Day 26: Veggie scrambler, yogurt & fruit for breakfast. Mmmm 🙂 Packed up, took our pictures, said our goodbyes & on the road by 7:30am. Thanks, Doug & Shelley, for the nice resting place. Stopped at a gas station for coffee, then headed north to Bunkerville, NV. Not a fun beginning to the ride: strong headwind that didn’t let us get very far. We stopped under an overpass for a break & started noticing several huge dump trucks that must’ve been hauling roadkill & good Lord it smelled so bad I almost puked! Yuck!!! There were also several ATV courses on our route this morning. Those looked fun!
We took I-70 most of the way…which also lead to me getting 3 flats 🙁 The first one was to be expected, from semi tire shrapnel, but the second two were my fault for not inspecting the inside of the tire thoroughly enough 🙁 One flat I fixed on the freeway, another under an overpass where we also had lunch, and the last at a gas station in Glendale,NV where we took a break for a while to beat the heat. The last 20 miles of our ride I was pooped & needed several breaks in order to keep going, but the last 5 miles were awesome. I went from being deflated & defeated to delighted 🙂 We finally made it off the freeway & had a nice side road for the last stretch. There was an abandoned town of Riverside that we stopped to explore. It was pretty cool. One of Ben’s passions is exploring abandoned or old buildings: it’s his version of porn. Yeah, I went there, but it’s buildings we’re talking about 🙂 We also ran into free range cattle crossing the road in front of us, which was kind of fun. I don’t see that everyday! There was one bull with giant horns so I was a little nervous trying to pass him & kept looking behind me to make sure he didn’t try anything, which he didn’t. He was more interested in the greener grass on the other side of the road.
Beyond Riverside, we had rolling hills, which I find fun! It’s a constant game of keeping the momentum going enough to get you over the next hill without much effort. The sun was setting as we rolled through, creating spectacular views of the river valley below to our left, golden mountains & faded moon to our right. We finally made it to Bunkerville, just after sunset. It wasn’t a big town, very few amenities or services, but enough. The plan was to wild camp, which can sometimes mean no shower, but we spotted a football field at a school…getting watered by sprinklers…FREE SHOWER! We had to hop the chain link fence (which I don’t recommend doing barefoot!) to get to them but it was worth it to wash off all the sweat, salt & sunscreen. Oh, it felt so good & we felt like kids again running through sprinklers, squealing when you got blasted 🙂 It also served as our laundry for the day. Perfect! After the lawn shower, we rode over to a church on the edge of town & set up camp behind the parking lot fence, in a field. I quick made a curry dinner on the church sidewalk & while I did, noticed giant spiders everywhere. Eeek! Needles to say, we ate quickly, washed dishes with as little water as possible (we needed to conserve what little we had since we weren’t able to fill up anywhere) & went straight to bed.
Day 27: Scrambled eggs & breakfast bars, packed & on the road by 7am. We stopped at a gas station several miles down the road, in Mesquite, for coffee, water & to clean up a little. Destination today: St.George, UT. Our plan was to take I-15 through Virgin River Gorge. We met a nice guy at the gas station who did some bike touring back in the day, knew the area & he recommended a quieter road (91), but of course Ben didn’t want the hillier, more remote road, so we took I-15. In a matter of a few hours we passed through 3 states: Nevada, Arizona & Utah! That was pretty cool, but about the only cool thing about our route today…
We should’ve listened to that guy’s recommendation. We survived but I wouldn’t do it again or recommend it to anyone. The views were pretty but the shoulder sucked big time. There was enough space (other than across the bridges, no shoulder at all) but the space wasn’t usable due to horrible material. It was tiny pebbles that make things “slippery” & to make matters worse, it was banked sometimes, so we had to fight sliding down into traffic. Riding downhill was the worst. That’s supposed to be the best part but it was scary; constant fish-tailing, while lots of traffic zooms past. We experienced our hottest temperatures in the gorge (still true, as of Denver), coming in at 110! Once we were out of the gorge it was only 95, which felt much better.
We made it to St.George & chilled in the shade a while. Some nice construction workers saw us & offered us cold water as well as recommendations for routes & places to camp. They were so thoughtful & helpful. We quick rinsed in a river to cool down (aaahhh, much better), then headed to a bike shop for a look-over. The ride to the bike shop put Ben in a bad mood: he doesn’t handle the heat very well & we were heading uphill. The bike shop had misters outside which helped cool him down. We both needed new chains & they took care of it very quickly (thanks, Red Rock Bicycle Co!). Wow, it felt much nicer with the new chain 🙂 Such smooth shifting! We went to George’s Corner for a late lunch/early dinner. They have great food & drinks! Very welcoming after a hot, hard day. We rolled down the hill to cool off in the community pool – only $3! It was really fun. We jumped off the diving boards, enjoyed a game of basketball HORSE (in the pool), and played tetherball; a nice relaxing time. Ben found a last-minute Warm Showers host: Lucas & Kathleen. Awesome! It was really close to where we already were, which was a plus. They were a very nice, generous, down-to-earth couple with 3 sweet pooches: Moco, Choco & Jacks. We showered, did laundry, planned a little, read & went to bed. We started the morning in Nevada, passed through Arizona briefly, & ended in Utah. What a day.
Day 28: Quick eggs & gone by 7:45am. Got coffee & pastries at a place down the road, swung by the bike shop again for better bike shorts, chamois butter (Ben’s butt is hurtin’), more shot blocks & Nuun. We saw our Warm Showers host, Lucas – he works there! Sweet. We biked across town to a post office my mom sent a care package to. It…was…AWESOME! I loved all of it 🙂 She sent us Life Savers, sunscreen, protein bars, lip balm, gum, relaxing bath salts & what we asked her to make for us: business cards for the trip! They’re perfect! Thanks, Mom! Aaahhh, so much easier to spread the word to people we meet about our blog & fundraiser. Wahoo! Off to Zion by 10:30am!!!
We climbed for a bit, stopped at a gas station for water & met a biker we ran into yesterday on the way to St.George. His wife is his support vehicle. He takes two weeks every summer & does a chunk across the states. He’s also heading to Denver, like us, but he’ll get there way before we do 🙂 After that, it was downhill to Hurricane,UT. On the way we tried asking a motel if we could jump in the pool, we’d even pay for it, it was SO HOT, but they said no. “Guests only”. Dumb 🙁 We stopped at a Chinese place for lunch (great food!), then finally the push to Zion.
Our ride to Zion was hot, but we took lots of breaks to stay cool, drink plenty of water & not overwork ourselves in the heat. There was really only one major climb outside of La Verkin & it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. We stopped in Virgin at Fort Zion for more water… & ice cream, of course! It was such a beautiful ride all day, especially once we made it up that last final climb. The closer we got to the park the more majestic & breathtaking it became. We would’ve gotten to the park sooner but I wanted to stop & take so many pictures! Finally, we made it to Springdale (the town outside the park gate) & stopped to pick mulberries on the way through:)
At last, we made it to the park. Hooray! I got a little emotional as this was my second major destination & we made it. I was proud & felt a sense of accomplishment. There were several people as we biked past that fist pumped, hooted & hollered “way to go; you’re awesome” & other things like that, which reminded me we did something a lot of people consider very challenging, so I had a moment of “holy shit, we actually did it!”, which made me tear up a bit. Once we made it to the gate we talked with a family & another couple. Both so nice, fun & easy to talk to. The family gave us tips on hiking The Narrows. Thanks! Again, we got to hand out our cards, which was so helpful. We could actually talk to them like normal instead of spitting out all the websites & logistical stuff. Thanks again, Mom, they’re so awesome!
We rode inside around 6ish, stopped at the Watchman Campground (which was full, as per usual) but the ranger was kind enough to squeeze us into a group site. With just two bikes & a tent, we don’t take up much space. Sweet! Thank you, ranger 🙂 She also let us borrow a cooler to store our food in. The squirrels & deer here are very bold & have taken food snatching to a whole new level. On the ride to the campsite, we crossed in front of a big, fat snake. You could tell it had just eaten something with it’s swollen mid-section so it wouldn’t move; it needed time to digest. I’m not sure what type of snake it was. I’ll include a picture; maybe someone can tell me. We set up camp, wiped off, took the shuttle around the entire park to get the lay of the land & joined a group of strangers on the shuttle in a game of Movies By Letter (go around in a circle, naming movies that start with a certain letter – we did M – and keep going until you can’t think of any more; last one to think of one wins). It was fun; I’m a sucker for games. The ride was beautiful, I can’t say it enough. So colorful! Back to the visitor center we grabbed dinner & drinks at Zion Brewing, picked up food at the market next door & off to bed. Great day!
Day 29: Ben’s 31st & golden birthday!!! I let him sleep in a little, then we had eggs, breakfast bars & a banana to start our day. The group site was only for one night so I went & found a couple willing to let us share with them. They were very hesitant but still OK with it. We split the cost with them too, so that helped. While I was gone, some of our food from breakfast got left out & when I came back a deer was eating the tomatoes. Whoops! Ben was busy with birthday phone calls & forgot to watch the table. Once we moved our stuff to the new site, we packed a lunch, jumped on the shuttle & rode it to the end of the line (Temple of Sinawava) so we could hike The Narrows. It was so much fun! We hiked up 3 hours, then turned back. You’re in the river the whole time, climbing over rocks, wading in the water over your knees (some places deep enough to swim in if you wanted to, which I did, but most people stuck to the shallow areas). It was a nice day, not too hot & it felt so good. We ran into 3 guys from Minneapolis!!! We chatted & hiked The Narrows for a while together & kept running into them on the way up & back. It was fun. It’s so nice running into fellow Minnesotans 🙂
Back to camp, we cleaned up, tried finding another host to share a campsite with for tomorrow since our current one would be leaving tomorrow, but no luck. People here are not open to it like at Yosemite 🙁 Big rule followers…lame. We decided to leave it for tomorrow & headed over to Zion Brewing again for Ben’s birthday dinner but they had to close early for some unknown reason so we walked up the road to Thai Sapa instead. Very tasty food. The yellow curry was SO GOOD! On the way back to our site we stopped at the market for more food for tomorrow, played cards in the tent & finally hit the hay.
Day 30: Up early, quick breakfast (bars, banana, pb&j bagel), packed up, asked another few couples about sharing a site with them. Again, no luck. Ugh, lame rule followers. We locked up our loaded bikes & gear (along with the cooler) by the bathrooms, checked in with the ranger of the campground to see about last minute cancellations or open sites, were told to check in later in the afternoon, then caught the shuttle to Angel’s Landing & hiked that.
It was a 5.4 mile round trip hike with a steep-ish climb, involving lots of switchbacks, heading up to the ridge, which wasn’t bad. Once we reached the chain area (poles drilled into the side of the cliff, connected by chains that you need to hold on to so you don’t fall to your death), I got cold feet. I took a few steps, had a little meltdown, got scared & started crying. I really didn’t think I could do it. I took a few minutes to collect myself, knew I’d regret it if I didn’t do it, reminded myself of my trip motto (one day at a time, or in this case, one step at a time) & told myself to just look in front of me, not down. I kept asking myself “can I take one more step?” & that was easy, but if I looked way up ahead of other people on a seemingly sheer cliff ready to slip & die at any moment I would freak myself out, so I only thought about my next few steps & it really helped. I eventually made it all the way to the end! It took me a while to get the hang of it but I definitely got more comfortable & confident, realizing in the end it wasn’t that bad. I’m so glad I pushed through my initial fears because the view was spectacular.
Hiking down was hard on the knees. Ouch! We stopped at the bottom for a dip in the river. Aaahhh, so nice 🙂 There’s our shower for the day! Back to Watchman Campground, there was still one space left at the group site & it was all ours! Yay! We dropped our stuff off, grabbed lunch at Zion Brewery, set up camp, took a nap, & caught up on some things. We took it easy for the afternoon, playing cards & Yahtzee, tying up loose ends, & just relaxing. Another young couple from Germany were also staying in the group site so we chatted with them for a while. They were really nice & fun to talk to.
After sundown, we walked over to the store for snacks, then caught the 9pm ranger program about the Southern Paiute tribe who lived here before Europeans forced them out. It was interesting to learn about their culture but also sad to think I’m enjoying their beautiful home that was stolen from them. It was an educational program that made you think about things. Once that finished, it was straight to bed.
Day 31: Slept in, had eggs, banana & breakfast bars, did laundry, & checked with the ranger about staying one more night in the same spot. She said sure. Yay! Two nights in the same spot? What a luxury! It almost felt like we were living there 🙂 We packed a lunch & checked out the park all day: Weeping Rock, Emerald Pools, & the museum. It was a beautiful day & we got to see lots of great places in the park on some shorter hikes.
We had a pretty epic & hilarious fail on our shuttle ride to Weeping Rock. When we got on, there was a hat in the back seat where we sat down. It looked like someone had forgotten it from the last group that had just gotten off. I was about to get off & give it to a ranger in case they came back but the doors closed. At the same time, a guy came rushing back to the loading area & looked on the shuttle behind us. He was frantically searching for something – he must be looking for his hat! The whole back of our shuttle was in on this now & we were trying to get his attention by yelling out the windows, but he couldn’t hear us. I suggested throwing it out the window & everyone said it was a great idea, so that’s what we did. We told the people directly outside of the shuttle to let the guy know the hat we dropped was his. As the shuttle pulled away, the message was finally relayed to the guy. Hooray! He looked at it, we all watched him say (I swear in slow motion) “that’s…not…mine”, & at the exact same moment, the guy in front of me chimes in “has anyone seen my hat? I must’ve dropped it”. Facepalm. Oh-my-lanta, we just threw it out the window! We thought he was just being funny at first, but it really was his. I felt awful but he was actually pretty chill about it & didn’t seem to care. Epic fail. We all misread that whole situation. Ben & I couldn’t stop laughing about it all day. Question though: how did he miss all the commotion? The entire back of the shuttle was involved. We all discussed the lost hat, what to do about it, made lots of noise trying to get the attention of people outside, yet he didn’t notice any of it. It was like a movie. This poor guy, in explaining to his friends or family later, how he lost his hat will probably sum it up as “these people threw my hat out the window”. Whoops!
In the early evening, we took the shuttle into town for groceries, then back to camp for curry dinner, this time with fake chicken! Very tasty. After dinner, we chatted for a while with the family camping next to us. They were on an organized, several-day hike with an outfitter that sounded pretty sweet. They were a really nice family. The daughter is currently pursuing dance as a career & I am SO JEALOUS!!! Good luck! Later, we made our way into town for a shower (it’d been 4 days, it was time). $4 for 5 minutes. Not everything I’d hoped for; sufficient, but not satisfying. Back to camp & straight to bed.
Reflections:
1. After climbing our last major ascent on our way to Bunkerville, the scenery changed drastically. It was much greener with trees & shrubs, more mountainous, & the rocks started turning red 🙂 It was beautiful.
2. Three states in one day – that’s a first for me! Fun, especially since it was by bike. Makes me feel a little bad-ass to say that 😉
3. Getting turned down by the motel for swimming: I know I sound like a spoiled, entitled, privileged brat, but in the moment I wanted to say “really, you can’t make an exception for bikers on a 105 degree day? Lame. Where’s your humanity?”. Maybe it’s policy & he can’t afford to get fired but I don’t like when people can’t use their own judgement & are too rigid with rules. Read the situation, not the rule book.
4. Apparently, Ben & I (& I believe a lot of folks from up north) have been pronouncing Zion wrong. Everyone in the south, especially the closer you get to the park, say it different than I’m used to. I’ve always said it ending like Zion, the opposite of off, but NOBODY else says it like that down here & were confused every time we said it. So it seems, the correct way to pronounce it is like lion. Try it with me: zion, like lion. Who knew?
5. Being on this bike trip has weirdly made us feel like mini-celebrities. Everyone wants to talk to you & several people want pictures with you. Our loaded bikes are an easy invite/talking piece that make it easy to meet lots of cool people.
6. I was getting pretty annoyed with people not being willing to share a site with us & let it bother me too much. It was all internal, of course; I didn’t say anything to them. People who do traditional camping with cars & RVs don’t understand how hard it is to travel by bike, when all the campgrounds are full, & you’re not able to make a reservation because you can’t guarantee when you’ll get there. I feel like if they did, they would’ve been willing to help us. I don’t think I would’ve had a problem with it before but especially now, after being on this trip, I wouldn’t hesitate to help someone one. It’s not like we were just trying to mooch & not pay for a site or take advantage of anyone. We just wanted a place to sleep, everything was full & it’s not that easy on bike to just keep riding until you find a place (in a very popular area, mind you) with vacancy.
7. Some people thought the cooler we were borrowing was part of our usual gear & that we’d been biking the whole trip with it! Haha, that’s funny to picture. We’re not that foolish 🙂
8. We were told by several people & employees that the Observation Point hike, albeit longer, is higher & better than Angel’s Landing, with a greater view (& I imagine that’s true), but since it was our first time here we felt we had to do the iconic Angel’s Landing; we can do Observation Point on another trip. I’ve already started a list of things to see & do on the next trip that I wanted to do this time: Sequoia National Park, Death Valley, more hikes in Yosemite, Canyonlands (I’m still trying to convince Ben on this one for the current trip – it’s only an 80 mile round trip detour!). I’m glad we did Angel’s Landing, with its challenging climb, because it gave me a sense of accomplishment at the end: “wow, I can’t believe I did that!”
9. Ben is hesitant about taking too many detours or stopping to see everything because he’s worried this trip will take until December to finish if we keep adding on, which seems a bit dramatic to me. Bah, we have plenty of time!
10. The ranger talked about how the Southern Paiute viewed water as sacred. I’ve always felt this way about water too, but especially now, more than ever, after being on this bike trip. Once I find water, I feel safe & relieved. You need it for drinking, cooking, bathing, laundry, dishes, & to cool off when it’s so hot outside. It’s essential for everything! Water = survival & comfort. They knew what they were talking about: it is sacred!
11. I always turn the water off when I’m showering, no matter where I am. If I’m not using it to rinse, it’s just getting wasted. I wish pay showers rewarded you for turning the water off. I wish the money bought a measured amount of water, not time. 5 minutes of constant water is more than enough (too much, in my opinion). I could’ve gotten by with half, but after 5 minutes, time’s up. Despite turning it off when I wasn’t using it, I was out of time, even though I’d only used a portion of the water that’s allotted.
12. There are SO MANY deer & squirrels in Zion, they’re like dogs, just roaming around like pets. One of them even ate our toilet paper that got left out in a zip-lock bag. I guess our cat, Lola, isn’t the only animal that finds it a tasty snack! They’re so tame & come up to you without hesitation or fear. There are signs everywhere telling people not to feed or pet them & to shoo them away to keep them wild & not get used to human food. While we were hiking Emerald Pools, a woman & her 4-year-old daughter saw a squirrel by me & came up to pet it. I told them not to & why, but they didn’t care; it was cute & she needed a picture of her daughter petting it…ugh, she really annoyed me 🙁
I loved our time in Zion. It was so beautiful, relaxing, at times exhilarating, & I would definitely go back, but for now it’s time to shift gears and move on to Bryce Canyon National Park. Til next time!
Whitney