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We did not get up early this morning. After a night of leg cramps and pain in my achilles, I was more than happy when Mike hit snooze on the alarm. Once we finally got on the road, around 10:30 am, my foot was bothering me enough that I nearly had us turn around take a day off. But, Boulder UT is no place to spend the rare day off.

Since I ate nails for breakfast this morning, we decided to press onward and at least make it over Boulder mountain. It was slow going, and we made frequent stops, but after 15 miles of climbing, we made it. The climbs here in Utah are not really any taller than others that we have faced before, but they are significantly steeper.

We only went about 38 miles today, stopping in the town of Torrey. Because of our late start and my foot, we decided it would be prudent not to press onward today. Tomorrow however, we may try to make up for it by riding 90 miles.

On a side note, the field next to the motel that we stayed at last night was home to 4 or 5 tiny horses. We wondered what was the deal with these midget horses, what purpose do they serve? They remain an anomaly in our experiences thus far with local farm animals.

– Sarah

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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.

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We started the morning with a fine breakfast of two poptarts, some tea and instant oatmeal with apple sauce, courtesy of the penny stove I made out of Heiniken cans. We had another ambitious day ahead of us, 80 miles across the desert without services, mostly uphill.

We waited for the minimart to open so we could pick up some snacks for what we hoped would be our last day in the desert and our last extended stretch without services.

The going was slow as we climbed out of the canyons surrounding the lake. We gradually climbed to higher and higher plateaus.

In the last 30 miles we started to reap some benefits of our previous 50 miles of gradual climbing, and picked up some quick miles with some steep descents. Unfortunately the descents were followed by some nasty climbs.

We still had visions of an ice cold soda in our heads which finally became reality about 4 miles outside Blanding UT, our destination for the day. This will be our last night in Utah, tomorrow we reach Colorado. Utah was beautiful but harsh. I have new respect for the pioneers who settled this harsh territory.