Month: September 2017

Bryce, UT > Boulder, UT

Miles Ridden – 73.3

Mileage to date – 943.3

How do you follow up a monster day of riding with 80 miles and 6500 feet of climbing? Well if your John and crew you have an easy day and ride only 73 miles and a mere 4500 ft of climbing. I think he is getting soft!

We shuttled John back up to Bryce at 6:45 am where we meet our friendly SAG driver Ethan. John handed his gear to Ethan and jumped on his bike and rode the 7 miles downhill to join Jaime and Heather who had camped in Tropic. Cindy and I had breakfast with Ethan and he joined us for an 8 mile mile hike in Bryce on the Fairyland trail. It was quite spectacular.

After, the hike Ethan left us to resume SAG duties, and Cindy and I had some lunch. After lunch we headed up to Bryce Point overlook to admire the views one last time. We left for our hotel in Torrey which is about 2.5 hours away. We followed the same route (State Route 12) that John did. It was really beautiful. We rode by Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. We stopped in Boulder to visit with a John to get his account of the day. This area is so remote that it was the last part of the US that was mapped by the US government. The road (SR12) from Boulder to Torrey was only paved in 1985.

John said it was a wonderful ride today. The scenery was amazing. The temperatures were not too hot. It started to rain at one point and he realized that his rain jacket was with Ethan. He rode around the corner and there was Ethan! They jumped in the car for a few minutes to wait out the downpour and then resumed riding.

Tomorrow John will ride to Hanksville. Cindy and I can attest that the route at least to Torrey is spectacular. He will also travel through parts of Capital Reef NP. I am sure it will be a fun day. Tomorrow he will also go over the 1000 mile

mark which is a huge accomplishment. Cindy and I will resume our life of leisure in Capital Reef!

Photos from today-

Cedar City, UT > Bryce, UT

Miles Ridden – 80.0

Mileage to date – 870.0

John and the crew were back at it today with a monster day of riding while Cindy and I took in the beautiful sights of Bryce Canyon and surrounding area. John started the day with an 18 mile ride uphill! He reached 10,500 feet elevation after starting at 5,800. All told he climbed 6,500 feet today.

The temperatures were mild this morning which made for comfortable riding. The initial climb was up a canyon road (RT 14) which was narrow and busy with traffic. John, Jaime, and Heather were all terrorized by one trucker with a loud horn!

Cindy and I had a pretty leisurely morning and headed up towards Bryce and passed John, Jaime, and Heather on the Canyon road. I have to say I think I had an easier time of the climb in my new ride –

Although they looked very good at about 15 miles in to the climb when we saw them –

Cindy and I headed up to Cedar Breaks National Monument to check out the views and do a quick 2 mile hike-

Yikes!

Some sheep on the way there-

A Bristlecone Pine tree that might be 2000 years old-

Next we stopped at Red Canyon which was beautiful-

Finally, we made it into Bryce where we did about 4 miles of hiking. Tremendously beautiful-

As Cindy and I were driving out of Bryce Canyon John called and said he was at the Subway restaurant at the end of the road into the park. We stopped by and got a group photo –

John is staying in Panguitch near us (long story) so we threw his bike in the back and drove him to the hotel. Tomorrow we will bring him back to where he stopped. We did get a chance to take him back into Bryce so he could see some of sights as well.

Quite a long day, but really fun.

Tomorrow is planning to ride to Boulder, UT. Cindy and I will go back to Bryce and then leave for Capital Reef NP.

Milford, NV > Cedar City, UT

Miles Ridden – 57.4

Mileage to date – 790.0

We have been thinking of Cedar City for a few days. It is the end of the line for me. It is really the only town with a proper bike store for about 500 miles once you leave Carson City. John needs his from derailleur cable replaced and his brakes tightened up. Jaime needs work done on his bike and Heather was looking for a women’s specific seat. There is something here for everyone!

John and I went for breakfast at the diner owned by the same people that own the hotel we stayed in. Due to the time zone change it was pretty dark at 6:10 am –

Breakfast was included in the hotel rate, but we upgraded to add pancakes. Too much? I think not –

Ethan stopped by at 7:20 just slightly after sunrise to pick up our gear. Before we even started riding John noticed his front tire was flat. That makes #5 –

The air was cool and refreshing as we started out of town. I don’t think the scenery was quite as nice as the past few days and we were anxious to get to Cedar City so we did not pause much for photos. We raced up to the top of the one pass for the day and expected to see Ethan there with cold drinks. He had said he would try to meet us 25 miles out or so and the top of the pass was 27 miles. We are getting spoiled!

We kept riding expecting to see Ethan any minute but as the miles clicked by, we began to wonder if perhaps he took a different route to Cedar City? We saw Jaime and Heather approaching so we stopped to see if they knew where Ethan was. As soon as we stopped and looked back, there was Ethan at mile 37! He had cold cokes. He also had a special treat for me since it was my last day.

Last night at dinner #2, I mentioned the hard thing about the long rides with no services was that you could not get a cold drink and a proper meal. Instead we munch on energy bars and water that is like 100 degrees! Ethan remembered that and picked up some quesadillas at the Mexican restaurant next to their hotel. We had a choice of steak or chicken –

What a wonderful, thoughtful young man! Thanks for all your help these last few days.

Refueled, we motored on eager to reach Cedar City. Naturally, the last 8 or so miles were uphill

just as the temperatures started to rise. John got flat tire number 2 for the day and 6 for the trip about 7 miles out of town! He is very happy that Cindy is bringing some new tires from Vermont.

We made it to the bike shop. I dropped mine off to be packed and shipped home. John had his bike worked on. Cindy landed in Las Vegas and will be here around 5 pm.

Tomorrow John, Jaime, and Heather will head up towards Panguitch which is about 60

miles away and involves 18 miles of climbing to 10,500 feet. Ouch!

Cindy and I plan to go to Bryce Canyon NP and do some hiking. I hope to do some blog entries of our visits to Bryce and Capital Reef NP.

John and I are hoping to work out a system where he can provide me some raw materials via Dropbox and I will update the blog on his behalf for those who are interested in tracking his progress.

John is incredibly fit and riding strong there is no doubt in my mind that he can go the distance.

A couple of more photos from today –

There is some greenery in Utah thanks to irrigation –

My last descent on this trip –