hail!

moonlit hike along the rim of Bryce just before dawn up to a glorious vista to watch the sun rise over the "hoodoos" .... pretty much set the tone for today, which turned out to be quite the venture along Route 12 East. 

met up with Mark for an early morning hike down into the canyon, awash with brilliant reds & golds of every variety. 

the trails at Bryce are an incredibly singular experience - at every turn, you're met with an entirely new landscape. never before have I been on such a short hike and had no sense of where we'd walked and where we were headed - the trail twisted between the chalky rocks in a delightfully disorienting way. 

leaving Bryce was far easier than Zion, in the sense that much of the park's beauty spilled over its borders, and provided some spectacular scenery as we headed northeast toward Capitol Reef and Arches. 

at our midday cycling feature, "the blues" (a short but tough climb), we began a dance between thunderclouds and lightning, getting drenched halfway up the ascent and subsequently trying to stay on the edge of the storm on the way back down. 

took what we thought would be a quick stop in Escalante to dodge the last arm of the storm, and boy am I glad we did. not ten minutes after we brought our bikes under the porch, the heavens opened up and sent down a deluge of rain & pea-sized hail for the next twenty minutes. Mimi, the owner at Escalante Outfitters (where we took shelter), offered us a free spot to camp, and we gratefully accepted the offer. 

Outfitters had a fantastic cafe/store where we got warm & dry before setting up camp for the night. came back inside for dinner and it was midway through some pretty fantastic pizza that we realized our feast was in celebration of 1000 miles on the trip. 

rains came and went throughout the night, but we've got some pretty amazing tents and stayed high & dry, falling asleep to some folksy guitar music from a nearby outdoor concert under the pavilion behind Outfitters. just another Saturday night in Escalante. 

until next time,

may the road rise up to meet you

josh & mark

the lifecycle team