May 7, 2011 63.62km, 3.57 hrs, 16.4 km/h Glendale to Red Canyon Park
I manage to leave at 11 am. The morning is pretty cold but eventually the sun comes out and warms me up.
First part of the trip is a gentle, sometimes not so gentle uphill for about 25 km to Long Valley Junction, where the 14 goes off the 89 to Cedar City. I have strong tailwind for a change and enjoy it thoroughly. There is quite a lot of traffic in the morning, big trucks and touring buses, which are actually the best drivers, They usually give me lots of space. It's the small RV's that are the crazy ones, they don't have a good judgment. Once 3 RV's are driving behind each other so close, that the second RV goes pass me far too close for comfort because he has no clear view of the road. And I also don't like the huge bus-like RV's with a car towing behind, sometime 2 bikes on that car. They are strong windbreakers and wind makers and no fun, when you are struggling up the hill!
There are those ripples just on the outside of the white line, which means it sometimes doesn't leave me much space between the edge of the road and these ripples. So I have to cycle sometimes on the white line. It's not easy to keep the balance, when it get's tight like that. Once I look to the side and end up in the soft sand and have to get off the bike.
The scenery is very pretty. A small river turns into a flooded valley, there are cows everywhere and horses. These 3 horses are so curious when I stop for a drink of water, they all come to the fence. So I walk over to them. Very pretty shy horses.
I see some not so pretty sights too. Several adult deer freshly killed by the side of the road, on even on the road and I see a little down the road a fawn, that hasn't even been born yet.
I meet 2 cyclists. He's pulling a trailer with a little dog in it. They come from Tucson, started in Colorado heading west to Cedar City. They left Bryce Canyon today and have strong head winds. They tell me there is a gas station with a little store on top of the hill.
I have a long break there, waiting for Julia. It's windy but I find a spot in the sun, that's warm enough and enjoy my lunch. I see some mountains pretty close by with snow on them! When Julia arrives we chat for a bit, before I keep going. An unknown pleasure is ahead.
I'm zooming down the hill at 33-50 km/h. An hour of riding 30 km or more downhill with the wind! What a pleasure!
The river is getting bigger, more flooded areas and some red mountains in the background. Very pretty. Anything is pretty when you go downhill with headwind. It actually means there is no wind at all, because you go the speed of the wind. So the sun is nice and warm on my back.
In Red Canyon Town I turn onto the 12 towards Bryce Canyon. I pass the Red Canyon RV Campsite and go uphill towards the red mountains. These roads here are illusionary. They are so wide, that you think it's not much of an uphill. But when you look back you get the right perspective. It's much much steeper than it looks!
Once I enter the Dixie National Forest everything is red and green around me. I stop every few meters to take pictures. Eventually I make it to the camp site. Very pretty site. When I'm opening my tent I look at one of those red mountains.
I have some food and enjoy the rest of the sun. Julia is arriving at 8 pm, she stopped at the campsite in Red Canyon Town and got chatting with the owner there. He tells her a route we could take to get to Salt Lake City. I keep that in mind.
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| Red Canyon near Bryce Canyon |
May 8, 2011 Red Canyon to Bryce Canyon 23.51 km , 1.46 hrs, 13.1 km/h
It's really windy today. I leave before Julia. It's gorgeous through the Red Canyon. It's a short but extremely windy trip, especially the last few kilometer. I arrive at Ruby's campsite. The weather is getting worse, weather forecast predicts snow. Well, I don't want to wait for Julia to make a decision. I'm choosing one of the Tipis the campsite offers. I ask about the hole in the ceiling, if there is a cover for it. The lady tells me the Tipis are built in a way that it doesn't rain in. Take it with a grain of salt...
I ask a driver of a pick up truck, if she's seen another cyclists on the road, so I know Julia was not far. I dropped off my stuff in the Tipi, grabbed my swimming stuff and went over to the Hotel, where we are allowed to use the pool. I find Julia in the Hotel. she's joining me later in the pool. We have some good conversations in the hot tub. We get to meet Jon from Rhode Island. He's so impressed to hear we are actually sleeping in a Tipi, that he comes over for a beer and check out the tipi. It lasted until the snow made its way through the hole in the top. We got soaked and Jon drives me to the other hotels to see if we can relocate to a dry place. Unfortunately all the rooms are over 100$, so we go back and Julia and I squeeze right to the sides of the tipi, where we hope the water, that runs down the wood doesn't get us.
May 9, 2011 Tour de Bryce
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| Our tipi in the morning |
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| I wear everything I have! |
I wake up with my sleeping bag soaked, Julia's is wet too.
I go to the reception, which was closed last night, and ask for a refund. They finally agree to it. Tonight we treat ourselves to a cabin with a heater! We will be nice and warm!
I go into the hot tub again to warm up and wait for noon, until we can move our luggage into the cabin. I don't want to sit on my bike in this weather, it's still snowing, everything is white. I am waiting in a snowstorm for the bus to take me into the park. I first go into the visitor center, where I watch a film about Bryce. By the time I come out it's sunny! April weather in May! At an elevation of over 7000 feet no surprise it's still snowing in May.
I go from viewpoint to viewpoint with the bus, once I walk along the rim from Sunset Pppoint to Sunrise Point, then I go back to the cabin, warming up. I've been 3 times in the hottub in the last 24 hours, each time for at least 1-2 hours my body can't take any more chlorine. So no hot tub for me today anymore.
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| The classic Amphitheater in Bryce |
May 10, 2011 Bryce to Escalante 46.96 km, 3.24 hrs, 13.8 km/h
It has not snowed last night, but it is sunny and cold this morning.
I pack my things and leave before Julia.
The first 15 km is downhill. I stop on the way at a mossy cave, go for a walk, but walking back I get into a snow hale. It lasts for quite a while. I'm entering Tropic, which is not that tropic really but I am able to take off my Raincoat and my fleece.From here I start a 37 km uphill, it takes me 2 3/4 hours. It's so slight, that I first think I'm just tired, but looking back I realize the gradient I'm coming up and I get it!
I meet 5 female cyclists coming down from Escalante, not heavily loaded as we are. I let the last one know, to tell Julia that Escalante will be the place to stop and camp for the night. We will have cycled enough for the day by the time we get to Escalante. One of them tells me, while she easily is rolling down the hill " Good luck with getting up there!". That sounds like a long haul!
I cycle for about 1 hour through heavy snowfall, very beautiful, but cold and wet. I put on all my fleeces and rain jacket and keep cycling uphill. When you think you finally reached the top, don't always believe it. The real top is still to come. Actually, part of it is so steep, I have to get off the bike and push. And stop, and push, and stop and push..... I consider shortly the possibility of not being able to make it, my bike feels so heavy! Someone is reminding me later, that it might have to do with the elevation. At almost 3000 meter it is quite natural to have to rest more often. Eventually I make it back on the bike and push just barely to move forward. This way I can keep going longer without stopping.
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| by the mossy cave towards Tropic |
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| This doesn't look too good! |
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| me in the snow! |
Just before the top I hear Julia hollering out of a car, they will be waiting on top if I want to get a ride down the hill.
Oh yes, I want a ride down the hill, or do I? That's the first for me! Why would I?! Because it is snowing like it is Christmas and I am cold despite having just climbed a pass! The lady giving us a ride pulls a horse trailer, that she had repaired in Cedar City, a 3 hours drive for her. The horse trailer of course is handy for our bicycles. She drops us off at the campsite in Escalante. We stay at the RV Park in a Cabin, we need to warm up!
May 11, 2011 Around Escalante 32.25 km, 2.15 hrs, 14.2 km/h
The weather is supposed to turn bad today, rain in the afternoon, so we decide to stay aother day. Escalante seems a nice quiet place.
I go on a tour around Escalante into Box Canyon, which is a nice ride up a gravel road with nice gorges going off to the side.
Midday I do some work on my bike. Frank, the owner of the Campsite, is lending me his tools and I can clean my chain with his chain cleaner. I have to get one of those! Very handy and I have a shiny chain at the end!
In the afternoon I go for another little ride toward the Petrified Forest. The Ranger tells me it`s not really worth paying the 6$, so I just ride along the lake and go back. The weather ended up to be very nice and I was glad to have spend the day outside.
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| This is where I came from yesterday! |
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| Alpine flowers |
May 12, 2011 Escalante to Boulder, Utah 49.19 km, 3.59 hrs, 12.3 km/h
Sunny and blue sky, no wind! Great weather!
It's flat for a while, though it might be uphill too, not sure, but the talewind pushes me along and I know, why I'm doing all this. The views while riding are great! After about 5 km it gets steeper and goes steadily uphill for 15 km. I see a great viewpoint, leave my bike at the road and run up the hill to take a photo and film of the view.
On another viewpoint lower down I meet some nice people from Holland. they have done a 2 month cycle trip through France last year.
It goes downhill at 8 % at times, great view again! And relentless headwind, as if it wasn't hard enough already!
Eventually up and down into a gorge until I get to a Cafe in seemingly the middle of nowhere, that calls me in. Frank from the campsite reminded me to drink lots of fluid, do fruit, sugar. So I get a Strawberry Shake and drink it slowly, though soon asking for a hot cup of water!
As soon as I am going down into the bottom of the gorge the uphill starts! Pitilessly uphill! |There are 4-5 very steep parts, that I realize later are a 14% gradient!
Half way up these hills the fruit shake starts working. It bloats my belly until I'm not able to bend my knees on my bike anymore and I have to get off the bike. It's painful and as soon as I bend forward my belly feels like a cannonball. I see no other choice than stopping for a while. I lay on a rock head down and rub my belly, no success, except the sun feels so nice and warm on my skin. I get up and do some Tai Chi exercise, the turning one, with a great view at where I came from. After about 8 minutes it starts working wonders. It takes another 45 minutes for me to be able to sit back on my bike. All the air puffed out! Ready to go.
Just as I am taking some pictures a cyclist stops and we start chatting. His name is Ian, he is from Boulder Colorado and on the road for a few months( sorry Ian, I don't remember exactly for how long) We arrange to hopefully meet in the next town. I take some pictures and follow up the hill. Even though the steepest 14 % parts are over ( it almost seems flat), it still goes generally uphill! Still sunny, all day great views, the last part into Boulder is, of course, uphill!
I meet Ian on the road, he just checked out the camping possibilities, since there is no official camp site in town. We decide to have some food first and find a very good restaurant( there are only a couple anyway), that makes delicious, mostly organic meals. I don't have to spend money on accommodation tonight, so I splurge.
Julia arrives at around 8 pm, her bike is not working well and she had to push a lot. She's also having some dinner and meets us at the campsite out of town after dark.
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| Looking back where I came from |
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| Don't I love this sign, if it goes the right direction...in this case I came from there! |
May 13, 2011 Boulder (6593ft, 2010m) to Torrey (6843ft, 2085m) 16.85 km, 1.29 hrs, 11.3 km/h
We all go different paths from here.
Julia has decided to stop the bike tour and go to Denver. She is going back into Boulder to try and get a lift over the next mountain toward Green River.
Ian is taking the Burt Trail to get to Powell Lake.
And I start up the hill to tackle the 14 % gradients again and get over 9600 ft ( 2900m). After riding for an hour and a half I hear Julia calling out of a beautiful Oldsmobile from 1963, asking if I want a ride. The weather is great and sunny but I am pretty tired. I was thinking of getting a ride to the top, I'm carrying a lot of water and my bike is heavy. But we have such good sand fun together, stopping at viewpoints talking with other visitors, that I stay with them all the way to Torrey. At one view point I'm talking with a couple from Santa Cruz, who kindly invite me to stop by on my way down the West Coast. We get to meet a couple that gives us packages of Braggs samples. Before they left on their trip they visited their 80 something year old neighbour Patricia Bragg, who seems to be as fit as ever and very entertaining. She gave them boxes of samples to give out to stores and people. In Torrey we share the the goodies, thanking Gunnar for the ride I say a final goodbye to Julia.
I go into the Information Center and talk with Scott. He tells me the park Campsite is full and explains to me the route to Green River, where I was thinking of catching a train.
I go to the next camp site, Sandcreek RV Park, which is nice and quiet. Donna and her husband are very accommodating. It's not so quiet in the evening though, a large youth group arrives. They are very excited about setting up their tents! And another group of 5 in their twenties arrive and noisily set up tent and pump up their air mattresses for hours. They chat at the fire about 3 Meter away from my tent. At midnight I finally ask them to be quiet.
May 14, 2011 Torrey to Capitol Reef (5500ft, 1676m) and back 42.07 km, 2.41 hrs, 15.5 km/h
At least I wasn't the only one complaining. People in the cabin and some in the campers are complaining to Donna the next morning about the noise. And they were far away!
It's been a cold night again, as almost every night since I've been in Arizona and Utah. Cottonwood and Zion Canyon were the only warm places on this trip so far.
I'm having trouble with my stove. It is most of the time so windy, that I need to build a barrier, so that the Propane flame is not blowing out. The pot keeps sliding, so whatever I'm cooking, I have to hold on to the pot for the whole time!
So this morning I spill my porridge! I pick up what I can, add a bit of water and oats and start over again.
At 9 am I'm ready for the ride to Capitol Reef. I talk with Donna, who even gives me her phone number, just in case I get stuck down there and can't make it back up before dark. That's a great back up. People are looking out for me here!
Just as I want to leave the office, it starts raining and storming. So I go back to my tent and wait for an hour until it's sunny again. It is spring weather so it actually does get sunny again!
I start riding to the info Center and talk to Scott. This time I ask him for the route going to Salt Lake City. Green River station doesn`t let me put the bike on the train, so I have to get to Salt Lake City for check in. The 350 km trip to Salt Lake City doesn`t sound very exciting and the last 150 km would be through heavy traffic.Scott offers to keep an ear out for anyone going that way and willing to take me and my bike.
Going to Capitol Reef is a blast! All downhill for about 20 km, 400 meter elevation drop! Again with great views! I was told it's a 2000ft drop, not quite.
I stop many many times to take pictures. In the park I go for a one hour hike. It goes up steep, then the temperature changes. It gets so nice and hot, I`m walking through a Cohab Canyon with side canyons going off. People are climbing into the side canyons, sometimes you only hear them, so deep are they in the rock! I could stay there forever!
I met some cyclists on racing bikes earlier and asked them how long it will take them to go back up again, the 20 km. They say, oh about 30 minutes. My guess is, it will take me about 3 times that time.
Actually, not true. I make very good time and in about an hour I make it to the last hotel before town. A thunder storm is coming, it starts raining, lightning and thunder in the distance, though not too far away and coming closer! Looks pretty threatening. The wind is so strong coming from the side, that it pushes me several times right into the middle of the road. Once a car is just overtaking me and I stop dead in the middle of the road. Puh, that was lucky! Another car overtakes me, I`m kind enough to go as far to the right as possible and the idiot is overtaking me despite oncoming traffic. Not alone that, his trailer is carrying a boat, which passes my arm at elbow length! I shout uselessly at him!
The wind is getting even stronger so I go under cover at the hotel entrance, but the wind comes from the front so the roof doesn`t do much good. I put on my rain clothes and keep on riding my bike through the wind. Whenever I see a car behind me I get off the bike and push. Finally the road turns into the wind and towards Torrey and I make it safely in good time into town!
I get a phone call from Scott from the visitor center, telling me, he is still looking for me for a ride to Salt Lake City. He tells me he's working for the next 2 days in the Visitor Center and on tuesday he's going shopping in the next city/town. And if I like I can stay in his trailer for the 2 nights, save some money and rest. Donna assures me he's a very nice guy. A rest sounds good to me.
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| My lift |
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| Capitol Reef |
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| Cohab Canyon |
May 15 and 16, 2011 7.85km, 30 minutes, 15.1 km/h Around Torrey
Sunday morning I move to Scotts place. His dogs are excited to see me. I unpack and leave to find a cafe with internet access. The book store is a great place with lots of books, guitars, music, good coffee and wifi. Updating emails. I manage for the first times in weeks to do some Tai Chi sets!
In the evening we are going to a restaurant to meet some old friends of Scott's and have dinner with them.
Monday I do the washing, let the dogs out, write diary, email in the cafe... have great dinner in the evening.
May 17, 2011 Torrey to Salt Lake City - No cycling today
Scott kindly offers me to take me all the way to Salt Lake City. He hasn't been ther in 2 years! And it's a 350km trip one way! We have a good drive, though it is snowing most of the way and I'm so glad to sit dry in a car! He drops me off right in front of Chris's house, who's expecting me. So good to see him again, last time we saw each other, we played tennis on Salt Spring Island. And finally I see, where he lived for the last 5 years!
We spend the afternoon in the Two Creek Coffee House close to his place. I catch up on emails.
He takes me to a pub, where I drink a Schneider Weisse, so good to drink good beer! The austrian restaurant, that Chris wanted to take me to, has gone out of business. So we go to this pizza place, where I have one of the best pizzas I`ve ever had.
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| Wasabi |
May 18, 2011 Train from Salt Lake City to San Francisco
Slow morning, writing diary, breakfast with Chris and visiting the Coffee House again.
The evening is reserved for watching the Canucks play in a Sportsbar with probably 25 other TV screens.
Chris takes me to the train station at 10pm right after the game. They keep telling me, that I have to either carry on this huge bag or take the bags out of the white cover bag, its only purpose is actually to keep 2 bags together without a rope. They make me buy a box for 3$ but it doesn't fit all in, so I have to pay another 10$ for an extra piece of luggage. Funny thing is, that no suitcase is as waterproof as my bike panniers!
My train is 2 hours delayed because of floodings on the rail road tracks coming from Chicago. I have a really nice conversation with a young traveller, Steve. He's travelled in Europe, hitchhiking from Germany to Romania and back, travelled all over the States, often by train. But not the conventional way! When a train comes into a station, he finds a part of the train, that is open and he goes in, mostly cargo trains. Sometimes he even can get into the second locomotive at the other end of the train, which is often heated. Very resourceful! So tonight he's just taking a short 4 hour hitching- trip to get out of the snowy region.
The train is pretty empty, everyone has 2 seats available. In the moonlight I can see a little of the landscape we are passing by, like the Salt Lakes, which seem flooded in that light. I have a pretty good sleep, especially with having 2 seats for the night.
