Utah!

We both felt rejuvinated after our rest day in Panguitch and ready to tackle some more of Utah. Friday (7/14) took us out of Panguitch and on to Calf Creek Campground, just outside of Escalante, UT. Again, the scenery was breathtaking. First, we soared through Bryce Canyon (see above pic). I can only speak for riding a bike because I have never driven it, but there is definitely something about racing down through a canyon at 40mph with the wind blasting by your ears that gives you some kind of high. This put together with the natural beauty made for a great morning.

Until...we got to Henrieville, UT. In the event that anyone is going through Henrieville, DO NOT STOP at the local post office. We swung by to mail a few things, eat some trail mix, and take a short break. The woman at the post office would have none of it. She would not let us use her garbage pail (instead we had to walk 1/2 mile up the road to find "the dumpster"), nor would she allow us to use her hose to fill up our water bottles. As if that weren't enough, she proceeded to threaten calling the sheriff if we did not get off her sidewalk. We were "blocking her customers" (of which there were none). Anyway, I apologize for the rant, but come on lady. Loosen up!!

Jeremiah cruisin'

Back to the trip...from Bryce, we climbed yet more elevation before spiraling down through another Utah canyon. If you look closely in the picture on the bottom left side, you can see where the road ends up.

Eventually, we ended up at Calf Creek Campground, where we took a quick dip. The creek ran right by our campsite.

Calf Creek

Here's the synopsis for Saturday's ride from Calf Creek to Hanksville, UT
Temp: 102 F
Climbing: 6000 feet
Distance: 97 miles

It was one heck of a day! Here's a photo (below) towards the end of the ride (about 25 miles west of Hanskville). It's pretty wild how rapidly the scenery changes, usually depending on the nearest water supply. Here is was very dry and hot!!

Sunday (7/16), we though we had an easy day to a great destination: Hite Recreation Area and Lake Powell. It was only a 50 mile ride from Hanksville. But the temperatures were soaring. Once we got to Hite, the manager of the gas station there quoted is at over 110 degrees. We were lucky that it was such a short ride! The biggest disappointment was the "lake." It turns out that Lake Powell is only a lake when Colorado has several continuous winters with lots of snow. Otherwise the "lake" is really just the Colorado river (see picture below).

To make matters worse, there was no shade to be found. So we hung out in the convenience store all afternoon until he closed up, then found some shade on one side of the store. But it was so hot, that neither of us could fall asleep. I probably slept for about an hour total last night. So rather than face the heat and seeing as how we were both awake, we tried our luck at leaving early...2:15AM early. The now infamous 2AM - 10AM ride. We made it safely, and much more temperately, to Blanding, UT and were off the bikes by 10:15. Tonight, we meet up with Jeremiah's dad and look forward to a few days without the 40lb panniers on the bikes. Thanks Gerry!!

Ben coming through the red rocks

'Til next time, we'll keep pedaling,
Ben and Jeremiah