill2Bill because the route started in Bountiful at William (Bill) Michael Black's home and ended in St. George at William (Bill) LeGrand Black's home. But LeGrand loved the double meaning of Will2Will. The title represented the family name while also paying homage to the character strength a long-distance biker had to have--an iron WILL.
The Black Pack (LeGrand, Mike, David, and Brent)was inspired by the Salt to Saint Bike Ride but the boys had to adjust the departure date of that popular bike ride so they designed their own marathon event. Instead of riding together in peloton formation, this ride was a relay event. Each rider rode alone.
The goal was to go the 450 miles, 12,000 feet of vertical elevation in good weather in about 27 hours. As it happened, they left the day the tornado touched down in Northern Utah so the good weather was not part of the equation. Watching the torrential downpour and high winds, reasonable people would have postponed or canceled their biking. But the Black Pack was not reasonable. Determined and willful, but not very reasonable.
Emily's brother-in-law (the meteorologist) gave her the shortened version of how to read the weather charts and let her in to his system to assess the minute by minute forecast. Em carefully predicted the only calm in the storm would happen after 2:00 a.m. So at 2:30 a.m. LeGrand took the first leg of the relay from Bountiful and down Redwood Road in the rain. I followed with the car. It was strangely peaceful and quiet on Redwood at 3:00 in the morning with a gentle rain falling. Of course that was the driver of the car speaking.
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| LeGrand was awesome. He insisted on this leg of the ride because it was in the dark, on a main SLC street, in the rain. This leg was so foolhardy that he didn't want to put any of the boys at risk. He figured he was dispensable but his sons still had families to raise! |
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It was fun to see "the other side" of Utah Lake. We traveled roads we had never been on before.
We took the west side of Utah Lake through three small towns called Elberta, Goshen and Mona.
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| Early morning on the Goshen Canyon Road. By this point, you could see the front moving north and clearer skies to the south. |
David saved LeGrand's life here by meeting us a few miles before the regularly scheduled switch. LeGrand fought a bad headwind and was soaking wet from the rain.
Because David flew in from Phoenix, the guys all shared their gear. LeGrand's clothes and shoes were so wet, he used Mike's stuff.
Jodi drove down with Mike and the van/trailer. We could not have known how valuable she would be to our success. She drove most of the time and watched out for the guys with tender care. LeGrand's poor feet were so cold and wet he couldn't get his shoes and socks off. Jodi helped her dad with all the love and care of a youngest daughter.
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| David fought a headwind and cool temperatures too. |
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| Mike rigged up a portable shower complete with hot water. Because we changed the relay point, we didn't get it set up before we had to take off again without that creature comfort. Next time we will know how to plan better. |
Those cows on the other side of the road looked a little curious about what we were doing.
David rode from Nephi to Salina. He makes it look so graceful and easy.
Notice the van and trailer Mike and Jodi drove down. We supported ourselves so well on this ride, the guys thought maybe they would like to try it again someday.
David looked happy his first leg was over. Mike took off here in Salina. LeGrand said he would stay with him and immediately lost him. It was a little nerve-wracking to wonder where Mike was without us close by. He ended up having a flat tire but miraculously LeGrand and David found him shortly after his breakdown about 100 miles into Mike's ride. Mike only had to wait a few minutes before the van and the tools showed up to fix his tire and get him back on his way.
I don't have any pictures of Mike climbing that mountain. Talk about a powerful will! Put this kid on a mountain and he literally rises to the challenge. Mike climbed the huge mountain pass south of Salina between Orderville and Kanab. It was a hard pull and he was going straight into the wind. When we finally all caught up with him, I stayed behind him with the car and watched him conquer part of that mountain. I freely admit I had to wipe tears from my eyes more than once. I was so touched by these boys' effort.
In Kanab, Jodi, Dad and David cooked a midnight feast for the Black Pack on the side of the road. Brent drove up from St. George and met us here in Kanab. His relay leg was all in the dark from Kanab to Apple Valley. Brent was recruited to join the street bikers in deviation from his regular mountain biking. He was such a great sport to train to help the guys out. We were all amazed at how well he did. The guys were so thankful to see him all fresh and smiling because they were all spent. Again, it was a thrill to see the strength and courage of these men and the love they had for each other!
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| Eggs, sausage, and chocolate milk. |
LeGrand took another turn to get us from Apple Valley to Hurricane. David and Mike rode together from Hurricane to the Dixie Convention Center.
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| All the guys decided to ride together from the Dixie Center to William LeGrand's home. |
The Black Pack starting the last few miles together to the finish line.
Trail Blazing in the dark.
It is quite a feeling to finish something that hard!
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| I really love these guys. There were a great inspiration to me. I need to do some hard things in my own life and what these men did was a great example to me. The Black Pack finished in less than 25 hours from porch to porch, a better time than they ever hoped for. |
