Another cold night back up at 7800ft, basically laying awake waiting for the sunrise. Daylight finally broke and I packed up and made a beeline for the next gas station and a hot coffee. Two routing options before me today- an easy ride 45mi north on HW22 to Otter Creek Reservoir Campground, or see if I can push further on towards my car in Bicknell, guerrilla camping when it gets dark.
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| sunrise with nothing but Lucky 7's |
HW22 runs north from Bryce Canyon's bustle and is one of the loneliest stretches of road I've pedaled in Utah.
Aside from a couple empty ranch structures and a passing pickup, this heffer is the only traffic I encounter for the first 30miles:
Kept up a fantastic pace from the start- nice steady tailwinds and dropping down to the Res at 6400ft had me to the Reservoir Campground just in time for lunch! I'd already made 45mi by 1pm so no question I was going to keep rolling north, now on HW62. The fast progress and favorable winds kept me energized and challenging myself to make it all the way to Bicknell in a single day. The gradual, rolling ascent back up from the reservoir retained the wind and things were sailing along to Koosharem.
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| lonesome HW62 between Otter Creek Res and Koosharem |
On the way my rear tire's threads finally succumbed to the pannier load, same as the front tire failure on Day 2. I'm thanking my lucky stars that I grabbed that spare tire from Ken back at Zion, as it's still 30+ miles to the car, and further yet to any bicycle tires for sale.
After getting fixed up, I cut across the across valley to join HW24 and tackle the final pass of my trip. This one was a doozy, as the road turned back into the wind for the 1500ft ascent... I hit the summit 83miles into the day:
It was a real triumph of satisfaction, and now dropping down to the the old agricultural valley surrounding the town of Loa as the sun fell low on the horizon
Had a tire puncture that unfortunately took two attempts to repair properly, which delayed me past sunset. My journey came to its conclusion a bit after dark, with a daytime total of 104miles! Not to shabby to ride a full century while lugging 60lbs of gear with about 2500ft of elevation gain.
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| back at my car in Bicknell |
These moments of return to real life (or at least the means that are getting me back to real life) are both satisfying and sad. 8 days of beautiful terrain, nice people, amazing views & gigantic skies, physical exertion & perseverance, nice weather and good livin'. I'm ready for a rest, but even more ready to keep on going. Each time I finish a journey, I know next time will be longer and more ambitious, bringing new adventures. The times of cursing the winds, damning the climbs, nursing soreness, shivering at night... they've all melted away by now, adding to the charm and the reasons to keep at it. Time to think about the next adventure!
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