Author: Jeff Morin

Dolores, CO > Telluride, CO

Miles Ridden – 64.3

Mileage to date – 1,299.2

Oops, sorry for the typo in the title…. should read “Telluride”.  Speaking of the four letter words, one four letter word that we discussed at length when planning the trip was… rain.  When you plan to spend 6 to 8 weeks riding your bicycle nearly everyday, you are bound to get rained on at some point.  For John, that some point came today.  Luckily, John is well prepared for rain.  His bike has fenders which helps reduce the spray off the wheels.  He has a really nice Gore Tex rain jacket and pants.  Despite all of that, when it rains and you are on a bicycle you get wet.  Period.  Throw in some mountains into the mix and you get wet and cold.

John’s account –

“It was beautiful when we started and had a great lunch.  We pulled into lunch in Rico and it started raining hard.  After about an hour lunch it started to lighten up a bit.  I put on my rain gear and we started up the pass.  After a few miles or so it started raining hard and hailing.  Jamie and Heather got in the car (Ethan’s) and I kept riding as my stuff is gore tex etc.  after about 4 miles it let up and mostly stopped.  I got to the pass and waited for them and it started raining again.  I descended and road into town because it was cold.”

I have never been to Telluride, but it has a reputation for being one of the most beautiful ski mountains in the US.  It is in southwestern Colorado.  John ascended nearly 4,300 feet today the bulk of the climbing was on Lizard Head Pass.  How cool a name is that?  John describes it as a “long, but gentle climb all the way from Dolores”.  It tops out at 10,222 elevation above sea level.

Here is a photo of the pass –

Photos from today –

Cool spot for lunch –

Delicious watermelon juice-

Blanding, UT > Dolores, CO

Miles Ridden – 82.3

Mileage to date – 1,234.9

John and crew were back in action today after totally crushing it yesterday. Today’s destination was Dolores,CO (population 938) which probably felt like a metropolis after all the small towns in southeastern Utah. One thing nice about Colorado is that the services will be a little more plentiful. Colorado will require more climbing and today was no exception as John did nearly 4,700 feet of climbing.

John’s account of the day – “The climb right out of Blanding was pretty mellow grade-wise but difficult because of yesterday’s ride. Fortunately the temperature was very comfortable all day, making the ride easier. The traffic was quite busy with many 18-wheel trucks. The scenery has changed pretty quickly from the classic Utah red and sandstone vistas to rolling farm land. Didn’t have interactions with anyone outside of the group. We were all relieved to get here as the ride was made more challenging due to yesterday’s activities.”

Tomorrow’s destination is the Telluride area.

A couple of photos from today –

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-

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 –