Yesterday... Was the toughest climb that I have done, because I had to walk part of Sonora pass haha. We climbed over 9000 feet on the day. The pass over Boulder Mountain was at 9600 feet and it was freezing! I think we could see half way around the world. I waved home to Michigan but I don't think anyone saw me, probably because I was laying on the ground by the 9600 foot sign because I was so happy we made it.
It was quite the adventurous day though let me say. We started out by waiting out another hail storm in the morning, with our wet tents from the rains the night before already packed away (no fun packing wet tents). When we finally set out we were literally tailing a huge thunderstorm/lightning storm and getting blown by it's tailwinds. We never got too close to it since it was moving faster than us, but we stayed in the winds and rode through all the water that it dumped for at least a few hours. We rode down a very steep switchback road into an absolutely gorgeous ravine where Escalante RIver was. We climbed a few 14% grades out of that valley (which is about my max with my gear set) and began the climb for real. You know when the sections of the road are named that they are very steep and crazy. A few days ago we did a section called "the blues" with 14% inclines. Yesterday's section was called "the hogback!" It again was 14% (they have something about 14's in Utah I guess) and there were no guardrails and it on each side was cliffs to the bottom. I thought it might be scary but I loved it! It was possibly the coolest scenery I have seen other than the National Parks or Sonora Pass. It was actually a lot of fun climbing in those sections.
The storm we followed
The Hogback!!
View of the Escalante River from the top. You may be able to see the road we climbed.
Panorama of the Hogback. Escalante River. One of my favorite views.
More Utah
The climbing got tough once we made it through Boulder, UT, and started the even harder, and much longer climb. It took us over 3 1/2 hours to the summit from Boulder, about 16 miles. That's some slogging if you ask me. But our legs took us to the top. We dressed up in our cold/rain gear and bombed down the other side. They only thing was is that those 20-30 mph winds we had in the morning switched on us and were then blasting us in the face so it was slowish going and difficult and FREEZING!
1000 feet from the top
Some cool bouncy mountain deer
My funniest moment, possibly of the whole trip, happened on the way down. There were cows everywhere first of all, and they kept crossing the road. A couple times I had to come to a complete stop to let the dumb things pass, while I was flying down a hill no less (ugh! so annoying). So I decided to take out my anger on one of them that was looking like it might cross the road. Right when I passed it, and made eye contact with it, from about 8 feet away I yelled as loud as I could. It scared the cow so bad all of its knees buckled and it almost fell over! hahahahaha. And it was a huge cow. I couldn't stop laughing for the longest time. I figured I was doing a good deed by scaring it away from the road.
We ended up not making it to Capital Reef, our goal, because we were so tired. We also found out that the campground was full, so we picked a spot on the side of the road, next to many other RVers and called it a night. The wind continued all night so hard and blew tons of dirt into our tents and on our faces and everything else. I think the only reasons our tents didn't blow away was because we were laying in them. We both didn't sleep much, me more so because of the fear of my tent ripping in half.
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Today. we woke up with the goal of 100 miles to Green Springs State Park. The morning was pure bliss, even with the lack of sleep, because we rode downhill for the first 20 miles at least, and it was a smooth and easy downhill that took us through Capital Reef National Park. The views were spectacular and the traffic was mild. What more could we ask for? I even hit 51 MPH down a straightaway. BLISS!
Morning shot at Capital Reef
Some more Capital Reef. Sweeeet
Almost Zionesque. But not quite. But still great.
We made it to Hanksville, a little dumpy town to get ice water and take a lunch break at, by 1 PM with 45 miles under our belts. We climbed steadily for 20 miles out of there and then began the case for 100. It was great riding, also with a lack of wind of any kind. We actually made it to Green Springs by 6:15 We will be very hard pressed to have another 100 miler end so early.
100!
Josh celebrating the 100th mile. Only a few left.
We are 50 miles out of Moab, and Arches National Park, which we hope to check out tomorrow. We will need somebody to drive us around though because the park is huge and there are no busses, and we don't want to ride another 40 miles! Uncle Vern believes we can find somebody, so I'll hang on to his word.
Our bodies feel great, my hand nerves are almost all healed, and my back feels better than it has in years I think. Thanks for all the prayers!!!
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Just for Fun...
All my stuff unloaded right after we arrive. It tends to be a mess.
My two week leg tan. Hahahahaha.
God bless,
Tailwinds, (or no winds is always appreciated)
Mark
Gorgeous pictures Mark! (with the possible exception of the leg shot haha)
ReplyDeleteCow story made me lol
Praise God for his healing. He's the only one that can heal nerve cells i know of
He's so awesome that way.
PS seeing your pictures makes me want to go for a ride w/ your mom again
ReplyDeleteamen! you guys are great, we'll have to do a 4-person ride when we get back :)
DeleteI'm so happy you guys are riding so often!! I told mom that you guys are going to have to join us soon haha. Maybe through North Carolina???
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