9/23: gliding back into civilization

We woke up to a very cold morning. The mountain at our backs meant a later sunrise and less heatup. Fortunately for our aching bones, there was a downhill and tailwind right out of camp. Barely had to use any energy for the first 45 min of the morning. There were a few hills, but mostly cruising into Veyo, home to a cinder cone volcano. 

There's much evidence of volcanic geological activity in the area. 

One more climb and we flew down to Snow Canyon, the scenic highlight of the day. I couldn't believe my eyes as the picture came into view. 

And then through the canyon park bike path. 

We rolled into town and saw one of two bike shops that we had tried coordinating bike shipping with. And then we biked another several miles to get to the other bike shop, sustaining a flat along the way. Only to roll into the shop and get told that it was in fact the other shop. Whoops. 

Once all that was sorted, we plopped into our hotel and started using the internet and watching TV like the regressives that we are. 

9/22: back through the high country

Overnight, the storm that caused the intense winds let loose with a few hours of heavy rain, hammering the thin wooden roof of our cabin. Made me very happy with the choice. 

We got up a bit later than usual, the mounting toll of many miles. We knew that today would have us in the middle of nowhere for lunch, so we bought extra food before leaving Cedar City. This is not insignificant weight for us. 

A statue in town read "Heroine of China." It was of Helen Foster Snow, wife of Edgar Snow. Both were allies of the Chinese resistance to Japanese occupation in the 1930s and further revolutionary developments. I didn't know that much about Edgar Snow besides his statue at Peking University, but seeing this one of Helen (born in Cedar City) made for a very nice bookend. I didn't have time to get a picture. A very chance sighting. 

We climbed out of town with a very faint tailwind, so at much more ease compared to yesterday. In the morning, we'd decided to cut out route short today to give ourselves a break. We took out a long stretch of gravel, shaving off 15 mi and 1000 ft of climbing. The essence of the route is the same, save for skipping out on the hamlet of New Harmony. 

The gravel section today was a bit less rocky and steep. The descents still rattled my bike quite a bit, but controlling the bucking and writhing now felt well within my domain. 2000 ft climbing on gravel dispatched without too much fuss. I fear my tour fitness is only coming to bear as the road draws to a close. 

The landscape looked very similar to the other gravel back country. 

Exiting the gravel, we took a gentle downhill in the road to our campsite, Baker Dam Recreation Area, which has no running water. We begged some off a camp neighbor. Our backyard has a via to the mountain and is strewn with volcanic rocks, reminders of a different Utah. 

Tonight, we will dine on pasta -- did that is lighter to carry all day and only needs water to cook up. Our truncated route was indeed easier, and we'll wrap up tomorrow with a short jaunt back to St. George. 

9/21: through the Parowan Gap

Picking up where we left off last night, we cleared out our camp and resumed grinding up the hill toward Cedar Breaks. This was maybe 1200ft of climbing in 1.5hrs, so not great for me. Winding up to the visitor center saw the temperature drop about 10 degrees, with plenty of wind chill, so we were in pants and jackets and gloves. The view at the visitor center was good, but largely not unique to the other places we've been to, particularly Rainbow Point.

I wouldn't recommend it if you were already seeing Zion and Bryce. Though Gabe and Matt certainly have differing opinions on what's the best visit some these parts. 

We proceeded north to Parowan, along an extremely steep descent. With the strong head- and crosswind, we had to be very vigilant in the turns. Fortunately, there was very little traffic. I think we did about 10 miles in 30 min. The later half of it, with wide roads showing the warming climates as we ticked down 1000ft but 1000ft, will be one of the most memorable descents I've been on. 

After lunch, we headed into what would be an afternoon of heavy wind. Stick your head out of the car at 50mph and you'll have a good idea of what we were hearing. 

The Gap itself was an oasis from the wind thanks to its winding valley walls. 

We stopped at the Dinosaur Tracks site to look at the hadrosaur fossil footprints and accidentally hiked up a fairly technical trail halfway before hikers coming down corrected us. Good view though:

Fossil:

We then moved on to the nearby Parowan Gap Petroglyphs, right on the walls of the gap.

The gap is a sand dune that gathered here long ago and then became sedimentary rock. A river actually cut through that rock; it's not just from highway construction. 

Left here as a waysign or maybe story on the scribe's migration through the pass, the details of the glyphs are based on local tribes' input, which seems not that rigorous to be. Still very cool to see something thousands of years old left open to the elements. 

After exiting the gap, we were in for a hurting. The winds picked up even more, and there were no stretches of tail wind like before. 

A genuine dust storm coming right at us:

The afternoon was hot, dusty, and extremely windy. I had to alternate eyes a while to tear up enough to wash out the dust. The road was not too steep, but the wind took 5-6mph out of our normal speeds. I'm not sure the exact physiological factors, but my heavier weight and extra leg mass make step climbs much harder but riding flat into the wind much easier (compared to Matt and Gabe). I'd gladly trade the afternoon wind for this morning's mountain scaling effort. Easy is certainly relative, though. Having to steer the bike straight for blasts of crosswind every several seconds and hardly being able to hear anything but the sharp roar of angry air isn't easy. I managed to tolerate it more than the other two. It took an otherwise easy day into an unforgettable and unpleasant march. 

We made it to our destination, a KOA campground in Cedar City. $35 for a tent site vs $60 for a cozy wood cabin made it a no brainer, especially in the face of the wind ripping through the town still. 

We got delivery, too. Been a hard couple of days. 

9/20: up, up, and up to Cedar Breaks

We don't have signal at this camp, so you'll be reading it a bit later.

Days that don't have a lot of pictures mean one thing -- really hard riding. I'm pretty beat up from a tough afternoon.  

We left Ruby's and backtracked to Hatch along the bike path in Dixie National Forest, this time mercifully downhill. 

Saw a squad of bike tourists going the other way. Wonder if they would get to cash in on their potential energy investment like we were able to do. 

After reaching Hatch, we tackled the first gravel stretch of this tour. 16 mi of bone rattling steep climbs. I felt them on my 42mm tires; must have been even worse for Matt and Gabe on skinnier tires. 

The landscape was dry but not barren, and we were surrounded by rolling pastures and the occasional cow in our path. 

The gravel put us way off pace, and we hit a wall in the afternoon between more on-road climbing and a fierce headwind. 

I had my head down must of the time here, just doing my best to ascend the ever rising road to Cedar Breaks National Monument, which a fellow camper at Zion said was gorgeous. 

We did see that the trees had started turning color:

As we had planned, we picked out a spot on the side of the road to do "dispersed camping," which is permitted in Utah in some national forest land. 

So here we are, surrounding our fire built of hand chopped fallen branches. We have not wild camped like this since the first day of our first tour. 

9/19: along the length of Bryce Canyon

Did I mention we're staying in a tipi?

It's not all that, I'm afraid. No cots, no lighting, open at the top to rain. But it beats setting up our tents. 

Today we biked down from Ruby's RV Inn (established 1916!) to the north end of Bryce Canyon National Park, land of a million hoodoos. The other end of the park is Rainbow Point. We braved the cruel slopes to survey the canyon cliffs studded with orange and white and red hoodoos. 

The varied sizing and distances to the formations are hard to convey in a picture. 

We flew back down the mountain and walked the excellent Navajo Trail, which took us down into the canyon and let us see the hoodoos from below. 

Truly a fascinating and alien landscape. 

The weather has been varied, in that the sun is warm but the wind is cold. It's hard to have the right cover to not feel roasted or frozen. Tomorrow, we hear into higher elevation and even colder weather. 

On our delicate constitution and inevitable demise

Today we walked through the Narrows, wading over short rocks, treacherously soft silt, and cloudy river water. We scrambled over sandy banks and boulders, party to a tiny sliver of the awesome geological diversity on the Earth's surface. 

In the Orderville branch of the Narrows, we solved puzzle after physical puzzle, using our bodies as machines of trial and error computation, striving to answer the challenges posed by nature. It was very different from my day to day life and extremely rewarding to put my body to use. 

I clawed my fingers into centimeter wide ledges. I leapt onto algae-slicked inclines. I straddled channels of water shooting  between cleft boulder faces. I was able to do all this because I am able bodied. 

It's something that I take for granted most of the time. Doing something like this is a wakeup call. To make the most of my time and to do and see what I can. 

9/18: through the tunnel to Bryce

Today is the longest leg of the tour, and had a special obstacle -- a mile+ tunnel that cannot be crossed by bike. It's the only practical way from Zion to Bryce. The prescribed way to do this for bike tourists is to hitch a ride with some generous and appropriately equipped strangers driving through the tunnel. 

Trying to be prepared, we made these signs to hold while hitching for a ride:

We left camp at 7:40, well after it was light outside, but with enough cars on the road that we'd be able to flag down a generous truck or RV, we hoped. Turnd out there's plenty of traffic on the roads in a Monday morning. I saw plenty of trucks with empty beds as we crawled up the switchbacks to the tunnel entrance. 

Two RVs roared by, and I thought, man, those would have been perfect. The sun rise higher and we kept grinding our way up the mountain. 

A couple of switchbacks higher up, we saw the RVs just parked at a cut out. I have rarely put forth a burst of speed like I did to reach the drivers before they got back inside. I managed to get to the window of the first RV and get their attention. After an intentionally breathless and earnest explanation, we were able to allay these Dutch travelers about the legality of our mission. They opened up the trunks of the RVs and helped store or bikes. We were thrilled to have the ride through the tunnel sorted out and hopped into the RV cabins. 

This might be how a car visitor sees Zion:

When we arrived at the entrance of the tunnel, the crossing guard had us wait until the tunnel was entirely clear, after which she instructed us to drive through using both lanes. The 1.1 mi tunnel was very dark and uphill -- completely infeasible for cyclists to ride through. 

On the other side, we took out our bikes and tried to pay fare to our benefactors. They refused, so I left them with a zine. 

We had lucked out and gotten over the first several miles and out the tunnel, but we still faced 83 mi total for the day. A long ride yet ahead of us. 

The other side was some gorgeous Zion rock scenery. 

We stopped for first lunch at a German bakery that Matt's friend had recommended. Delishush. 

More riding and climbing through some pasture country between Zion and Bryce. 

Finally, we got to Dixie National Forest, a preview of the hoodoos to come. 

We rode along a deserted scenic path all the way to our stop, an RV inn just outside Bryce. This last stretch was nice in that it was completely devoid of traffic, but much less even in grade compared to UT-12 running alongside it. 

We mustered out energy and finished the remaining 13 mi on the path. 

9/17: hiking in Zion

Maybe biking and hiking is more accurate. We biked several miles up to the entrance of the Narrows, where the Virgin River cuts a deep path through sedimentary rock. There's frequently only water across the path, so our wading shoes and neoprene socks were crucial for comfort and safety. 

We took the Orderville branch, which was more challenging and entertaining than the main narrows. 

We had to scramble up rock walls and wade in chest-deep water to get through a series of obstacles. Fun but definitely demanding and requiring our full attention. 

We got back in one piece and then went over to the Weeping Rock, where sandwiched layers of limestone and sandstone are permeated with rainwater and drain at the exposed face. 

There are ground squirrels everywhere. 

9/16: out to Zion

Got a little bit of biking done yesterday. There's some really dry mountains out there!

We woke up at 6:15, well before sunrise. That hadn't factored into our plans -- that we can only get it into the road so early.

The next obstacle we ran into was that my GPS would not show our route. While we do have paper directions and the GPS for reviewing our location, it's much nicer to have the turn by turn built in. After a good 40 min trying to fix the rite files on the hotel lobby computer, we gave up and headed out. I think it could be fixed, but maybe not on the restricted machine we had available. 

I got the idea at a WalMart stop to ask some other hotel to let us use their computer. A nearby Quality Inn graciously obliged, and I was able to edit and fix the files. Phew. 

We climbed two hard but short inclines in the morning before lunch. A nice introduction to the landscapes. 

After lunch, one more big climb and then we reached Zion. 

We're staying here two nights. Tomorrow, we'll hike in our specially rented wading  shoes in the narrow river valley. 

On the road again

After only a short break, T1P is back on tour. The team:

Matt 

Usually the motive force for joining onto these big vacation plans. A sightseeing, thrill-seeking manic. 

Meng

Your ever-present, ever-ruminating blogger. The bike is the center of the universe on these tours. 

Gabe 

Steadfast in his touring ways, the only one who's kept his bike exactly the same over 3 tours. What's not broken, right?

The route 

Starting and ending in St George, we'll visit canyons, deserts, salt lakes, high passes, and more. Rain and even snow are in the forecast, so this might be our varied scenery yet. 

On Thursday, I printed out and folded or now standard issue tour zines, to be handed out to those we meet who have more than just a passing curiosity. 

Strictly a vanity project, I know, but o can't help it. 

Matt and I are now en route from Phoenix to St. George. Gabe is waiting in Denver. We'll pick up our bikes from the local bike shop and stay in a hotel tonight, embracing that last but of civilization before riding into the desert wild.