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Bryce is Nice!

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.

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Cedar City – The Promised Land!

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 –

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When the Tailwinds Gonna Come?

Baker,NV > Milford, UT

Miles Ridden – 83.5

Mileage to date – 732.6

We got an early start this morning due to the weather forecast and the length of the ride. We gave Ethan most of our gear and he loaded in his SUV. The plan was for him to meet us about 42 miles out with some cold drinks. We still carried lots of water, snacks and gear to make repairs. We were riding at 6:20 and it was really delightful temperature and scenery wise.

In an attempt to break my phone I shot these of Heather and Jaime as we were riding out of town-

We hit the Utah border and a new time zone in 5 miles or so –

The folks in Utah seem to be more concerned about folks safety than Nevada is. I never saw a sign like this in Nevada despite some huge distances without services –

There was a bit of headwind today early for maybe 5 miles or so but but it subsided. The riding was quite nice. We turned off of US 50 early and spent most of that day on Utah route 21 which is even lonelier than US 50. I think there were stretches of 15 or 20 minutes with no cars in either direction. Truly a remote and beautiful area.

As promised Ethan met us at 42 miles. He found an abandoned homestead with a shade tree and he came bearing cold Gatorade! Here is where we met Ethan –

Ethan met us again at about 62 miles out right before the final climb for the day. We did 3 passes today for about 4200 feet of climbing. The last 16 miles where downhill again. We could see Milford from 12 miles away! It was in the mid 90’s when we arrived at 3:00 Mountain time. We lost 1 hour when we crossed time zones. We stopped at our hotel and Ethan showed up with ice cold cokes for all of us!

The other day I was wondering when we were going to get some tailwinds and then I thought to myself “maybe we did get tailwinds and I did not notice”. Tailwinds especially if mild can be easy to overlook because often your 1st impulse is to think “I feel great, I am strong and I am such an awesome cyclist”! Tailwinds are a little like good fortune in life. Often we overlook that as well or take it for granted. I feel incredibly fortunate to have the fitness and the means to undertake this great adventure with my brother a John. I am equally blessed that my wife Cindy was so supportive of this. John, my sisters, and I were so fortunate to have 2 wonderful parents. Cindy and I are blessed with 2 great kids. The list of good fortune for me is long. I think the key is always not to focus on what you don’t have but rather focus on what you have. Peace.

Tomorrow is the last day of my adventure with John. I have very mixed feelings. I have had a total blast and seen some beautiful sights. My body is telling me it is time to take a break. Tomorrow will be 54 miles to Cedar City. Cindy will meet me there. She is bringing some gear for John and we plan to go see Bryce Canyon and Capital Reef National Parks.

Scenes from today –

The money shot. We have seen this ore something similar dozens of time and it never gets old –

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Hike Your Own Hike, Ride Your Own Ride

Ely, NV > Baker,NV

Miles Ridden – 61.5

Mileage to date – 649.1

This ride was on Sunday Sept 3. I could not post due to poor internet connections last night.

We decided to get a little later start today since yesterday was a tough day and today looked to be a little easier. There was no breakfast available at our hotel and not many restaurants in the immediate area so we decided to walk to MacDonald’s down the street at 6:30 am. We looked up and saw the young couple (Heather and Jaime) of bicycle tourists that we had met 2 days ago in Austin. They were getting an early start. We stopped to talk with them and they said a young man named Ethan from their church where Jaime was the youth pastor was going to meet them in Baker. Ethan is going to provide “sag” support for them i.e. carry a lot of their gear in his car to lighten the load. Jaime said we were welcome to have Ethan carry some of gear as well if we wanted. John and I are going to take them up on their offer tomorrow which is 83 mile day with no services and temperatures projected near the mid-90’s.

We did not get on the road until 8 am. The weather was really nice early with some cool and crisp air. We made good time early on. The ride was relatively easy. We had 2 passes – Connors(7722) and Sacramento(7154). By the time we got to Sacramento Pass it had gotten warmer and it was quite a bit of work to get up. The good news is that from Sacramento Pass to Baker is about 16 miles and all downhill.

I have to say that the scenery today was some of the best of the trip. Hopefully the pictures can convey some of that. Baker (population 68) is a pretty interesting place. It is right outside of Great Basin National Park which was established in 1986. There is not much else to say about Baker except that it is a pretty isolated place.

John and I met up with Heather, Jaime and Ethan in Baker and over dinners #1 and #2 we formulated a plan of attack for tomorrow.

“Hike your own hike” or HYOH is an expression amongst Appalachian trail hikers and it means there is no single correct way to hike the AT. There are a lot of ways to hike the AT from thru hiking to section hiking, but at the end of the day it’s your hike so do it the way you want it. I think that philosophy can be extended to bicycle touring and life in general, there are a lot of ways to do it as well and I think you have to do what works for you. Taking advantage of a sag wagon for the next couple of days will be a nice break.

Scenes from the ride

Always a fun sight to see –

Found on the side of the road –

View from the motel-

Dinner #1 location –

Dinner #2 location –

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Go East Young Man!

Eureka, NV > Ely, NV

Miles Ridden – 79.5

Mileage to date – 587.6

Stop me if you have heard this story before. We got up early, ate as much as we could, and then ate some more. We got on our bikes and rode straight uphill and then down and then up…. Oh, right sorry that sounds like yesterday. Well today was a lot like yesterday except longer and more climbing.

Since we have traveled so far east, sunrise here is nearly a full 30 minutes earlier than San Francisco but we have not really taken advantage of it. We usually leave at 7 am or so.

I was a minor celebrity at breakfast because I figured out what button to push to cook a breakfast sandwich. In case you are ever at Eureka Gold Country Inn use button 6 on the microwave to cook your breakfast sandwich! Other highlights from breakfast include the couple all decked out in camo and the 2 guys dressed as cowboys. One even had spurs on! John thinks they are the real deal. I always thought cowboys camped out next to a fire instead of staying in a hotel?

John wanted to add some air to his back tire before we started and as we pulled away he realized he left his water bottles in the refrigerator! Luckily he caught that before we got too far up the road. Due to the lack of services, we carried about 13 liters of water between us and had plenty left over when we finished.

Today we ascended and descended 4 passes – Pinto(7376), Pancake(6517), Little Antelope(7438), and Robinson(7607). The scenery was very nice. It was amazing how many trees and how green it was at the higher elevations especially over the 1st two passes. The 4th Pass came at mile 61 and it was all downhill into town which was nice.

Ely (pronounced “e-lee”) is a pretty big place compared to the last 3 places that we have stayed. It has qa population of about 4300. There is still mining going on in the area(copper). Some Wikipedia fun facts about Ely–

  1. It was founded by a Vermont resident JW Long in 1878
  2. It is the birthplace of Richard Nixon’s wife Pat

Once we got into town we went to the sporting goods/hunting/bike store so John could get some new tubes. Lots of camo being worn by customers today so I am not sure if that is a thing here or if hunting season has started.

We are staying on the out skirts of town so we won’t see much more of the town.

Tomorrow should be a shorter day as we will ride down to Baker, NV(population 68). It is about 62 miles away and there should be some services about 1/2 way there. That will be our last stop in Nevada and then it will be on to Utah.

Pictures from today-

My 3rd pancake of the day –

A sign I hate to see because it means we are going uphill-

Ely