Renee and I drove to St. George on Wednesday. The highlight of the trip was a potty break at a truck stop outside of Vegas that featured about 5 aisles of fireworks for sale. We were reminded by the clock in the very nice start/finish hotel that Utah is on Mountain Time, so we had lost an hour. Good thing we had arrived nice and early. At the pre-ride meeting Deb gave us our ridiculously short route slips (day two covered 114 miles with only 2 turns), and we got to meet the other riders.
On Thursday we loaded our bags on the support van and rolled out at 7:00. Brian lead us through St. George and into Washington, the town Deb and Brian live in. As we hit the first rollers, it became clear to me that I was going to be the lanterne rouge for this group of very strong riders! The day's route was to head to Bryce via Colorado City and Kanab. Renee, who had never ridden her bike in any state but California, was able to bag two new states today, Utah and Arizona.
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| Renee and me crossing into Arizona |
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| ... and back into Utah |
We rode through Colorado City where the fundamentalist Mormons have their compounds- large, plain, rectangular houses with little windows. Renee and I rode with Brian through this section and he vowed to protect us from becoming sister wives.
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| Deb and Brain at a rest stop |
Lunch was in Kanab at a great place called Laid Back Larry's.
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| Enjoying lunch. From L to R: Terry Lentz, Louise Comar, me, Bill Osborn, Deb and Brian Bowling. |
In the afternoon we rode toward Bryce via highway 89. I remember having been on portions of this route before, during the Desperado Dual in 2005. I had an electrolyte bonk in the afternoon and dropped off the back along with Bill, who was having some altitude issues. Once I stopped at a minimart for a V8 and some salty chips I felt much better.
We turned east on highway 12 and went through Red Canyon. We had our first Hoodoo sightings here. There was a nice bike path to ride on so we didn't have to ride through the very narrow rock arches with the car traffic.
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| Red Canyon Hoodoos |
The day's ride turned out to be 161 miles, so we had all worked up a pretty good appetite. Dinner was at the restaurant at Ruby's Inn in Bryce. There were many tourist from Europe there, including a French motorcycle gang, complete with Harleys and leather jackets.
The day two route took us from Bryce to Torrey, through the spectacular Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. At one point near Escalante we had to stop for about 10 minutes to let a cattle drive come through.
This was my favorite day in terms of the scenery. We had a beautiful view of the Escalante River canyon at our lunch spot, then we dropped down into that canyon after lunch.
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| Renee and I enjoying the view at lunch. |
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| The Escalante River |
As the afternoon wore on the weather took a turn for the worse. It rained on us as we were climbing up Boulder Mountain (9400 ft). Since I was wet and the temperature had dropped to 40 degrees, I decided to get in the van at the summit and have a warm ride down to Torrey.
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| Stormy weather over Boulder Mountain |
I still ended up with 86 miles and 7500 feet of climbing on the day. Renee also went down in the van, but when we got to the hotel she got back on her bike for a few more miles around town (in the rain) so that she would have the minimum 90 miles needed for the mileage challenge. As Brian said when she returned, "Renee, they have medication for this."
Dinner in Torrey was at the surprisingly wonderful Capitol Reef Inn, where the food was all freshly prepared, natural, and healthy.
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| Outside of the hotel in Torrey |
The ride on day 3 was scheduled to take us from Torrey to Panguitch, a trip of 105 miles. But the weather looked unwelcoming as we headed out in the morning. It rained off and on in the first miles and the temperature was in the forties. We stopped in the town of Loa for some hot chocolate, which really hit the spot. We continued on up over the day's only real climb, where it got colder and rainier. Louise got a flat so we stopped to help her.
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| Cold, but fun climb |
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| Fixing Louise's flat. |
The stop really cooled me off, and by the time I descended into Koosharem I was pretty cold and uncomfortable. Renee, Bill and I decided to call it a day and ride in the van to Panguitch. The other riders, much tougher souls than I, kept on riding. They all managed to finish, despite having to deal with heavy rain, wind, and hail at times.
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| Spent most of the day in the van. The rain had stopped at this point, but it would rain really hard again later in the afternoon. |
In the evening the rain stopped, allowing Renee and I to take a nice walk and explore the town of Panguitch.
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| Downtown Panguitch |
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| What is the wooden Indian doing? |
We ate at the Flying M, which looked like a greasy spoon diner, but actually served us some very yummy food.
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| I had a nice piece of Steelhead trout at the Flying M |
The ride on the last day had to be modified drastically because of the weather. It was raining in Panguitch in the morning and snowing up at Cedar Breaks, our original destination. Brian and Deb decided that the safest thing to do was to drive us all in the van to Cedar City and have us begin our trip back to St. George from there. Deb came up with a wonderful alternate route for us that let us still get in about 200km of riding, plus explore some of the neat roads in the St. George area. The highlight was going through Snow Canyon.
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| Renee at Snow Canyon |
Renee was riding so strong this day that I couldn't keep up with her. But I was able to ride with Deb in the afternoon and chat, which was great fun.
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| Deb enjoying her ride |
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| Waterfalls in the rocks near Gunlock |
We had a yummy dinner with Bill, Deb, and Brian at a cowboy BBQ place in St. George. It was a great way to wrap up a wonderful trip and talk about the fine riding we had experienced. I definitely would like to go back and do this trip again. Hopefully next time the weather will cooperate and I'll be able to ride the entire Hoodoo course.
(All photos courtesy of Renee Smith)
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