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Today, the plan was to ride 68 miles to Escalante, UT. But, when we awoke in Panguitch, it was raining. We thought that it would let up shortly, but it continued to rain steadily for a couple of hours. By the time it had subsided enough to let us break camp, try to dry out some of our wet gear and get on the road, it was nearly 11 am. We have never gotton such a late start, but we figured, 68 miles is really not that far, we should still be able to make it to our destination by dark.

30 miles later we were not so optimistic. It was already almost 3pm, and while our ride through Red Rock Canyon and Bryce Canyon were absolutely beautiful, fatigue from our difficult ride yesterday and a nasty head wind were taking their toll. We decided to spend the night at the Cannonville KOA campground. Our total mileage for today was only about 35 miles. But our campsite has a fabulous view, and if we don’t get eaten by mountain lions, it will totally be worth it.

We also ran into four more guys headed west, I didn’t get all of their names, but one just graduated from Alfred and rides the same exact bike as me, he also has the same tent as Mike and I, so he is obviously awesome and has excellent taste. We traded some information about our upcoming rides, and then Mike and I mosied on over to the free ice cream social at the campground were we chatted with a couple from Canada who are riding in a loop around some of these Utah cliffs.

A word on the landscape here, it is alien and beautiful and red, and it almost makes the steep climbs worth it, but more on that tomorrow, because we have a doozy coming up.

-Sarah