When we woke up this morning at 7, our muscles hurt at the thought of getting up. After all, it had hardly been 12 hours since we finished our 11 hour day yesterday. We took our sweet time. I started out the day with a half of a box of Fig Newtons, ramen and a huge bowl of oatmeal (don't worry because 5 miles in to our day i ate a protein bar... I am a bottomless pit). We tried to upload our blogs from yesterday with the weak wifi signal, but that turned into me playing with an extremely friendly dog after he bright a slobbery apple for me to throw him. Half way through he brought me a new, less chewed apple to throw, but would lick it when he stopped it, as is to make sure the slimy factor hadn't changed.
We filled our water bottles and began our tell up the mountain. It was hot and it only took us about a mile to start dripping sweat ( i know, gross, but it is our daily reality. You are lucky that i spare you the details of how it drips down our shorts.)
We made our way, hill by hill, up the mountain, as usual. I stopped for a water break at one point to look up and see two huge cows about 10 feet away in the shade just starring at me. I got off my bike and was hoping they wouldn't charge (you never know how the altitude can effect you). They began mooing, sounding quite upset, and made their way into the middle of the road. Very convenient.
We scurried past them, and continued our climb. We soaked our shirts in the stream, kept hydrated, snacked and joked. After yesterday, the climb wasn't all that bad. We were both glad that we had gotten the hard part out of the way the day before, as it would have been painful to do the whole thing in one day with the 14% grade, as this was 8%.
We were excited to get to the summit, 9600 ft. This will be the third highest climb of our journey. We have one more outside of Dolores that will reach about 11-000 ft. The altitude really didn't affect either of us today as it did on the climb out of Cedar City, which is was a pleasant surprise. I found myself breathing harder at the top, but that may also be due to the fact that we had been climbing for 15 miles, and not solely due to the fact that i was staving my body from oxygen.. I can feel the difference from a few days ago. The body's ability to adapt continues to amaze me. What better way to celebrate with than a can of chef boyardee right near the summit with the horizon to your right. We were proud of our climb, and the fact that these climbs are getting easier and easier. In all honesty, however, we were more excited about the fact that our 1000 mile mark was about 40 miles away! ( man did those miles fly by... I guess that is what happens when you spend so much time on your bike...and have fun doing it).
The descent was gorgeous. Everything we have seen so far in Utah has been gorgeous. Birch trees lined the road, and as they were tall and thinly leaved you could see past them tops of the red canyon below. The birch gave way to pine, but i smelled the change before i visually noticed it. Much of my concentration was directed to speed control and breaking. It is extremely important to stop every few miles when you are descending to let your tires and break pads cool, other wise you risk blowing the tire. It is a fine line between enjoying the speed and flying, but maintaining control of your bike and all of the momentum it carries. At some points today, the crosswind was so bad that it blew me a foot to the left. With such winds coupled the sound of the air rushing past your ears from the descent alone, it is hard to hear cars, and the shoulders are narrow in the winding mountain roads. You need to be able to maintain control to stop for bike if need be in an emergent situation, while carefully enjoying the scenery, and enjoying the fact that you are moving the air out of the way to go down the mountain you just gave everything to climb.
Our descent took us to Torrey just as a storm was rolling in. Perfect timing... We cruised to the town only to find that there was a Subway waiting for us, next to an outdoor gear shop. We stayed there for nearly two hours, and got back on the road at 5. We entered Capitol Reef National Park, which has become my favorite 30 miles of the trip.
The stone of the canyon was a burnt orange mixed with coral, with heights so high that when i looked up, i got dizzy. There were rocks of all consistencies, smooth, jagged, flakes. As we weaved through the stone majesties, into the bottom of the canyon where we saw deer (reindeer, we think) mingling with turkeys and other wildlife in lush meadows next to "pick your own fruit" fields. And almost as suddenly was these red rocks appeared, they faded into more of a white stone color, and the way the light of the setting sun hit them and created shadows created another element of beauty. Every time we turned a bend bend, we would see something new, and just as spectacular. The best part is, we had this all to ourselves. There was a stillness in the canyon that i have not yet experienced on a ride, and it helped that there were no cars, no buses, and few RVs. The peacefulness was there for us to soak in, absorb, and cherish, and share it only with the wildlife around us... Not to mention we hit mile 1000 in this canyon, and our cheers echoed through for miles, it seemed.This is a huge milestone for us. 16 days of actual riding and we have hit 1000 miles, and we made every one of those miles count. What is more, the majority of those miles have been up hill, in more ways than one. We have laughed, screamed, grunted, cursed, and even cried to get us through those mile when we didn't know if our muscles could.
I wish i had s video camera to capture all of the beauty in the last 30 miles. The stone rocks eventually turned to pale sand mountains that took on a shade of purple as the sun continued to set. This was also the first incredible sunset that the two of us had seen. Pink yellow and purple clouds on one side of the road, and directly across was a big moon in a cloudless blue sky, ready to take over. Everything was profound in beauty.
I remember having a conversation with a religion professor who was very influential in my collegiate career, even though it had little to do with biology. His course was one of my electives, exploring Indian religions, and ended up being one of my favorites. We had diverged from the topic of life and death, as I had still been struggling with the recent trauma of my father's death, and our conversation was headed back to class discussions and he pointed out the window and said "do you see that tree right there, Kate? Everything that makes that tree exist is the same in you, it is just rearranged in a different way. So you see, you are connected...to more things than you know."
His words meant a lot to me that day, but today it was clearer to me what he meant. The majestic beauty in the mountains, the strength in trees, the grace in rivers, exist in us. It is there, waiting to be found, ripened, harvested and adored. After all, it is where we came from.
The last 30 miles of today was liberating. Thank you, Utah. We head into the valley of the mountains tomorrow. There is only a campsite and a convenient store for 124 miles. We will leave with enough food and water for two days. One more climb this map... Dolores, CO, we'll see you in few days!
Photo 1: the dog i was playing with
Photo 2: our initial ascent
Photo 3: the cow in the road (eventually 3 of them decided it would be fun to live on the dangerous side)
Photo 4: getting closer
Photo 5-7: lunch time fun
Photo 8: the summit!
Photo 9-11: our descent
The rest: the Capitol Reef National Park
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