Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Ouray, CO to Cedar City, UT

Well, this looks like it may be my last update until the end of the trip! I'm 8 days away from San Francisco! Here's the latest info...

The day after my last update was focused on simply resting and letting my wounds heal. I dawdled around the KOA campground, messed with my phone and ate BBQ brisket for dinner at the camp restaurant. I was feeling stronger the next morning but that was July 3rd and the forecast for Telluride was thunderstorms all afternoon. I decided to take Kent (the bike shop owner in Montrose) up on another night staying in Delta, this time with his parents. I rode the 35-ish miles back to Montrose and hung out at a coffee shop down the road a piece from Papa Wheelie's Bike Shop. A few minutes before 6, I was back at the shop with Kent when we realized that my chain and rear cassette were in pretty bad need of replacement. The shop was closing in a few minutes and we just had no time to do anything. Amazingly, Kent offered to come in the following day (July 4, his day off) and do the work that needed to be done.

The forecast for Telluride the next day was more rain and thunderstorms but I didn't want to take more time and realized that if I were to wait for ideal weather I wasn't going to be leaving Montrose for a good long time. So Kent drove back to Montrose, did the replacements on my bike, and then drove me to the top of the Dallas Divide so I could beat the storm. I was nervous. Notwithstanding the storm, I hated to leave such a great friend and a real sense of community. I hated plunging out into the unknown again. Nevertheless, I started riding from the top of Dallas Divide and reached Mountain Village, CO without any problems. As I moved further into the last of the Rockies, though, the lightning and thunder got the best of me and I decided to simply pitch my tent by the side of the road. It was 1:30 pm and I remained there until the following morning.

Approaching Lizard Head Pass on my route to Dolores was an intense climb considering I was coming off of almost 10 days without any serious riding. I walked a good bit of the way. The weather was chilly and gray but thankfully without any serious rain. If it had started raining I would likely have had to stop and get out of the weather as I had no good rain apparel with me and at those temperatures I would surely have started to come down with hypothermia. After descending the pass, though, everything started getting a little nicer out and of course the temperatures climbed a bit. I pulled into Dolores in the early afternoon and found my hosts house without any problems. Tom and Becky both work at the Walmart in Cortez, Colorado and were perfectly wonderful hosts! We watched a couple of movies, ate spaghetti and relaxed all evening.

The following morning I set off for Blanding, Utah. I grabbed lunch at the Dove Creek Dinner Bell about 8 miles before getting into Utah. At the border I bumped into two gals on a road trip and got them to take my picture in exchange for taking theirs. They were quite impressed that I'd arrived on bicycle from the east coast and I'm pretty sure that at least one of them was disappointed when I didn't ask for her phone number. That evening in Blanding I walked to a grocery store and picked up an extra 3 liters of water for the 74 mile trek into the Utah wilderness the following day, got dinner from an A & W restaurant and spent the rest of the evening relaxing.

The following day was actually a lot of fun. A couple of people had warned me about the long distance and were worried about the potential for dehydration. I found it wasn't a terribly difficult ride  and the scenery was striking. Canyons, mesas and plateaus abounded. There were a couple of good climbs but nothing compared with what I'd encountered thus far on the trip. I arrived at the Hite Recreation Area about 4 o'clock and immediately met a couple of German guys (a father and son) who had ridden from Hanksville where I would be headed the following day. The whole area had the aura of being abandoned. Lake Powell had suffered through such a long drought that it was reduced to a mosquito breeding ground. The convenience store appeared to be closed but on closer inspection the proprietor informed us he was working in a nearby location and we could find him if we needed to buy something. We bought ingredients for sandwiches, beer, and a couple of other things. Their ice machine was broken so we ate sandwiches and drained the 12 pack of beer within a half hour or thereabouts. No showers were available so I set off for the lake to see if there was enough water there to clean up with. There was not. By this point, the temperatures were starting to get to us. I improvised a shower by dressing in my swimming suit and holding a water bottle over my head.

The following day's ride was a bit harder for me. The 74 mile ride plus another 50 miles was beginning to wear on me. I arrived in Hanksville in the early afternoon and spent an hour or so relaxing at a burgers and shakes restaurant. On rolling over to the campground another touring cyclist spotted me. Joon was from Korea but grew up and still lives in the San Francisco area. He had started from Washington DC shortly after I did and we decided to ride together to Torrey the following day. We hung out at the campground restaurant and talked shop about cycling, touring and life on the West coast.

The following morning we left camp and headed west from Hanksville. Another hard day for me. Joon was considerably faster considering he had no injuries and no subsequent recovery time. A little more than halfway there my shoelaces got caught in my chain and I took a very minor tumble scratching up my leg again. On arriving in Torrey we at a late lunch/early dinner at a burgers and shakes place with the best shakes ever! Trying to decide where to stay the night we settled on a hostel just up the road a mile or so. We drank beer and relaxed. This had been a very trying day. On top of what had been going wrong, I was simply tired of riding my bicycle. My day had been bad enough that I decided a rest day was warranted.

Joon took off the next morning but I grabbed breakfast at a place just a stone's throw from the hostel. I had a Capitol Reef Omelet with potatoes and a cappuccino. The rest of the day was spent doing laundry, relaxing and fiddling with my phone. I decided I needed light at the end of the tunnel and tried to make a finalized itinerary to San Francisco. I punched in the data and came out with roughly 12 days of riding. I was thrilled. 12 days away. I've been on the road since April 27 and have simply gotten weary of this lifestyle. "12 days" became my mantra on the next day's ride. And every day since I've gotten through hard climbs by remembering how many days out I am.

The following day I set off for Calf Creek Campground just south of Boulder, UT. I don't remember much from the ride but the campground was fantastic! Upon arriving, the park official (a gal named Lissy) promised me that even if the campground were full she'd figure something out for me to be able to stay the night there. As it turned out, though, there was a single campsite left. I didn't have the $15 fee on me but she told me to just get as close as I could and it'd be okay. As we were talking, a lady approached me having heard that I'd arrived on bicycle. Her son had done a similar trip in a previous year and she was thrilled to meet someone else riding for a good cause. We got a picture together and she gave me the $15 to camp there, a bottle of unsweetened iced tea (nice and cold) and a bag of delicious dried mangoes. On venturing down to the creek I met a bunch of friendly adults and their excited kids. We talked for a while and when they found out how far I'd come they were so excited to have crossed paths with me. They gave me some cold water and soda and I gave them one of my business cards to take along. On telling one of their little girls that I'd ridden my bike there from the beach her eyes got so big they looked like they were going to pop. I spent the rest of the evening relaxing and reading C. S. Lewis' The Silver Chair.

The next day I set out for Cannonville. After a couple of days progressing mostly north and south I was thrilled to plunge west once again! Cannonville was a tiny little village whose only claim to fame was the short distance to Bryce Canyon National Park. I arrived in the mid-afternoon and spent the rest of the day relaxing. The reason I've been spending so much time relaxing when not on the bike is I feel the need to give my remaining injuries as much time and as many resources to heal as possible.

Yesterday morning I was packing up to make for Panguitch Lake North Campground when a Korean family spotted me loading Fledge. Curious, but unsure of how to communicate it in English, I understood them well and pulled up a map of the US on my phone. I'm sure they understood what I was saying when they excitedly began to chatter in Korean and their eyes got very wide. We bid each other farewell and I set off. The ride was a tough one with lots of climbing. But the banana milkshake I had with dinner more than made up for the strenuous exertion.

The ride today finished the climb I'd started yesterday. The downhill into Cedar City was a tough one. Since my fall in Montrose, CO I seem to alternate between enjoying downhills and being very nervous about them. The way my nervousness plays out is I essentially ride the brakes the whole way down. Well when the descent lasts as long as today's did, your hands get very sore and you have to stop every couple of minutes to give them a rest from squeezing the brakes. I was thrilled to find I have cell phone reception here in Cedar City, though, and I enjoyed a nice conversation with my dad this evening. I also made a run to the local Walmart to get food and supplies for the rest of the trip. I'm 8 rides away from San Francisco now! And here's my itinerary for those who are interested:

Wednesday: Cedar City, UT to Caliente, NV
Thursday: Caliente to Rachel
Friday: Rachel to Tonopah
Saturday: Tonopah to Benton, CA
Sunday: Benton to Yosemite National Park
Monday: Yosemite to Modesto
Tuesday: Modesto to Livermore
Wednesday: Livermore to San Francisco

That's the plan, anyway! Who knows... I may decide to book it 100 miles from Modesto to San Francisco if the mood strikes me and I'm feeling up to it! I'll make sure to do at least a couple more updates after the trip is over to let you know how life is going and let you know what's next for "Wes Across America"!

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