The historic Hotel Nevada – Day 53

Today we got up and enjoyed a relaxing breakfast in the cool morning air. Cam and Amy drove ahead and took care of some business things so I was on the road by myself today. Sort of ironic since we would turn onto Hwy 50 “the loneliest road in America”.

I left Baker and reached Hwy 50 about 5 miles out of town. It was 61 miles to Ely with no services in between. It would be a long ride as the route took me over two large climbs, Sacramento Pass and Conner’s Pass.

The weather was hot today and I had to battle the wind the entire day. Needless to say it was a rough day. One cool thing that happened was as I was riding down Hwy 50 I stopped for a minute to listen and look around. I could see for 10-12 miles in both directions. There was no one in sight. You could hear everything as it was so quiet. Definitely made it feel like the loneliest road.

Once I got to Ely, I met back up with Cam and Amy. We decided that we would stay at the historical Hotel Nevada given it’s history. It’s pretty awesome!

There is a casino on the first floor so we plan on playing a few slots before we leave tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s ride will be another long day. It is 78 miles to the next town with 4 climbs on the way there.

Welcome to Nevada – Day 52

We actually managed to get out of bed and get rolling early! We were warned late last night that there were water sprinklers that do come on in the middle of the night so we decided to move our tents under the shelter they had in their park. That meant that we did have to sleep on concrete, but we also were able to get out of bed without being soaked.

Once we were up we had a quick breakfast and got on the road by 6:30. We had a pretty long day ahead of us, 84 miles and 3 pretty big climbs all with summits over 6,000 ft. Everything went pretty well, then lunch time came. Since we were in the middle of the dessert and there were no towns around Amy had to meet us and make sandwiches. Once we were done with lunch all three of us realized that we were pretty tired since we got up so early, so we all proceeded to take a nap! We all fell asleep for about an hour right in the middle of the dessert, on the side of the road.

Once we finally woke up we realized we needed to get done because it was really starting to heat up, so we mounted our bikes and took off. We had about 35 miles left after lunch to get to the Nevada border so we buckled down and tried to get there as quickly as possible. The great thing about the Nevada border is that we crossed over into the Pacific Time Zone!

Past the border it was only an 8 mile ride into the town of Baker, Nevada. Once we got into town we realized it was going to be tough to find a place to stay so we opted to get a motel room at the Silver Jack Inn. Our accommodations are interesting to say the least! We are staying the night in what appears to be an old mobile home that has been split into thirds. Attached to the motel is a restaurant, so we decided to have dinner there, the food was excellent!

Tomorrow the plan is to ride 63 miles to Ely, NV where we plan on doing some gambling!

Just call Cam “Mark Cavendish”.

Back on the road…Milford – Day 50 & 51

Yesterday we took a rest day in Cedar City, Utah and it was exactly that. We slept as late as we could before the sun got so hot on our tents it turned them into saunas. Then we packed up and ate breakfast at a cafe before checking into a hotel for the night. Once checked in we found a massage therapy school in town and all got a hour long massage. Glorious! Next we grabbed lunch and I rode to a local coffee shop while Cam and Amy drove around town to see what it had to offer. We met back up and got some dinner before making our way back to the hotel to enjoy an evening in their hot tub. Yep…pretty good rest day if you ask me.

Today we rode from Cedar City to Milford. A total of 55 miles. To be honest, it might have been the lamest day of riding thus far. The terrain started looking a bit like Kansas again with some desert thrown in there.

As we left Cedar City we rode gradually downhill for approximately 13 miles or so then it began to go uphill. We climbed gradually to 6500 before reaching the summit. It was pretty hot on the road but there was some occasional cloud cover which we were very thankful for.

After the summit it was downhill all the way into Milford for the most part. The descent was a lot of fun and was super fast. Cam and I are both getting much better at descending and are looking forward to the next time we race in NC to see if we have improved any.

Halfway down the mountain was a town called Minersville which we stopped and meet up with Amy for a picnic in the city park. Delicious as always!

After lunch we busted it on down to Milford. We managed to ride the 55 miles in 2.5 hours of riding time. Not too bad. As we came into town there was a large hill up and over a bridge that we figured we could find our way around. The road we took was the old road but put us in the middle of a train yard. There was an extremely long train starting to pull out so we hurried and grabbed our bikes and carried them across the tracks just beating the train.

The great thing is that it has given us the afternoon to chill in the city park of Milford where we will be camping tonight. The pool has public swim from 6-8 so I think that will do for our showers tonight.

Tomorrow looks like it is going to be a pretty long day. It is 84 miles from here until Baker just across the Nevada border. During those 84 miles there are no services such as food or water. So hopefully we can get ourselves moving and get on the road pretty early and beat some of the heat.

Last time to 10,000 ft – Day 49

This morning we awoke to cold temperatures! No one wanted to get out of their bags. But once the sun started to rise it warmed up fairly quickly. We made a gourmet breakfast of biscuits and gravy which were delicious!

Our route today took us up and over a mountain 60 miles into Cedar City, Utah. The first half was uphill, and the second half was all downhill. As soon as we left the campsite in Panguitch we started climbing. It is terrible when you have to start out climbing because your muscles are still tight from the day before and you have zero time to warm up.

Today’s climb was the last time that we will reach over 10,000 feet. It started with a gradual climb up to Panguitch Lake where we would eat at Grandma’s Burger Barn for lunch. The food was excellent but we never met grandma.

On the way to the Burger Barn we met the nicest family on the side of the road fishing. We needed a little breather so we stopped to chat with them about the area. Come to find out they are from the West but just spent their vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina just two weeks after we left. They were the ones that informed us about the Burger Barn.

After lunch we continued our climb. We had 13 miles to the summit and Cedar Breaks National Monument. It was a beautiful ride! Tall Ponderosa Pines along with Aspen tress lined the hilltop meadows. Crystal clear streams made their way through the vivid wildflowers. The views captivated us as we slowly pedaled passed.

Once at the top the temperature had dropped significantly, common for the altitude. In fact there was still snow on the ground.

So we layered up a bit for the descent. We stopped for a quick peek at Cedar Breaks before we made the trip down the mountain.

The descent was one of the best yet. It was 29 miles all the way to Cedar City with 4-8% grade the whole way. Several times we were descending faster than the cars and were having to brake to keep from running into the back of the car in front of us. However some cars still felt the need to pass us and then slam on brakes even though we were going the same speed.

It took us a fraction of the time to get down the mountain as it did to get up it. Overall it was a great ride today. We are really looking for to taking a rest day tomorrow here in Cedar City and wondering about the town. Looking forward to it so much that we finally built our first fire of the trip!

Bryce & Red Canyons – Day 48

We woke up this morning to sore legs and bodies due to all the hiking in the canyons. Soreness always makes getting started more difficult. As we were riding out of the parking lot we encountered a man who was quite helpful and detailed with his description of our route.

Today we made plans to ride 68 miles to Panguitch, Utah. Two gradual climbs stood between us and the town. It was 40 miles to Tropic, which was on the other side of the first climb and where we intended to eat lunch. The ride wasn’t bad. However we had a slight headwind and when you are pedaling uphill already, it is never fun to have something trying to push you back down.

After grabbing lunch today in Tropic, we set out on our second climb of the day. The heat had risen to extreme temperatures so riding up a mountain against rock exposed to the sun made for a very hot afternoon of riding. The great thing about making it to the top of this climb was that Bryce Canyon was at the top.

When we made it to the top, Amy was waiting on us with the car and we drove a few mile to the park gate. This is when we realized there was a $25 fee to drive through the park. Something we we not willing to pay for a quick glance.

As we were driving up we saw an overlook to part of Bryce Canyon, so we went back and drove out to it. It was a bit smaller than the more popular amphitheater but it was much more intimate.

We spent a little bit of time enjoying the view from the overlook before we heading back to where we left the route and began making our way down the mountain to Panguitch through the Red Canyon.

There is actually a bike path that runs parallel to the road through the Red Canyon so we had to make a decision on which to take. The road would give us better views however the bike path would be free of traffic and safer. So we chose the bike path. It was perfect and a lot of fun.

The only problem with it was that in a few small sections there had been washouts and rocks covered the path. Not what you want to see as you come around a corner at 35 mph on a road bike.

Once we the bike path ended we joined back with the road and coasted into Panguitch. It is a pretty cool town. There are a lot of varying characteristics ranging from older style buildings to much more modern homes. We set up camp at the local KOA Kampground, which is mine and Amy’s first experience at the well-known KOA.

Tomorrow the plan is to ride 60 mile into Cedar City and then take a rest day on Monday. Today we reached our greatest amount of visitors thus far since the site launched back in March. So thank you again to everyone who had been following!

You could die out here… – Day 47

Before we tell you all of our adventures from today we would like to take this time to comment on a few things. Something extremely exciting happened today! Many of you have probably only been to our website and never to wordpress.com. Well, every weekday WordPress selects ten blogs to feature on their homepage. These blogs are chosen for various reasons but most are due to their uniqueness and content. We would like to announce that today we made their selection!

This is huge for us. Not only does it affirm that we are writing something worthwhile that people care to read but the amount of traffic that this drives to our site and exposes people to our fundraising efforts and our mission to inform people of the water crisis in Ethiopia is incredible. For example today’s traffic has been over ten times more visitors than our daily average!

To those that are visiting for the first time…Welcome! Thanks for reading! We would also like to just thank all those that continually support us by following our journey each and everyday! Your support is humbling.

Now on to today’s adventure!

This morning we left the Circle Cliffs Motel and decided that the Hell’s Backbone Grill was so good the night before that we would eat there again for breakfast. And once again, it did not fail us. So good!

I failed to mention yesterday that Boulder, Utah was the last town in the contiguous United States to receive their mail by way of train or automobile. They received their mail by mule up until 1940 which was a three day journey.

With food in our bellies and the calories we needed we hit the road. Today’s route had several different characteristics to it that we have not seen thus far. Several miles outside of Boulder you enter a section of road called “the hogback”.

It is approximately ten miles long, has no shoulder, and the banks on the sides of the road are long, steep, rocky drop offs. Halfway across it, it begins a descent at 14% for 4 miles! One of the most exciting signs we have ever seen!

Once you have made your way through the hogback, you come to a section called “the million dollar” road. This section is a long windy road with steep climbs up and over multiple sections of sandstone. It is called the million dollar road because it apparently cost that to build back in the 1950′s. It is also rumored to be called that cause it gives you million dollar views and people say they wouldn’t drive it again for a million dollars!

After we made it up and over the mountain, it was a straight shot into Esclante where we had planned to stop for lunch and visit the slot canyons. When we got there we realized that the canyons were farther outside the town than we thought. So we were faced with two options…to stay in Esclante tonight and still go to the canyons or ride on to Tropic as planned and skip the canyons. We chose to divert the original plan and stay. How many times do you get to walk through a slot canyon!

It was a 26 mile drive down a dirt road called “hole in the rock” road. Good thing Cam and Amy just got a Subaru! We were so far out that Egypt was only 10 miles away.

After the drive it was a couple mile hike to the canyons. There were three right together; Peek A Boo Slot, Peek A Boo Arches, and Spooky Slot. It was awesome walking through them jumping over rocks and squeezing between the canyon walls. Some parts were pretty challenging. I could have played in there all day!

Then of course navigating in between the canyons through the desert sand was a task in itself.

On the way to the canyons we stopped at a spot called, “the Devil’s Garden”. It is an area which large sandstone rock sculptures that have formed in the middle of the desert. Here again I could have played all day running from rock to rock and jumping over the crevasses and finding new ways to weave in and out of them.

Needless to say our plans changed quite a bit today but it was all worth it! Tomorrow we plan to ride to Panguitch. However plans are always subject to change!

Boulder Mountain – Day 46

We rose to the usual chilly morning just before the sun was up. We began packing everything up attempting to not bring any of the mosquitos we were attacked by the night before with us. Once we were almost packed up, we walked over and grabbed breakfast at the same restaurant that we ate dinner at the night before.

After breakfast we realized that Cam, had a small leak in his front tire. We knew it was going to be a long day so we made the plan that I would start riding while Cam fixed the tire and Amy would drive him to meet up with me. It was a great plan because we didn’t finish the day until late!

The morning ride was a gradual climb into the town of Torrey. It took us through Capital Reef National Park, Fruita, and shortly into Dixie National Forest. The Capital Reef was really interesting. It is crazy how years and years of weather can expose so many interesting things!

Fruita is an area that was inhabited in the late 1800′s and it’s inhabits built and planted many orchards of fruit. The area is now managed by the government. You are welcome to stop and eat some fruit from the orchards but the sad thing was the only fruit that is currently in season here apricot.

After we had ridden 50 miles to Torrey we grabbed some lunch at a small coffee shop and cafe. Their panini’s were excellent. They also had some caramel samples out. You can’t let caramel samples go to waste! I lost count at how many we “sampled”.

As much as we wanted to quit for the day in Torrey, we had much more riding to do for the day. Once we left Torrey, the route went up Boulder Mountain. A 5,000 ft climb with an average of 9% grade. Not an easy task. It was long and grueling but we slowly kept the pedals turning and made it to the summit.

Through the Capital Reef it was hot and dry. Now on the summit of Boulder Mountain the wind was blowing and it was 60 degrees. It was pretty chilly. We both had to break out the jackets and warmer clothing. Especially for the 10 mile descent at 40 mph into Boulder for the night. Once we started climbing it was like we entered a whole new world. In the morning everything was rocky and sandy. As soon as we hit the climb everything turned to green grass and tall evergreen pines! I thought we were back in Colorado!

It was a long day of riding so when we reached Boulder it was starting to get late. We had checked into the Circle Cliffs Motel. A place that rivaled Linda’s Bed and Breakfast back in Virginia. We grabbed some showers and headed over to a restaurant that we had heard tons about and wanted to check out, Hell’s Backbone Grill.

Hell’s Backbone Grill has been featured on Oprah and the New York Times. It is a small organic restaurant nestled just off the road on a lush plot of land. All the veggies, fruit, etc are grown on the property. All the meat comes from local ranchers in the Boulder area except for the fish. They have to get it from Colorado because of the mercury in the water in Utah.

Our waitress was Stacie, who moved here from Hendersonville, NC. She was awesome! Cam had the pork chop. Amy had the goat cheese fettucini. And I had the trout. All of us commented that this was probably the best restaurant that we have eaten at thus far. I would recommend it to anyone that ever travels through the area.

Tomorrow the plan is to ride 66 miles to Tropic. Apparently there are some narrow canyons you can walk through in the town of Esclante. We hope to spend a little time there and explore those.

Glen Canyon – Day 45

Today we did get up and start moving around pretty early, however it still took quite along time to get on our bikes and on the road for the day. We grabbed a quick bite at camp and then headed out to Lake Powell, 45 miles away where we would stop for lunch. Since we did manage to start a little earlier than usual the weather was nice and cool and the wind hadn’t picked up yet so the ride to the Lake Powell area went by very quickly.

Once we got to the lake we stopped at a small gas station, bought some drinks and chips and sat in the station and ate our sandwiches. Once we were done with lunch we stepped outside to get ready for the afternoon ride and a crazy storm rolled in on top of us. Within no time the rain started and there were huge gusts of wind that had picked up lots of desert sand. We made a dash for the car and waited out the storm.

Once the storm had passed it was time to ride the rest of the way through Glen Canyon. This consisted of lots of up and down terrain and some amazing bridges that covered the Colorado River, and the Dirty Devil river. The ride and the views were fantastic!

Once we finally got out of the canyon we realized that we were in the middle of the desert still 27 miles from the next town and it was really starting to get HOT! We took on lots of water and took a few breaks in whatever shade we could find, and in no time we were in the lovely town of Hanksville, UT.

Hanksville is home to Hollow Mountain! It is a gas station that they built by hollowing out a mountain. So the is no building. You walk straight through the door and you are inside the mountain. Pretty interesting.

We set up our tents in the Red Rocks campground, took a long overdue shower, and then walked 10 feet to the only resturaunt in town to eat dinner.

Tomorrow’s goal is to get up and start riding earlier so we can ride 87 miles into Boulder, Ut.

Natural Bridges! – Day 44

Today we slept in much longer than anticipated because there were no sprinklers in sight. Once we rose from our tents we packed up and had some breakfast and took off towards the Natural Bridges national monument.

It was supposed to be an easy ride into the park with plenty of time to spare for sightseeing once we arrived at the Natural Bridges. We knocked out the first 25 miles pretty quickly and stopped for a bite in Blanding, UT. I, Cam, had my first ever breakfast quesadilla and it was impressive. At the end of our breakfast this extremely old Ute Indian walked up to us and pointed at Karey and said “you should be called arrowhead” and she chuckled and walked away, so if any of you run into him that should be his nickname for the rest of his life.

After we finished breakfast we started to head out of town and realized there was an amazing dinosaur museum. So of course we had to stop! After touring around in the museum we realized that we really needed to get on the road. We still had a good amount of riding left and we all wanted to do some sight seeing.

According to our maps it was supposed to be a few hills with roughly ten miles downhill but that wasn’t the case. The ride into the park was much harder than anticipated and we are both worried about riding 93 miles tomorrow in this terrain.

One thing that we did stop to check out was an Anasazi Indian ruin site. It is crazy how they built their dwellings in the the side of a cliff!

Once we finally got into the park and got everything set up we headed out to see the natural bridges. They were amazing, it was really cool to think about how a river carved these huge arches over millions of years.

The plan for tomorrow is to be on the road as early as we can and knock out 93 miles to Hanksville, UT. We will see how it goes!

Utah, only three more – Day 43

This morning we were awoke to an interesting surprise. When we went to bed last night there was a light thunderstorm that was moving over us. So this morning as we were beginning to move around we were confused by the sound of a large amount of water on the outside of the tent. Amy was the first to exit. At first we only heard a scream. Then we heard, “it’s sprinklers!”.

The night before as we were riding around looking for a place to set up our tent we passed a sheriff on the side of the road. So we stopped and asked him where we could set our tent up. He said to go to the far end of the city park. We thought, “sweet, free camping”. We were a little curious when we got there that there was a sign that said “no camping” but we figured the sheriff sent us there so it would be alright. Since it was dark outside we did not notice that there were sprinklers in the area. So early this morning they came on and we happen to be in their path.

After we got everything out of the sprinklers path, dried out, and packed up we grabbed breakfast in town then hit the road. Today’s ride was pretty uneventful. We are officially out of the major mountains and have entered into the desert land of Utah. We only have two more states after Utah to ride through! The road consisted of some rolling hills today that were just annoying and there wasn’t too much to the landscape in the area of scenery. Hopefully that will change in the next few days.

It was really tough for both of us to start back riding today. I think multiple days off in a row actually did more harm than good. We were constantly having to take stretch breaks because our muscles were so tight. Cam is doing one of his favorite stretches here.

We grabbed lunch at a sweet cafe in Dove Creek. The last town in Colorado we would pass through. The food and service were amazing! It was so quaint. It was called Wild Coffee Cafe. They had actually turned one of the rooms to a motel into the cafe.

We had planned to ride 86 mile to Blanding, Utah today, but our bodies told us different and we stopped 60 mile down the road in Monticello. This actually works better because after Blanding there is not anything for 124 miles except two campsites. The best thing about ending early was that we finally had time to clean our bikes! Which we spent two hours doing. They were so dirty that we had to take them through the car wash first and rinse all the road scum off.

We did run into two other cyclists today, Seth and Mel. They left from San Francisco 16 days ago and the information they shared with us about where we are heading was extremely helpful. I hope our information was as helpful to them as theirs was to us.

Tomorrow the plan is to ride 55 miles to the Natural Bridges National Monument and camp there. We are all pretty excited about camping by the natural bridges!