Boulder, UT > Hanksville, UT
Miles Ridden – 84.0
Mileage to date – 1,027.3
John had an awesome ride today despite more climbing. The scenery was non-stop, drop dead gorgeous all the way to Hanksville. He climbed 4500 feet, but due to the change in elevation between Boulder and Hanksville he descended 6700 feet. Most of the climbing came early in the day and the rest of the day was on flat or descending terrain. The excitement of the day came on Boulder Mountain when 2 cows ran out in the road in front of John. He hit the brakes and came to within 30 feet of them. They engaged in a staring contest for a while and the cows ran off!
Cindy and I spent the day in Capital Reef which is a really nice National Park. It is not very well known, but it incredibly beautiful and I highly recommend it. It is not as developed as Bryce or Zion, but there is still quite a bit to see. It was established as a park in 1971. This area was originally a Mormon settlement called Fruita and was settled in the late 1800’s. This is an incredibly remote area and the settlers were very self sufficient. They established a number of orchards that still exist to this day. In fact we had a fresh baked pie today from the fruit in the orchard.
We visited an old homestead, the school house, took the scenic drive through the park, and did 3 small hikes – a very busy day.
Tomorrow we plan to do a longer hike in the morning, eat more pie, and then head to Las Vegas where we will fly home from on Sunday.
John is still cycling with Jaime and Heather. Tomorrow will be a huge riding day for them. The next town from Hanksville is a Blanding and is 125 miles away with no services on the route. Their plan is to ride 95 miles and assess how they feel. At 95 miles they can travel about 5 miles off route to a primitive campground. If they do the full 125 miles they will do 8000 feet of climbing. They plan to start at 5 am. Due to the amount of riding and poor internet connections I don’t think we will have much of a detailed update from John tomorrow.
Photos from John’s ride-
Photos from the Park-
Old Fruita school house-
