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| Cycling thru Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument |
So many people (from touring motorcyclists, to general driving tourists and other cycle tourers) had been telling us that Hwy 12 would be the most scenic road that we ride in the whole trip, so of course we had great expectations for today.
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| Looking at Boulder Mountain |
The ride didn't start off too bad. Out of Torrey we had a 25 mile climb to get to the summit of Boulder Mountain, rising from Torrey at 6,800 feet to 9,600 feet. As usual, pretty mellow and undulating at first until we got to the base of the mountain proper. It was nice to be on a longer climb again and once again riding through the alpine forest amongst all the spruce, fur, pines and aspens.
Boulder Mountain itself did not seem so exciting after all the beautiful mountains we saw in Colorado but what did make it special was the panoramic views looking out over Capitol Reef National Monument in the distance and the golden hued aspens lighting up the mountainside, more colours coming out now than when we had been in Colorado. Plus all the cows that stared and mooed at us from the side of the road on the open range.
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| Looking up Boulder Mountain |
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| View from the climb |
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| View of Capitol Reef NM |
About half way up the mountain we met a girl who was hitch biking on her fully loaded mountain bike with front and rear panniers. She was from Taos in New Mexico and was only wanting to be gone for 7 days / 6 nights in all.
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| Golden aspens on the climb |
We are still struggling with the concept of hitch biking. It just seems like so much effort for so little reward. Do you want to travel by bike or do you want to travel by automobile? Obviously you are wanting to do both if you are hitch biking, and if so, then why don't you just put your bike and all your touring gear in your car, drive out to a destination, park your car, load up your bike, ride out to a campsite over night, come back out again, put all the stuff back in your car and drive out to another point and do it all again, rather than rely on the uncertainty of hitch hiking, not knowing if you would get back home in time?
The weird thing was that she seemed to just be riding the roads we had just ridden and wanted to get from Boulder Mountain through Capitol Reef National Monument to Natural Bridges National Monument and back to Taos in New Mexico in 3 days. Should we have told her she was dreaming?
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| Rain clouds as we approached the summit |
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| Coming down the mountain |
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| We beat the rain! |
The last 8 miles to the summit, like all of Utah, had some really steep sections that slowed us right down and it took us just over 3 hours riding time (excluding stops) from Torrey to get to the top. As we were approaching the summit, it looked like we might be riding into some rain, but luckily it held off for us and we managed to make it up and over without getting wet, although without any sunshine, the descent was fast and cold and into a bit of a head wind.
In the little outpost town of Boulder at the bottom of the mountain, we stopped in at Hell's Backbone Grill, supposedly one of Utah's best restaurants for its creative use of fresh ingredients from farm to table. My smoked applewood BLT and the apple salad served with it, decorated with edible flower petals, pumpkin seeds and dried corn kernels, was pretty divine.
It wasn't until we entered the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument that we fully understood what everyone had been raving about about this scenic byway. This National Monument is massive, so named for the very distinct layers and colours of the cliff formations on the Colorado Plateau - from the Chocolate Cliffs in the south, rising to the Vermilion Cliffs, White Cliffs, Grey Cliffs and finally at the top layer, the Pink Cliffs.
There was a 3 mile section of road called "The Hogback" which is winding and narrow with very little or no shoulder nor barriers, drop offs over the cliff on both sides of the road. This was the most incredible part of the ride, looking deep into the canyons below.
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| Riding The Hogback |
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| View from The Hogback |
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| At the bottom of the canyons |
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| Steve is dwarfed by the cliffs |
The ride through this National Monument was also the hardest we had come across particularly after we dropped down past Calf Creek and the Escalante River crossing. From here we had to climb back out of the canyon and this is where we hit the rolling 12-14% gradients that we had feared.
These sections made for our hardest day on the bike, even harder than the climb up to 12,000 feet on Trail Ridge Road in Colorado, mostly because we had already been climbing for 3 hours today beforehand. I wasn't sure how many more times I could make my brain convince my legs to get me over the next steep rise, but somehow I did and my legs got me up and out of the National Monument. And I'm still saving the use of granny gear in Utah for something extra special!
We must have looked pretty shattered when we stopped at the last view point as a lady checked to see we had enough water and another guy offered us some cold Gatorade that he had in his car.
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| At one of the many viewpoints |
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| The crazy road we had to ride up |
This wasn't the end of it though, as just when we thought we were done, there would be another rise followed by a another fall until finally we rode into Escalante. Escalante is another small town full of adventure outfitters offering slot canyon guided trips and fly fishing trips. There are a tonne of canyons and dirt roads for mountain biking to explore in the National Monument. I would have liked to have ridden the extra 1.5 miles to the Escalante State Park to check out the petrified forest but Steve wouldn't ride any further.
We camped out the back of Escalante Outfitters and pigged out on beer, salad and a mean 16" meat lovers pizza at their cafe before we fell totally exhausted into our tent just after dark.
CRANKING ODYSSEY STATS
Total Odyssey miles: 2,791
Overall Fastest Speed: Steve (46 miles per hour) Mandy (36.8 miles per hour)
Bludge Days: 5
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: Squatters Respect Your Mother Organic Amber
Lesson of the day: to the dirty pick up truck driver out there - there is no need to blow your black exhaust smoke in our faces as we struggle up the canyons - cyclists can use the road too!
No. of days with no shower: 17
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)
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