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No more posts beginning with “another long day” or “another hard day”. There will be too many of those to mention. It’s no secret that Utah has been serving our butts to us on a platter the last few days. Today we decided it was time for some payback, and yes this time it’s personal.

We got an early start because we had an ambitious goal. The areas with services were limited so we could ride just under 50 miles and stay at Hanksville or continue on to Hite 95 miles away. What we had going for us was the first 45 miles was a nice gentle descent.

Right away we were rewarded with a beautiful ride through the Capital Reef National Park canyon. With towering cliffs and a verdent valley, we stumbled upon some historic apple orchards planted by Mormon pioneers. It was pick your own with payment based on the honor system. We were a little suspicious, has socialism reached these remote outposts as well? We picked five and paid our dollar.

Just outside our midway point Hanksville we reached a major milestone, our 1000th mile. It was still pretty early so we continued on our plan to reach Hite recreational area on Lake Powel. The catch with Hite is that the only place with food in the area is a minimart that closed at 5:00.

We didn’t think we’d make it in time so we picked up some emergency rations in Hanksville. We pushed on to Hite now facing a gentle climb and headwind trying to beat the clock, fueled by visions of a cool lake powel and an ice cold soda/beer from the minimart.

In the end we didn’t get there before the minimart closed. We had to make due with our emergency rations, a can of beefaroni and some cold pizza from lunch. We did get a chance to cool off with a quick dip in the lake. We would have given anything for an ice cold drink. Also we ended up riding 101 miles in total. Another big milestone, over 100 miles in day.