I awoke this morning to slightly aching legs from trying to power my way up the steep inclines yesterday. That muscle right above the top of my knee was really feeling it.
Last night's pizza had kept us pretty full through the night, so we had the last 2 remaining slices for breakfast, sat down and had a very civilised cappuccino in the cafe, then hit the road at 8:45am.
Once we got going and the legs warmed up, everything was good except for the stupid headwind we had to push into on the gradual uphill. Feeling a little lazy, I let Steve do all the hard work up front for a while. 19 miles of climbing up to a 7,600 foot un-named summit from which we could see the Pink Cliffs of the highest layer of the Grand Staircase. We entered and left the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument again several times today. The most scenic views were definitely to be had during yesterday's ride on the eastern side of the monument.
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| Pink Cliffs of the Grand Staircase |
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| The western side of Grand Staircase-Escalante |
However, coming into the town of Henrieville, which had a post office and not much else, was quite pleasant with a distinct shaped white rock formation surrounded by green farming land and red cliffs behind it.
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| Cycling into Henrieville |
Our lunch stop was at the Cowboy Grill food truck serving gourmet burgers and other things in the town of Tropic to fuel up for the climb into Bryce Canyon. From the road you can't really see too much of the canyons. At the trailhead to Moses Cave, there was a really neat formation to see from the road. The vibrant pink colours, spires and towers of the formations were really pretty.
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| Moses Cave Trailhead |
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| Close up of the formations |
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| Cycling in Bryce Canyon NP |
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| Bryce Canyon NP |
We'd decided we'd spend two nights in the park so we could have a day off the bike to go hiking and see some of the sights. However, by the time we arrived at about 3pm we nearly missed out on a campsite again. Could have been a campsite disaster twice this trip, but luckily we just got here about 30 minutes before the campground was full rather than 30 minutes after like our experience at Natural Bridges.
Scott had told us that there was a grocery store in the park, so we didn't get any food on the way in, but when we got here we found it wasn't so well stocked so it looks like we won't be eating too well for the next two days. But they do have beer!
CRANKING ODYSSEY STATS
Total Odyssey miles: 2,847
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: Moab Brewery Squeaky Bike Nut Brown
Lesson of the day: should have bought those dehydrated meals in Escalante when we saw them
No. of days with no shower: 18
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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