In September, Shaler Area senior Malik Maughan went out west for the adventure of a lifetime.

Maughan and his family flew to Utah to participate in the Salt to Saint bicycle race. The race’s route, as its name suggests, went from Salt Lake City to St. George, two major cities at opposite ends of the state.

According to the Salt to Saint website, “The Salt To Saint Relay is Utah’s most exciting bicycle relay challenge. Teams of cyclists, consisting of 8 riders, 4 riders, and even Solo riders, will push themselves to new limits. Creating their own strategy, teams will try to get from Salt Lake City Utah to St George Utah as fast as possible. With the distance of 420+ miles divided into 24 legs, each team will need to decide which distances and legs fit their individual teammates’ abilities.”

The nearly 430-mile distance was divided between Maughan, his father, his aunt and his uncle. Maughan took 6 of the 24 legs of the race which comprised about 125 miles of the journey. The family members would usually alternate legs, although Malik did two consecutive legs at one point.

“The big thing that made it difficult wasn’t necessarily the distance, because each leg was only twenty miles at most,” Maughan said. “The big thing that made it difficult was that by the end of the first day you were sleep deprived, and your legs were already super burnt out from riding really hard.”

The extreme distance of the race wasn’t the only challenge that Maughan faced. Along the way, he struggled with a route that wasn’t always the easiest to follow.

“The route was poorly marked,” he said. “I got lost at two different parts because the route was weirdly marked”

Another challenging characteristic of the route was its deserted nature. According to Maughan, it was “lonesome”.

“It’s very quiet a lot of the time,” he said. “Especially when you get to the more back country areas, you only see one car every five, ten minutes or so.”

While trying to complete a bike ride of 429.2 miles, the food and sleeping conditions were amongst the hardest parts of the journey.

“You know, you’re hungry,” he said. “You’ve been living off protein bars, chips and pickles for the last 18 hours. You’re sleeping uncomfortably in the back of a van.”

While the race was challenging, the views that Maughan came across made all of the adversity worth it. One amazing view in particular came as he crossed through a canyon underneath a clear night sky.

“I looked ahead and all of a sudden there was this massive mountain range right in front of me. I passed through it and there was no light anywhere,” he said. “Everywhere else there had been street lights or some kind of cars, or like a town nearby, but there was no light except for my flashlight on my bike. I turned off my light and I could just see the sky completely lit up. It was like a thousand light bulbs were just hanging down from there. It was really crazy.”

With the extreme distance, confusing route, and the harsh conditions of Utah, Maughan found that the biggest part of the race wasn’t the time in which he finished; it was simply just finishing, which his team did in 27 hours 43 minutes and 21 seconds.

“I was super tired because I hadn’t acclimated fully to elevation,” he said. “The big thing is that it becomes like a game of attrition, not necessarily a game of speed.”

By the end of the race, Maughan was exhausted. When he finally got back to the hotel after his team finished, he took some extra time to recover from the wear and tear he put himself through. `

“When I finished, I remember the first thing I did was when I got back to the hotel, I hadn’t showered for like 36 hours. I was caked in dirt and sweat. I went down to the hot tub in our hotel, it was supposed to have a 15-minute limit, but I stayed in for like two hours.”

Between the awesome sights, great exercise, and the time with his family, his bike race proved to be an amazing experience.

“The views were absolutely breathtaking,” he said. “I love Utah, it’s one of my favorite places to go. I’ve been going there every summer for the past few years and it’s very pretty. It was very rewarding.”