Day 36: Oatmeal, packed up, left our gear at the campsite & took our bikes on the shuttle up to Bryce Point to ride down. Nice, quiet, cool ride. I love doing that on the morning we leave. It’s a perfect way to wrap up our time & see it all one last time. Back to camp to get our bags & off we went. Destination for today: Escalante, UT.
We had about 8-ish miles of what should’ve been free miles but we had a horrible headwind & had to pedal downhill. It just ain’t right 🙂 That wind was powerful! We stopped in Cannonville at a gas station for water & ran into a guy from Wisconsin (where I grew up)! We chatted with him for a while, it was nice.
Back on the road for a bit then a pit stop in Henrieville for lunch under a tree on the sidewalk & water refill from a nice lady’s garden hose. A generous couple driving by stopped & gave us cold bottled water too. That was so thoughtful! Another biker coming down the hill, heading the opposite way as us, stopped to chat for a bit. Her name was Penelope, she was from Canada, was really cool & had an interesting life story. We shared our trip experiences with each other & she gave us tips on the road ahead of us.
We had a pretty big climb heading to Escalante from Henrieville. It was a doozy but we made it. The views were great & there were some nice free downhill miles once we reached the summit. We also had a good tailwind now that we were heading north instead of south, like this morning.
In the early afternoon, we rolled into the Petrified Forest State Park, on the outskirts of Escalante. It was a hot day so what a relief that they had a nice, big reservoir to cool off in. Wahoo! Oh, it felt soooo good. After the swim, we went for an hour & a half hike through the park. Petrified wood is so cool! It looks like a rock but also like a dead tree. It’s wild! So colorful 🙂 We got so hot on the hike we went for another swim afterwards 🙂 Aaahhh, I just love water.
Finally, we biked into town, checked in at the RV/tent campground, walked down the street to a pub for dinner & drinks, & ran into ANOTHER couple from Wisconsin! They were even from the same city as the guy earlier today (Beaver Dam)! What? That’s rare. We chatted a while with them. Lovely couple. They’re currently doing a motorcycle tour of Utah’s parks. Cool 🙂
We planned our next several days to Moab, then stopped at the place next door for a slice of key lime pie. Mmm, tasty & refreshing. We showered, did laundry, charged our gear, read, then off to bed.
Day 37: Woke up early-ish, packed up & rolled down the street to Escalante Outfitters for Cliff Bars & a propane tank. We were feeling lazy so we also grabbed breakfast (coffee & quiche) at the adjoining cafe: Esca-latte… 🙂 Eeekkk, I love a good pun. We stopped at the grocery store down the street before leaving town. While there, we chatted with a nice family about our trip.
Biking for the day involved a 4,200ft climb, but only 35 miles. There were several stretches of climbing, followed by nice downhill bombs & sweet free miles. On the way down a particularly bombtastic hill we screeched to a halt to stop in at Kiva Coffee – a place Penelope told us about. It was a cute, quirky place in the hillside with a nice view. We enjoyed a tasty raspberry scone & lavender lemonade while I caught up on some blogging.
We passed a lot of runners on our route today doing a race called Top of Zion: a relay from Capital Reef National Park to Zion National Park. It was fun cheering them on as they ran by & they would enthusiastically return the favor, watching us granny-gear our way up the hills 🙂 Biking by them gave me a mental boost. I love cheering on racers & I’ve really missed running on this trip, so it was a fun energy to pass through. It was a hot one today. I think the biking was easier! We stopped to talk with lots of people along the way, which is always nice.
Boulder, UT was our loose destination for the day so when we reached town in the early afternoon we stopped to rest for a while at the only gas station. We had lunch, charged our phones, napped, played Yahtzee, blogged, & took a break. This nice guy, Mike, was passing through with a group of kids & chaperones, so he sat & talked with us for a bit. We were talking about our trip, he asked us lots of questions, we explained our fundraiser & he just whipped out $40 for us! Wow, that was really nice! Thanks, Mike!
The next stretch of road was a long, steady climb (one we’d never reach the summit of until tomorrow) and fairly isolated, so there weren’t many options for lodging, other than a few campgrounds far up ahead we’d never reach until very late. Since we’d already done 4,200 feet of climbing earlier, we planned to take it slow until 7pm, then find a nice place to pull over & wild camp for the night, so off we went. There were lovely views the whole way. Despite being a little exhausted, it was quite beautiful & enjoyable. When 7pm rolled around, we rolled to a stop. We found a great spot in the woods, along a creek. Sweet…WATER! As of Denver, it’s still my favorite place we stealth camped 🙂
After pitching our gear across the creek & stashing our bikes in the ditch, we threw a log down to cross the water, set up camp, cleaned up, did laundry, Ben made dinner, I did dishes, we read a little in the tent, then went to bed early under the rainflyless starry sky. Eeeekkk, I loved that place so much! Aaahhh, so good 🙂
Reflections
1. I find it so interesting when we’re far from home & meet someone from our home states that I immediately bond with them. I weirdly feel comforted talking about places & things we can both relate to. I would never geek out like that back home (“you know where Ellsworth is too?!?” or “you live near the Flambeau River? That’s where I go canoeing!!!”) but when I’m out of my bubble, I like meeting people who know what my bubble is like. Maybe this doesn’t happen to everyone, but it definitely happens to me.
2. It’s always nice talking to fellow bikers. Everyone either waves to each other on the road, gives a head-nod hello, or stops to talk, if possible. Even most motorcycles wave at us. It’s a community of people you can easily talk to, knowing you have similar shared experiences. Everyone is so friendly & helpful. It’s like an automatic friend before you’ve even met 🙂
3. At the bar in Escalante, the waitress couldn’t understand me when I was trying to order an apricot beer. I said it the same way you’d pronounce the A in apple, ask or action. I repeated myself 3 times before trying it a different way. This time I said the A like you would with ace, ate or age. Now she knew exactly what I was talking about! I didn’t know there was more than one way to say apricot. Have I been saying it wrong?
4. Having grown up in Wisconsin, I’m used to the yellow deer crossing signs but Utah was full of cattle crossing signs. That’s a first for me 🙂
Well, a little ‘Redbox & chill’ is calling me so I wheel have to press pause for now. Until next time!
Whitney