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We knew it was going to be tough. We faced a 4000 ft climb out of cedar city to cedar mountain. From what we had heard there would be plenty of traffic and very little shoulder. What we had going for us was we were starting our climb at the beginning of the day.

The first 15 miles of our climb went as we expected, difficult but doable. We took water/rest breaks every few miles. As we rode what we thought were the last few miles, our breaks became more frequent, and our gasping became more pronounced. We started to see runners participating in a relay heading down the mountain. Some of them gave us encouraging words as we grinded our way in the opposite direction. Others just smiled as they endured their own pain.

When we reached what we thought was the top, we were greeted with an amazing view of the red cliffs of Cedar Breaks. Once a lake bed thrust 10,000 feet above sea level as the earths plates pressed together.

We snacked a bit and thought we’d have a smooth 10 mile descent down to Panguitch Lake for lunch. We were wrong. We still had some sharp climbs to overcome, and by this time our legs were dead. The slightest incline would send us scrambling for our granny gears. We also began to experience intermittent mountain top sprinkles.

Eventually we made it to Panguitch Lake and fueled up at the Burger Barn. Sarah had a kraut dog and I had a chili dog. The rest was all downhill to Panguitch proper were we pitched our tent at the Hitch N’ Post RV park, total approximate mileage 68.