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Rest day. Drove to Cedar City, Utah.
Jacky took my bike and headed out before 8. We’ll pick her up along the way. Loren stopped at the ranger station and picked up some wilderness maps to dream over.
Wandered downtown this morning. Saw the Danish tourist, waved him down. He plans to ride to Whitney Portal today, hike tomorrow. He was interested in the store at Whitney Portal. I suggested he check at the ranger station on what the store had – he didn’t want to carry any more than necessary up the hill. Bon voyage, mon ami!
Stopped at the store to get nearly-climbed tee shirts for Loren and myself. Woman running the place was so insulting to the young man working there that I figured he must be family – no employee would tolerate such treatment for a minute. Sad.
Looked over Jacky’s bike. It turned out that the wheel wasn’t all that bad – just the brake needed re-centering. So it was a fast fix.
A real problem getting all our stuff in the car. We’ll be cozy for the next few days.
Stopped at tourist info stand for a book on bristlecone pines. Woman confirmed that the large brown animals we saw yesterday, about the size of housecats or raccoons, were marmots, and the little overgrown gerbil guys were pikas, also known as conies. Both go after food, will gnaw tents, packs, etc, to check out their contents. Heard someone refer to them as little bears.
Scooped up Jacky about 20 miles out. Mostly light overcast, hot but bearable in Panamint and Death valleys. For my money, Panamint valley is as scenic as Death valley. It just doesn’t have the publicity. Stovepipe Wells for coffee and sodas. Jacky bought some gift things. Waved to a couple of westbound bicycle tourists as we drove out.
Evidence of flash floods in Death valley. Sand washed across road for several miles, standing water in a few places.
Lunch at Shoshone. Sat down, got up, moved further away from the smokers. A moment later, another couple did the same.
Watched thunderstorms build up as we drove to Pahrump, Nevada. No lightning, but lots of real honest-to-goodness rain along a 25-mile stretch out of Pahrump marked as a flash flood hazard. Didn’t get swept away.
Beautiful country in Nevada and northern Arizona along I-15. Great Virgin River gorge – never heard of it before.
Stopped for gas at an Arco station. It not only required prepayment for gas, but you had to stand in line to prepay, then stand in line again to complete the transaction. Pissed me off – went down the street to Shell, where they had signs saying Please pump before paying. Much better.
Camped at KOA in Cedar City. Nice piece of lawn, well away from the road, all to ourselves. Jacky and I claimed the larger tent, and Loren got the little one-man tent. Took Loren a while to figure out how his tent worked. Good thing he was too proud to ask me – it’s been a couple of years since I last used it.
Heavy dark clouds on horizon.
Wandered into town for something to eat. Stopped at China Garden, turned out to be mostly American. Had to ask for chopsticks, and when I asked for Chinese tea, they served it with teacups. But we made out okay, though the spicy kung-pao beef was more than Loren was expecting. Good stuff! Made me fore’ead sweat! Burp!
Came out of the restaurant – it was raining. Loren hadn’t secured his rain fly when he pitched his tent; he had to put his sleeping bag in the dryer before he could turn in. Our tent was nominally dry, but water seeped in around the edges and drips from the rain fly spattered us once in a while. So things got a little wet anyway.
15.49 miles, 3060 vertical feet Map
This morning, Jacky went out for a run. Loren and I are going to ride towards Cedar Breaks and Bryce as far as we can get. 6:15 AM and only starting to get light – we are at the west end of the mountain time zone. A clear day, with streets almost dry.
9 AM, 6000' (7400')
As we rode out, we met Jacky coming back from her run, so we ate together at a restaurant so bad I don’t think any of us finished our food. To find something good to say about the place, though, I enjoyed the cantaloupe!
While we rode, Jacky dried out our stuff and loaded it loose in the car so it could dry out further during the day. Even though we decided to stay another night at KOA Cedar City, we didn’t want to just spread things out on the lawn for fear of having them blown away.
Lubed the bike chain after the rain this morning. Played with Loren’s front wheel some more, including a little work with a spoke wrench. He said it was okay.
Headed for Cedar Breaks on highway 14. Uphill, grade not too bad. Cliffs, buttes, evergreens. Stopped for rendezvous below high cliff with birds’ nests under an overhang.
Cool enough in the shade that I can see my breath.
9:30, 7000' (8400')
Rock has pretty shapes including some pigeonholes, but no color yet.
Eventually climbed out of gorge onto open forested upper part of grade. Sheep sounds through trees, but can’t see them. A couple of dogs chased me, wouldn’t give up till I squirted at them from water bottle. Didn’t bother Loren when he came up. I think their owner restrained them: he was yelling at them, to no avail, while they were chasing me.
Cool, clear, nice day.
For the last few days, my Kopfmusik has been Schubert’s second piano trio. This is totally involuntary – lucky it happens to be something I like. These are the tunes built on the rhythm …two, three, four, and-one, two, three, four… A good cadence rhythm, adaptable to either cycling or hiking.
10:10, 7500' (8900')
While waiting at last rendezvous, my indicated altitude changed from 7040 to 6860. Talk about a sinking feeling!
As we worked up over 7000 indicated feet again, we rounded a bend and saw the first red cliffs of the day. Cut the rendezvous interval to 500 vertical feet, anticipating Jacky showing up, turnoff to Cedar Breaks, or top of grade. Warming up. Still not bad. High broken overcast moving in.
11:45 AM, Panguitch
Jacky scooped us up. Stopped at Cedar Breaks to change clothes. Terrific views of red cliffs and miles of forest and ridges.
From Cedar Breaks, country is rolling forest and meadow that eventually drops into a valley containing, amongst other things, Panguitch. Stopped for lunch. Second unsatisfactory waitress in a row. Not a zero tip like we did this morning, but a small one. I’m changing my favorable opinion of Utah.
7:45 PM, Cedar City
Woman at tourist info told Jacky this morning that highway 14 was impossible for bikes – far too steep. But we were almost at the top when Jacky caught up with us.
Headed for Bryce Canyon National Park. Got as far as Red Canyon; the day was hot, we were sick of driving, the view of red towers and blocks from the road was impressive. Stopped at visitor center, got a map, went for 3.5 hour hike. Cassidy (Butch!) trail and Rich trail, about 7 miles. We had the place totally to ourselves.
Really nice. Saw three horned toads, well camouflaged against the ground. Also several lizards and a hummingbird. In keeping with scientific tradition, we gave the lizards a latin name in honor of their describer: lizardis lorensis. The description: “Common, garden variety lizards.”
Back to visitor center, confirmed that what we had seen was indeed horned toads. Asked about spiral pattern, mostly right-handed, on dead trees (this pattern was also clear on the bristlecone pines). Ranger didn’t know reason, though he said someone had once told him why that happens. I asked him whether Bryce and Zion were worth a visit – we were ready to call it quits after Red Canyon. He said absolutely worth a look at both.
By then it had clouded up, even a few raindrops: the drive to Bryce didn’t seem so onerous. So we did it. Well worth the trip!
Went to Bryce point. Loren and I walked back to Inspiration point while Jacky drove around. Too late and too tired to do any serious exploration. No pictures – my camera couldn’t do it justice. Maybe I’ll buy a picture book.
Western rim of Bryce canyon is on the divide between the great basin and the Pacific (Colorado river) watersheds. Pacific side is toward the east!
Headed back to Cedar City by way of Hatch and highway 14. Half a dozen deer in the meadow on the way out of Bryce.
Had veggie pizza at Pizza Factory in Cedar City. Good; we ate all of it and didn’t even have to fight over the last piece (I grabbed it under guise of old age and treachery!).
Southern Utah is a place to come back to, for some extended biking and hiking. Shakespeare festival here. Jacky got info, but it was predictable that we’d have too little time to attend one of the performances tonight.
Heavy clouds, lightning again, but well away to the northeast tonight. We should be fine.
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