Lately, more new attendees of BikeWalk Provo volunteer meetings seem to be, from my casual observation, students attending classes at BYU or UVU. I was happy to meet one such student during our last volunteer meeting at the Provo City Library at Academy Square, a BYU student who recently arrived in Provo only a month ago. The next day, after the meeting, I caught up with Gabe Mills at the Life Sciences Building to find out what he thinks of biking about Provo.
Growing up from eighth grade through high school in the capital city of California, Sacramento, Gabe “loved how the river trail [the American River Parkway] is connected to everything,” and seeing “the morning mist on the river on the way to seminary” was especially fascinating to him. “I think it, the green belt, connects a lot of Sacramento.” The “green belt” that Gabe mentions consists of contiguous public open space and 32 miles of paved trails along the American River.
Gabe bought his first bike, a 1992 Lemond Tourmalet, from a seller on Craigslist while attending classes at McClatchy High School. The bike was his main source of transportation then, and he rode that bike everywhere, putting many miles behind him in a city of a half a million people.
When Gabe moved to Rexburg, finishing high school in September 2020, to matriculate at BYU Idaho, he took his Lemond Tourmalet with him. At the end of his first semester he went to stay with his grandparents in La Verkin, Utah until April 2021, working at a local grocery store… and again took the bike with him. While living in La Verkin, Gabe tells me he “thought it would be fun to surprise a friend on her birthday” by riding his Lemond from Zion National Park, not far from La Verkin to Provo, a total of 226 miles.
“My bike has been with me in all of these places, EVERYWHERE I go.”
In 2021 Gabe began preparing for a two year mission with The Church. After completing his mission in August 2023, it was back to Rexburg to continue his education and to work for the school newspaper, the “Scroll.” Gabe really “enjoyed riding [his bike] through the fields around Rexburg,” but he admits that “after falling in love with Utah” he knew he was destined to transfer to BYU’s Main Campus here in Provo, and soon he began classes on June 21st.
In celebrating the occasion of his move to Provo, Gabe rode from Rexburg to his grandparent’s home in Clearfield, Utah, 212 miles in two days, on that same Lemond Tourmalet to complete the majority of the distance between the two cities. Once settled into his new neighborhood, Gabe continued with his major in “Urban and Regional Planning,” and at the same time is doing some writing for the Biology and the Plant and Wildlife Sciences departments.
I ask Gabe what he likes about biking in Provo: “Bikes may use a full lane, that really struck me, a bike friendly city. The Provo River Canyon, some parks up there, thought that was incredible; the signals at 700 N and 200E, had not seen anything like that before.” Gabe’s enthusiasm expands, “really like Provo’s bike infrastructure, makes me feel like I can live my life by bike.”
