Hello! It's been over a week since I last touched a computer (YES - life does go on without the Internet!). Since my last update we have entered into the HOT State of Utah, seen many amazing sites and changed up our schedule a bit.
We entered into Utah on July 8th, making our first stop at the First Baptist Church in Monticello, Utah. Drew and Keith had discovered an ice cream stop in Monticello at lunch time so after dinner Drew, Keith, Dan and I headed to Woody's for massive amounts of ice cream! I got Moose Tracks with Cookies-n-Cream sandwiched in the middle while Drew and Dan each went four four giant scoops while Keith topped us all with his five flavor, five scoop mountain of ice cream - which I must say he did finish! (See photo)
From Monticello we rode to Natural Bridges National Park. After realizing how hot it was and that we had limited resources we decided as a team to continue riding the following day rather than spend an off day in Natural Bridges. Nick, Sehee and I got up early the next morning to see the Bridge Arches before we departed while Alex caught up to us on her bike while we were out sightseeing.
After leaving Arches we headed to Hite, Utah where we enjoyed the afternoon swimming in Lake Powell escaping the extreme heat - with very little shade. Jon, Nick, Alex, Mike and I all decided to swim across the lake to explore the rock cliff on the other side - it didn't seem very far from shore but ended up being a good workout. We spent over an hour on the other side of the lake before Alex and Mike swam over to join Nick in a little cliff jumping.
On Wednesday we left Hite headed to the tiny town of Caneville, Utah. We got up early leaving Hite at 5:30 AM in an effort to beat the heat. We arrived in Hanksville, Utah around 10:30 AM where many of us enjoyed lunch and milkshakes at Stan's Burger Shak. Around noon while some of the team slept in the booths at Stan's others got back on the road bound for Caneville. About halfway to our designation we stopped at a little organic farm/market called Mesa Market where some people had melon smoothies and I had an iced coffee. We spent over an hour at Mesa Market listening as the owner Randy told us story after story before we headed out. We had planned on spending the night at a campground west of Caneville however as we were preparing our dinner the owner showed up and told us we would have to leave due to "facility problems". Mark contacted Randy at Mesa Market who informed us of a spot we could camp at five miles down the road on public land off the side of the road. The site was very sandy so we ended up using large rocks to hold down our tent as the tent stakes were not holding. All was well until it got very windy and started pouring in the middle of the night causing some of the rocks to come loose. There were people sleeping outside who jumped into the tents when the rain came as we all tried to stay dry. It turned into a very muddy morning as the tents and much of our stuff were covered with sand.
On the 12th we headed to Escalante, Utah riding 85 miles on the day. We choose to combine two days in favor of a rest day in Escalante and dropping our stop in Dixie National Forest. The morning involved a climb before a 10 mile decent into lunch at a gas station in the small town of Boulder, Utah. After lunch I headed toward Escalante with Drew. We climbed for awhile before passing over the hogs back which provided an amazing view. Riding over the hogs back was almost like a video game where your riding over a small strip of road up in the air. The drops from both sides of the road were hundreds of feet and you could see miles in each direction. Nick took a video of it on Alex's camera which can be seen here. After riding over the hogs back we rode through a canyon and had one more climb before our decent into Escalante. The people at Escalante Outfitters were kind enough to let us stay at their very nice campground that had facilities including SHOWERS! (Our first showers since Monticello!) It was Sean and my turn to cook dinner so Sean made spaghetti and sauce while I went to the store to buy bread, fruit and ice tea to go with the dinner.
It was nice to sleep in the next morning as we hadn't had a day off since Westcliffe, Colorado on July 2nd. A group of us went to breakfast at a small place downtown where I had an amazing cheese omelet with hash browns and toast. I'd forgotten how nice it is to eat a warm breakfast as I'm so use to peanut butter and jelly. I spent the majority of our rest day just hanging around camp. We got yet another rain shower (with hail too!) mid-afternoon. So much for it never raining in Utah!
The next day we headed to Panguitch, Utah. Our lunch stop was near Bryce Canyon and a group of us decided to venture to see the Canyon after lunch. It was hot and I was unsure if I wanted to go at first but upon seeing the view from Bryce Point it was worth it and I was glad Alex talked me into it! When we reached Panguitch we learned that Allison had hooked us up with a church to spend the night in and dinner at Cowboy's Smokehouse Cafe where they provided us with an amazing meal. I had an appetizer platter of chicken wings, quesadillas, potato skins and jalapeno bites along with cottage cheese and potato salad. After dinner we headed to a free horse roping contest downtown. We stayed there until dusk before heading back to the church to get some rest.
That brings me up to Cedar City, Utah where we are today. We arrived in Cedar City yesterday and after a grueling 35+ mile climb enjoyed an amazing 20 mile decent. I'm not kidding when I say I went 20 miles without pedaling - it was awesome! For me the climb was one of the hardest yet as the dry air of Utah has been bothering me and my calves kept cramping. Nick and Jon got a grocery store to donate food for dinner last night so we all enjoyed our own personal pizza and then had ice cream for dessert. About 10 of us then went to the movie theatre near the church where we are staying for an Illini4000 movie night. Allison, Mike, Mark and Anish all went to see Transformers while Alex, Andrew, Nick, Sean, Sehee and I all went to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was good although at that point I was so tired I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open, its a good thing today is a rest day!
Now it's lunch time so I think I'll go grab something to eat.
Till next time,
Sandra
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