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| We actually made it! |
I love it when a good plan comes together. We arrived in Cedar City, our final destination on this Cranking Odyssey, this afternoon right on schedule, exactly on the day I planned all those months ago and timing it perfectly to get in before the impending thunderstorms struck.
For some reason, the first day and last day of this Odyssey seemed to feel so anti-climatic. Our first day seemed so rushed in our eagerness to get started, get on the road and just get through the first day; full of nervous excitement, not really knowing or fully understanding what lay ahead of us.
Today, I spent most of the day wishing it was not our last day on the road, not really wanting to reach our end point because I know and fully understand what comes after we finish this journey. Snap back to reality...
We even drew out the last 85 miles of the Odyssey into 2 days trying to delay the inevitable and savour the moment for just one more day. We could have pushed through to Cedar City yesterday, but it would have been a hard and miserable day, with a long, long, long uphill. We didn't want to end feeling miserable.
As it was, Steve still managed to have a partly miserable day, letting the Wyoming type winds that slapped us in the face as we climbed steeply uphill get to him. Then he'd check himself, remember it was our last day on the road, make himself just kick back and take in the enormity of what we had done.
Today was actually the day I had feared the most in Utah. People had told us that the climb into Cedar City was brutal. By stopping at Panguitch Lake overnight, we had broken the climb in half so we only had 19 miles to cover the 2,000 foot elevation gain from Panguitch Lake at 8,400 feet to Cedar Breaks National Monument at 10,400 feet.
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| Golden aspens colour the mountain |
We had a lazy morning, delaying packing up our tent and loading up our bikes for the last time, watching the clouds move in fast over the mountain. It was a quiet morning on the road, with not many cars passing by except for the odd hunter in his pick up heading out for the kill and passing tourists.
The wind was at us right from the start, making it a slow climb and making us have to push with each pedal stroke that little bit harder. As we climbed higher and higher the wind got colder and colder, and we watched the aspens changing colour from green, to golden, to sunburnt orange until the trees were bare with just their spindly grey branches protruding, all their leaves having blown away in the wind.
It turned out to be a pretty hard climb (mainly because of the wind), but nothing we couldn't handle. I had saved granny gear in Utah for no reason, not even needing it on this ascent. Although the grades were steep, at least you get a break on your legs every now and then as the road deceptively makes you think you are rolling downhill in between as they lessen the gradient every mile or two.
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| Sunburnt orange fall foliage |
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| Our peaceful ride through the trees |
Cedar Breaks National Monument was a bit of a let down after all the wonderful canyons we had seen so far in Utah, but still impressive in its formations and colour. We stopped at a couple of View Points along the way thinking back to when we started riding in Oregon and how much we loathed these two words because it meant a climb was ahead of us - a climb so small and at such a low elevation in comparison to what we accomplished in Colorado and Utah.
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| Cedar Breaks National Monument |
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| Our highest elevation reached in Utah |
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| Point Supreme Viewpoint |
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| Wishing it wasn't all about to end |
The descent into Cedar City was by far our longest and cruisiest on this entire ride, a fun and fitting end to this journey - 20 miles of sweet downhill, coasting around the windy bends through the canyon gorge along Coal Creek. We were enjoying these final moments of the ride so much, we didn't bother to stop to take many photos, letting the momentum carry us into town, the wind rushing past our ears.
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| The descent through the canyon |
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| The approach to Cedar City |
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| Our last selfie of the ride |
Cedar City is a bigger town and there were plenty of cars flying past us on the road. It was a rush for us to get all our chores done before the forecasted storms arrived. We grabbed a Kamping Kabin at the KOA Campground so we could stay dry, unpacked and had a quick shower, then rode our bikes back into town and dropped them off at Cedar Cycles to have them packed down and FedExed back to Houston for $115 each bike. It was sad to leave our bikes, knowing we wouldn't be getting back on them again in the following days.
Having completed our odyssey, we have finally found suitable names for them though. Steve's bike has been named "Mule" for carrying our tent, tool kit, spares and his heavy frame throughout the entire 2,900+ miles. My bike is called "Lacksadaisy" - she just takes everything as it comes in as calm and languid a manner as possible, getting me wherever I want to go.
After dropping our bikes off we found the Hong Kong Buffet, an all-you-can-eat buffet for $10.99 pp. We tucked in for dinner at 4pm and ate all we could for a solid hour. These two hungry cyclists certainly got their money's worth, not leaving until we felt like our bellies were about to explode. It's going to be hard trying to stop consuming everything we can get our hands on now that we are no longer riding, but we'll start worrying about that tomorrow.
Somehow I managed to consume as many calories as I burnt throughout this trip and have finished the same weight as I started. Steve on the other hand had lost about 7 kg by the half way point but since then has only lost another 4 kg. His beard grew about an inch during the 2 months and got more knotted by the day, curling into his mouth at night if he slept in the wrong position. Egg at some point during the ride just re-absorbed himself back into my butt.
As we walked back to the KOA it started drizzling and we made it back just in time before the rain started. Tomorrow we'll pick up a car rental for our last few days before we fly back to Houston from Salt Lake City on Tuesday. Let's see where the final days of this journey takes us.
CRANKING ODYSSEY STATS
Total Odyssey miles: 2,935
Overall Fastest Speed: Steve (46 miles per hour) Mandy (37.4 miles per hour)
Bludge Days: 6
Bonks: Steve (1) - Day 46
Dog chases: 3
Dummy Spits: Steve (7) Day 10 - because it rained; Day 16 - because the rocks in the river were slippery; Day 29 - because it takes me so long to get ready in the morning; Day 36 - because I was blogging and Steve was dieing of starvation; Day 44 - because the clothes dryer didn't dry his clothes; Day 45 - because by the time I got organised he didn't get to eat a crappy dinner until 8pm; Day 47 - because his bike shoes were smelly and wet from sitting in the pool of water around our tent yesterday afternoon
Mandy (3.5) 0.5 Day 14 - those freakin' wreckless Idaho drivers!; Day 26 - because my bike computer had a meltdown; Day 28 - because Steve wouldn't help hold my bike up in the wind after watching it nearly fall over 3 times whilst I tried to put my clothes away in the panniers because it looked like rain ahead; Day 44 - because Steve's bushies flew back and hit me in the face (twice)
Flats: Katie (4); Steve (1); Mandy (2)
Wrong turns: 8
Beer of the day: Payette Brewing Co Rodeo Rye Pale Ale (an Idaho beer in Utah......go figure)
Lesson of the day: a 235ml / 8oz tube of Chamois Butt'r lasts 44 days
No. of days with no shower: 20
No. of days in a hotel: 13
Starting weight: Steve (90kg) Mandy (51.5kg)
Day 30 Rawlins weigh in: Steve (183 pds / 83kg). Mandy (110 pds / 50kg)
Final weigh in: Steve (175 lbs / 79kg). Mandy (113 lbs / 51kg)
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