day 28/29

day 28- after a good night of hard sleeping, we got up and ate some breakfast then headed down to the library to hit up some internet. dolores has a beautiful library that sits right next to the river and has big windows to gaze outside. we spent a handful of hours there updating the blog, sending out requests to stay with people, and catching up with the world of the internet. we then headed to the grocery store where we bought spaghetti and chips & salsa (our favorite these days). we had a feast (1 lb of noodles!). as we were waiting for the noodles to cook, we read national geo magazines and other backpacking mags that mollie had around the house. i finished my book, wild at heart, and started reading dharma bums so that was nice. two other cyclists were supposed to get in today so we waited for their arrival. mollie was off working a 24 hr shift helping disabled people so we had the house to ourselves, which is so nice of her! jeff and geoff (joff?) arrived around 7ish and we sat around chatting about our trips. they are traveling from east to west but jeff is only going from colorado to utah area while geoff (joff) is going cross country. they were great guys and they made a feast as well and we shared some spaghetti with them. that night we just hungout and told stories of travels and our bike trip then retired to bed.

day 29- awoke to hail soaring down from the skies and rain following it; luckily we were inside! we begrudgingly got dressed and packed our things. ate some breakfast and kind of waited for the storm to pass. we were planning on biking up to rico from dolores which wasn't too far away but up some elevation but this storm wasn't very inviting. mollie got back home from a 24 hr assisted living watch and it was nice to chat with her for a bit, but she's super busy! we hungout with jeff and geoff (joff) for a bit then we all went down and started packing up our bikes and talking about bike gear. they were heading to utah (moab) where the weather seemed to be a lot better than the dark black clouds looming over the mountains where we were headed. we said our goodbyes to mollie (as she was cutting a dogs hair) and to jeff and geoff and headed to the grocery store to get some last minute foods for the day. bagels, hard boiled eggs, banana chips, and dried papaya for us. it didn't rain on us for a while until we went around a bend and it started to dump, so we ducked under some trees and covered our bikes with our tarp and just waited. a guy in a van waiting for his friend to go canoeing showed up and harassed us for a bit, so that was nice. the weather cleared and we kept heading up the canyon to the mountain. off and on rain would hit us and we were wet but we made it to rico in no time and the elevation gain wasn't bad at all. sadly not many pics since the weather was so crappy and clouds covered everything! we got to rico and were trying to find a place to pitch our tent when we came across a hot spring that people were telling us about; when we wandered over to it there was a couple, "doing stuff" so we ducked into a shack to get out of the rain. thats when evan found another broken spoke, not more than 400 miles and a new rim and he broke another spoke. the rain died down and we headed to the road to hitchhike to telluride; after a couple of cars, a great guy, eddie, picked us up in his truck and took us to mountain village. he dropped us off with our gear and it was pouring rain on us but we ducked into a little overhang to figure out our next move. we were cold and near frozen since we were up about 9,000 ft or so. the bike shops there were closed for the day so we caught the free gondola down to telluride. they crammed us both with our bikes into the gondola and slammed the door, not telling us when to get out for the town. after a couple stops we arrived at telluride and we struggled to get our bikes out of the never stopping gondola and evan's bike got stuck in the door and was getting manhandled. they shut it down and they got his bike free and we wandered around main street looking for food and warmth. telluride is like the next aspen, super ritzy (not as much as mountain village, sheesh) but it is not a cheap place. we found a pizza place where we consumed a large pizza in no time and caught some of the world cup. that was nice. we struggled for a long time to find a place to stay but finally in the last moments, jeremy, texted us his address and we were off in search of his house. we almost broke into a historic house thinking it was his! ha. we found his place and waited for him to come back from shooting a wedding. he's a super cool guy, just got back from backpacking asia for 4 months! we talked for a bit then he had to get back to the wedding. his house is sweet, small but neat. we wandered around town looking for more food but nothing was open so we went back and went to bed.

day 27

after a great night of sleep, evan and i got up and started packing up our bikes. thankful for the motel. we have a 81 mile ride to dolores, colorado. today we would say goodbye to utah and hello to colorful colorado! we are ready to get out of utah; some wonderful people and places but we need a change. luckily between blanding and dolores there would be a handful of towns along the way to fill up water and to get some food. i swear the whole day we were going up and down hills. a little annoying because you'd get into a rythm then you'd go down and catch some speed then have to go right back up what you went down. also there was some significant sidewind that slowed us down a bit but kept us cooler. some give and take i guess. after about 21 miles of riding we stopped off at a diner and enjoyed some good burgers and then some amazing pies! the pies were on the house too. we rested for a bit and filled up on water and started for the colorado/utah border. we hit the border and had to take some shots with the welcome signs! we missed utah's because we had to catch a ride to cedar city cause of evan's broken back tire so we made up for it with the one on the border with colorado. i hope you enjoy them because it took some good planning to get them. its amazing how the landscape has changed from utah to colorado; utah is red rocks and desert canyons while colorado is greener but also has hilly red dirt agriculture. more up and down hills. i was going up a hill when i felt a little bouncy and sluggish so i look at my back tire and it looks super low. i stopped and it was only 3/4s full so i took off my bags and flipped over my bag to see if i could patch the tube. i found the hole and applied a patch and evan and i started back down this hill when i start to climb the next hill and i look down and it is back to being deflated. evan was just soaring at this point and his broken mirror was looking at the ground so he couldn't see me so i pulled off again and replaced that tube with a new one. my only problems have been popping my back tire tubes, so i need to probably get a few more at the next bike shop. i was a ways behind evan and we still had 20 miles to get to dolores and it was getting later; lucky we had a place lined up to crash thanks to warmshowers but i didn't want it to get too late for us to roll into town. so we came up on the town of lewis and took a left to finish the last 11 miles to dolores. the sunset (golden hour) was gorgeous especially we i passd a reservoir; it is surely a beautiful part of colorado. more ups than downs now and took another left to cruise down a hill into dolores, but evan was nowhere to be found. the town isn't that big and normally if someone is ahead of the other they will wait at the beginning of town and then go in together. i cruised up and down main street several times and even the back streets but couldn't find him; i called him and texted him but no answer and it was getting darker out. i called our host, molly, and got directions to her place but was still in search of evan. after some more wandering around i see him pull off main street and into a parking area. i guess he kept going straight at lewis and missed the dolores sign and once he didn't see me for awhile he went back and saw the dolores sign and finally headed into town. we cruised over to molly's house and met her and her "husband" (it's complicated she said. ha) she is super nice and he's funny; she owns the only dog grooming shop in town and she has 2 ferrets. we got settled into our room and got a rundown of the house and which ferret likes to bite. ha. so we steer clear of the white nosed ferret. we then headed down to a brewery to try and grab some dinner but their kitchen just shut down, so we headed home to cook some rice up. i read and fell asleep after a bit. 

day 26

*side note: had a nice update and went to post it and for some reason the autosave function wasn't doing its job and lost it all. i will try my best to retype it.

we got to sleep in for a bit due to our great placement of our tent behind a nice tree that provided shade. sadly when we got out of our tent we were attacked by little annoying bugs. it made life very difficult. we tried to hurry and pack up our things, eat, and sunscreen. i think i got half the swarm stuck to my body because of the sunscreen. we finally got on the road and headed through some more desert canyons. we came to fry station/county which used to be an old motel/gas station but now is a living area for miners; this is the only place between hite and blanding where there is water. so we snuck around back and pumped out some water to refill our bottles. we had 80+ miles to do that day so that water was very beneficial. we had a lot of up and down parts but we were just wanting to get to blanding. we were a handful of miles outside of blanding and we knew we had some elevation to climb up to get into town but we encountered some lame steep graded switchbacks. frustrating and hot but we climbed to the top and we see a gas station! seeing a gas station is huge because 1. you know there is cold water 2. shade 3. possibly a place to get some food. we had been riding for over a hundred miles and there was nothing so it was a huge joy to find that gas station. we rolled in and downed some cold water; we then got a nice cold gatorade. i love water, i can't get enough of it lately, but something other than water is really enjoyable too. you know just something different. we still had 3 miles to get into the town of blanding so we headed that way. we found a restaurant, old timers or something, where we plopped down looking haggard, sweaty, and dirty but it was nice to not be pedaling and on our saddles. we both got chicken fried steak and enjoyed a wonderful salad. after savoring the a/c and coushioned seating we went outside to see that evan's bike had fallen over. sadly his mirror broke and his helmet was pretty banged up too. after some frustrating minutes we headed to the grocery store to get some goods: chips & salsa, chocolate milk, and regular milk. we then went in search of a motel to stay in since we'd been camping and riding hard for the past 5 days. we finally found one for 25 bucks for a double bed, tv, shower, fridge, and a/c. we settled in and got to watch the last game of the stanley cup finals! we devoured our chips and salsa, showered, read, then zonked out. our bodies were very tired and sore but we still had another long days ride to dolores, colorado before we were going to take a rest day.

day 25

our good friends, the sun and heat woke us up nice and early. begrudgingly we started to pack things up. our other cycling friends, will and alex, headed to blondies for some breakfast and we told them we'd meet them there. we gathered all our stuff and packed it back onto our bikes. we are a bit sluggish in the mornings; we like our sleep and we don't like the heat.there were some super annoying bugs there too so we headed over to blondies to grab some pancakes, eggs, and share a giant cinnemon roll! after some chitchatting and downing bunches of water we said our goodbyes to will and alex and wished them well on the rest of their trip. if you are interested in checking out their blog, it is Will & Alex's Blog. they are riding for autism and have raised a bunch of money for them, so that is super awesome! keep up the good work guys! after running around to the grocery store to pick up cereal for the long stretch ahead we finally left the safety and "society" of hanksville and headed into the desert towards lake powell to hite recreation area. we needed to be smart about conserving water since the only place to fill us would be hite which was 50 miles away and the only gas station there was only open from 11-2 and we arrived at almost 3. we passed through some gorgeous canyon/lake areas but for the most part the view was similar to most of utah. we passed over a couple cool bridges before getting to hite and evan loves to take pictures looking down; it scares me so i held onto his backpack in case something happened but he's an adrenline junkie. ha. we were finishing up an intense climb up a hill to get to the turn off to hite when a UPS driver (we previously met at the grocery store in hanksville that morning) stopped and gave evan and i both nice cold water bottles! he is a guardian angel and i thanked God for blessing us with such a nice person to help us out. wherever you are Mr. UPS man, take care and i hope to be as cherishable as you are. we took the 1 mile turnoff to hite where we found the water spicket and downed all of our water bottles, filled them up, and drank them again. we take water for granted, especially cold water; it is nothing but luxury. we found refuge in the shade of the ranger station which had picnic tables, wifi, and shade! we decided to wait out the heat and try and meet up with our friend tricia and her mom who were coming back to idaho from philadelphia but sadly that didn't work out. nonetheless we read, tried to update the blog, and sweated. even in the shade in almost a 100 degrees the shade is cooler, but not by that much. we then decided to start riding past hite to help with the next days and plus we had to bike at least 7 miles our of national park land to get to BLM land to camp for free. we headed out and evan was having a bit of a hard time with his knees but i was just getting into the groove. we saw a wonderful sunset behind some mountains and came up on a pull off where there was a car loading up. we turned in and met up with chris and his girlfriend/wife (not sure) who were climbing the black hole; it's like a super intense canyon/river hike climbing thing. sounded nuts. they shared some water, couzcus, hard boiled eggs, and cherries with us (so so thankful) and enjoyed their company for a bit. the county rescue leader pulled up and chatted with us for a bit (crazy old guy) but he was super great. i guess navy seals, socom, and other special forces do training out at his property and run through the black hole. everyone went their sparate ways and we set out to find a good spot to setup our tent and not get too distrubed by the sun in the morning. we found a nice spot with softer dirt, not rock hard dry dirt where we set up the tent and cracked open our cans of soup and sat in the dark savoring the sun cooked soups. we were bushed and caught some zzzzzzzs. 

day 24 (1,000 miles)

we situated our tent so we would have some shade in the morning so we didn't have to get up so early, i think we got up around 8 or 8:30 thanks to the heat of the sun. we heard some of the older guys biking up the mountain past our campsite and then i saw a lone tourer taking a quick break. so we packed up our things and started making our way up the mountain, i think we were pretty hesitant but surprisingly the grade for the mountain was very gradual and it was much cooler up there. once we climbed up enough, there started to be birch trees and all we've seen recently was red canyons and sage brushes so this was very exciting for a change of scenery! it was a beautiful day and once we returned a couple lookouts we could see several layers of elevation that dropped down, it was super cool to see but really hard to capture with my camera. we finally ascended to the top of the 9,600 ft summit and took a quick photo op. it was then a long ways down to torrey where we rested at a subway and enjoyed some loaded sandwhiches and a nice cold powerade. down at torrey it got hot again so we were just rehydrating and charging our ipods before we made the trek to hanksville; this was going to end up being a long day. we met up with the lone tourer at subway and chatted for a bit then went our separate ways. he's going from san fran to virginia so that is exciting that we'll be running into him from time to time. from torrey to hanksville we were back in the red canyonlands. we had some hilly parts but for the most part, we had some good straight stretches where we made some good time. there really was nothing between torrey and hanksville so we just kept on pedaling. we passed a sign that was where a movie was being filmed by universal, sorry i can't remember what the name is and it was a ways down a dirt road so we kept heading to town. shortly after that sign, we hit 1,000 miles! so we were pretty jazzed about that, but we still have miles to go before we sleep as robert frost would say. we arrieved in hanksville, exhausted and hungry so we stopped off at blondies which was recommended to us by our tandem friends. so we got delcious burgers and ice cream shakes that were to die for, seriously one of the most delcious shakes i've tasted. while we were devouring our food in walked two young chaps wearing yellow jerseys. they ordered some food and sat next to us and introduced themselves as will and alex. they are biking from new york to san francisco! will is from kenya and alex is from england. we sat and talked for a good time about our trips then decided to find a place to camp for the night. we ended up at a campsite where we talked to the owner and he gave us a campsite for free with showers! this was very nice, so we got cleaned up and sat around and talked for a bit before heading to bed. it was a huge blessing to meet these two, super nice guys who told us some good tips for the next long and hot part of our trip out of utah. 

day 23

Today we rode from escalante to boulder and it was super hot out. we wound through some intense desert canyons and up some 14% grades. it was a bit of a rough day. we were just focused on getting out of the heat and into boulder as soon as possible. granted it was beautiful, but more bearable in a car. i met and chatted with a guy from switzerland at a viewpoint and we also met a mother/son tandem who were biking from colorado to california, so we swapped information and stories for a bit then kept on going. For the most part we just biked and consumed as much water as we could. when we arrived in boulder, we rested at a gas station for they had a nice shaded area and some wifi. let me just tell you that cold water, is magical; our water bottles get heated up so fast in this weather so getting somewhere that has cold water is a God send. while cooling off in the shade, we met three wonderful ladies who were roadtripping and they gave us a HUGE bag of GORP. it has been a lifesaver during this trip, providing us with sweets, protein, and energy. we then biked up a hill to the restaurant where we had dinner; it was a great little restaurant with organic foods and free ranging local beef! we met up and chatted with some older guys who are also touring to colorado but have a support vehicle, so we said our goodbyes and decided to start biking up the mountain to shed some miles for the next day. we biked probably about 4 or 5 miles up the mountain and it was so exhausting so we pulled off the road and found a nice shaded area next to a creek! very hard to find water anywhere in utah and we found some with shade and not on someone's property. we set up camp, read, and just relaxed, getting ready for the climb the next day. 

day 22

today we get back on our bikes and start riding again! after about a week of not riding, we hit the road. got up early and hoofed it back to the road where greg's car was. my bike got super muddy after rolling it through the freshly thawed snow/mud areas. said our goodbyes to greg and thanked him for his hospitality. thank you to the desimone family and to greg for meeting us in zion/taking us to bryce canyon/and for letting us enjoy their beautiful cabin! greg rolled back home to vegas while evan and i slowly loaded our bikes with our gear and changed into our cycling clothes. it was about 25+ miles of almost complete downhill from the cabin to panguitch; passed through some great forested areas where deer frequently cross; rode along the banks of panguitch lake and felt the nice cool air from it as we passed. got into panguitch in no time and waited for evan to meet me since he was having some troubles with his bike; just not his day. problem with his brake and cyclocomputer but he got it figured out but cut the top of his finger off in the process. ouch, luckily we have a first aid kit! we then passed by bryce canyon national park where we enjoyed a nice paved bike path! took in the beautiful sights and kept on going. arrived in tropic where we got some yogurts, fruit, and cold drinks and we also filled up our water bottles. we rested for a bit then kept going on towards escalante. after some long hot stretches we made it into town and went looking for a library to use their internet but no such luck. we just sat in the shade for awhile contemplating our next move. was gonna try and camp in their park but they don't allow camping for some reason so we went to the gas station/subway and filled up our water and heated up our soups and enjoyed some conversation with some locals. we then rode down the road a bit where we set up our tent in a grassy/mole infested lot; we thought we were gonna get yelled at to move but luckily no one came by. we tossed and turned for the whole night and finally zonked out to the tune of the sprinklers in the field next to us.