The dreaded climb turns out to be....not that bad

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Day 14 - Cedar City, UT to Cannonville, UT
Total Miles: 86.7 (902.4mi total)

Ah, the much dreaded climb out of Cedar City - not
nearly as bad as the dreadful elevation profile made
it seem, but an 18 mile climb nevertheless. We
started around 5:30 worried that it would take awhile.
Right as we were turning on to the main road in Cedar
City, we ran into these guys, Randy and Scott, father
and son cross country tourers, who we had met in
Davis. It was a strange coincidence to bump into them
that early in the morning, especially since they
informed us in Davis that they would be doing serious
miles and wouldn’t see us again (we told them our pace
would be about 75 a day) unless something went
terribly wrong (I remember being intimidated by them
and their professional touring nature when we met in
Davis). We enjoyed conversation with them for the
first half of the climb through the canyon (it was so
cold riding through the towering canyon that we could
see our breaths as we rode), this made the time go by
a little faster. It’s refreshing to have some east
coast city company - when a car drove up behind us and
honked meanly and gave us the finger, Randy (the son)
charged up after him waving his fist and shouting
obscenities - ah, home (Randy live in NYC and Scott
currently resides in Oakland but is from Philly). The
ride through the canyon was fantastic. Sculpted,
colorful rock towering on both sides …

We finally finished the dreaded climb and embarked
upon the long ride downhill. What a day it’s been!
We rode through lava fields, past Lake Navajo (a
beautiful glacial lake) - fantastic sites seemed to
surprise us at each bend in the road. Since the road
to Cedar Breaks National Park was closed (there’s
about 20 feet of snow on it), we decided to get off
the beaten path, literally - we let a little air out
of our tires and took a 10 mile detour on this
fantastic rocky dirt road through alpine meadows,
meandering streams, red rock and Bryce-like rock
“fingers” towering in the distance - no one around for
miles … this detour was definitely a highlight of our
day.

We stopped for a three hour lunch at Café Adobe -
fantastic food, captivating conversation, great staff
… I’ve really been enjoying talking to the retired
tourists we meet along the way. They’re all so
fascinated with what we’re doing. It’s super fun to
share adventures and stories. We rode through the
Bryce canyon area (more beautiful sights, and a mostly
downhill ride with a bike trail that really kicked our
butts - this part was steep). We experienced a bit of
rain (first to date) and terrible winds down a 8%
grade on our way out of Bryce - super scary, it was a
challenge to keep your bike straight. We found a good
bivy spot in the local park (we decided to camp there
despite the big sign that said “No Overnight
Camping”). Arthur had some sort of crazy
rationalization that we weren’t actually camping since
we simply throw our sleeping bags down to sleep.
Luckily we slept through the night without being
disturbed by the local police. This trip seems to be
going a bit too smoothly, things are working out
really well for us, there seems to be so many
coincidences in our favor … I suppose we just have to
keep the good Karma rolling …

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