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| Leaving Capitol Reef NP behind him |
Leaving Hanksville, the surrounding landscape turned from red-brown to grey and sandstone. A dark grey dirt became a prominent feature. The shapes of the big buttes was quite outstanding. I like big buttes and I cannot lie .....
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| Leaving Hanksville |
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| A road to nowhere .... |
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| Factory Butte and a dirt bikers heaven |
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| Factory Butte Recreation Area |
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| Crazy colour gradation - rocks and dirt |
Once out of the dirty grey, we hit green farming land amongst the mesas with cows grazing and organic crops growing. The land beside the Fremont River looked quite fertile, the many trees and juniper bushes growing along its banks appearing as a surprise in this desert environment. A stop at the small Mesa Farm Market which sold fresh baked bread, coffee, farm to market vegetables and home made feta and tome cheese and yoghurt provided a lunch for us later in the day of sour dough bread, fresh grape tomatoes and tome cheese.
Southern Utah is a place that deserves a lot more time and effort. There are so many hiking and off-road vehicle trails that require exploration. You could live here for years and find a new trail to explore every weekend heading into the side and slot canyons and washes.
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| The approach to Capitol Reef NP |
We cycled Hwy 24 through the width of Capitol Reef National Park. This park is only 5-10 miles wide but it is some 75 miles long, hence we saw only the smallest portion of this natural wonderland. Most other roads throughout the park are dirt roads and wouldn't see too many visitors on them. They would be so much fun to explore.
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| Fremont River in Capitol Reef NP |
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| Behunin Cabin - a family of 10 once lived here! |
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| Hickman Bridge |
Steve decided that getting to Torrey early today was not so important, so we took a short 2 mile roundtrip hike out to the Hickman Natural Bridge, which also provided terrific views out over the park, only to get back to our bikes to find that I had another flat in my rear tire.
We took a while fixing the flat, taking the time to patch one of the previous punctures and also search for what was causing the flats in the tire. We found small metal strips (like a part of a staple) embedded deep into the rubber in 2 places. I remember pulling out a similar piece of metal about half an inch long from my tire once before, way back at the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming on the day we met 75 year old Chuck. I wonder if those pieces of metal had been in the tire since then?
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| Hickman Bridge |
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| View over Capitol Reef from the hike |
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| Fremont Indian Petroglyphs |
Back on our merry way, we stopped in quickly at the Visitor Centre to refill our water bottles, buy a cold drink and headed off to the picnic area in the historic Fruita settlement where you could still pick apples from the orchards if you so desired, to eat our fresh farm lunch under the shady trees.
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| Castle Rock |
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| Leaving the Visitors Centre |
We'd been gaining elevation all day but finally we began the steeper climb out of the National Park. Scott, another cycle tourist we'd met back on Lizard Head Pass coming out of Telluride, seemed to know this area well and had warned us of the climb in and out of Torrey heading toward Escalante, so we were waiting for something so steep it would floor us. So far it hasn't happened. Yes, there were some steeper sections coming out of the park and into Torrey but they didn't last very long compared to the 15-25 mile climbs we were doing at elevation in Colorado so it didn't seem to bother us too much.
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| Panorama View - Capitol Reef NP |
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| Chimney Rock |
Torrey is a sleepy little town of about 180 people built around a peaceful tree lined Main Street that seems to stretch a lot further than is necessary for a town of this size, and is surrounded by red mesas, canyons and mountains. The Sand Creek RV Park and Campground is run by the friendly Donna and her "dude" of a partner (that's how Steve describes him because he has a wicked beard and longer hair), with spotlessly clean restrooms and beautiful farmland and mesas behind it. Apparently the wind whips through here at night, so each campsite has its own little wind break fence to set up behind, which we found to be a very thoughtful addition.
CRANKING ODYSSEY STATS
Total Odyssey miles: 2,724
Overall Fastest Speed: Steve (46 miles per hour) Mandy (36.7 miles per hour)
Bludge Days: 4
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: Uinta Kings Peak Porter
Lesson of the day: it is possible to keep your cycling kit smelling rosy until about Day 45 if you rotate 2 kits and wash or rinse them out after almost every wear. After that, it's all over red rover!
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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