Editor's Note: For the next week, Lee Benson's office is his bicycle as he travels the byways and backways of northern Utah, looking for columns.

"Now I'm going to show you the inspiration behind the Wasatch Back route," said Steve Hill, who, like any good sports announcer who appreciates the value of silence at a big moment, then shut up and didn't say another word.

There was also the small detail that neither he nor I could breathe.

We were climbing a dirt road between Ogden Valley and Cache Valley. Our mountain bike sprockets were at 1 and 1, aka the granny gear, and they stayed there until we reached what for any number of reasons could be called the high point of the ride.

Hill got off his bike at the summit and looked around at the horizon.

"Amazing, isn't it?" he asked rhetorically as he gazed at spectacular mountain scenery suitable for framing anywhere in the world.

Then he turned his gaze to the 13-mile stretch of rock and dirt that got us there.

The remote road, situated only a few miles from the freeways even though it feels like a million, traverses a part of Utah largely unseen, exposing mountain views long hidden from the masses.

It's sort of like having a Renoir tucked in the back of the room, hidden behind an Andy Warhol.

For Hill, the 13 miles represents the missing link he'd long been looking for in his quest to map out the perfect Utah long-distance running relay route.

Ever since moving to Utah from Oregon, Hill had dreamed of one day interrupting his day job — he's a lawyer — long enough to replicate the famous Hood to Coast Relay he'd participated in multiple times as an avid runner in Oregon.

Hood to Coast starts at Mount Hood and ends 197 miles later at the Oregon Coast. It was started in 1982 by Bob Foote and soon became the world's most popular running relay. Every year, 1,000 12-person teams — that's 12,000 runners — enter the one-day event, and it would be many more than that if there wasn't a cap limit on the number of entrants.

Hood to Coast shows off the best of Oregon.

Hill wanted to show off the best of Utah.

For years, as he drove around the state, he tossed his idea around in his mind, trying to conjure the perfect route. But it wasn't until his wife, Tauni, lobbied for a vacation cabin in the Ogden Valley that things finally started moving in the right direction.

One day, after purchasing a lot above the town of Liberty, Hill looked to the north where the 13 miles of rock and dirt starts its ascent to the summit and asked, "Where does that road go?"

The rest is relay history.