Tropic to Boulder, UT

Another tough day, long, lots of elevation gain and grades of up to 14%.  We left at 7 and I finished in Boulder a little after 3. The scenery was outstanding which gave me lots of excuses to stop and get a photo, maybe more than normal.  Hope you enjoy them.  I enjoyed stopping to take them!!

The mornings are always nice and not too chilly today.  

Around 2 hours in I used the one lane automated construction traffic light and barrel to chomp down a convenience store apple pie. 

Around 9:45 I reach the top of the first summit.  

Our planned stop for the night was Escalante. We stopped and took in a real breakfast and discussed the day.  At this point we’ve ridden 42 miles and it’s just 10:45, and we don’t have a room for the night yet. The next stop with rooms/food is Boulder, 28 miles further but with more climbing.  If we can get some of that climbing out of the way this afternoon it will make our day tomorrow more productive.  We decide to keep moving to Boulder.  

I think the name Grand Staircase comes from the way the mountains step up and down though the layers of sediments.  They are something else to see.  

Finally, at 12:30 I get to ride down some 14% grades instead of climbing them for a change. I think this is the first 14% grade sign I’ve ever seen. 

This is what 12% looks like from a bike, that’s going slowly!

I’m almost to the top of the hogback and the canyon behind me is the Escalante River that I’ve been climbing out of the last couple of hours.  

Hells Backbone is what the hogback I’ve been on the last 10 miles is called.  It’s aptly named.  I can now say I’ve been to hell and back. 

Len started bonking today, after Escalante but before dropping down into the Escalante Canyon.  After resting for a bit he dropped down into the canyon but soon realized he had nothing in the tank to make it back out. He found these nice people, part of a two van tour group, to give him a lift all the way to Boulder.  As I was grinding up a hill on my way to Boulder they slowed to my speed as they passed and said “Don’t worry, we’ve got Len!”  If I wasn’t so focused on staying vertical on my bike I might have said something witty.  As it was I think I said “have a nice trip”. 

Reunited with Len at the end of the day we checked into Boulder Mountain Lodge cleaned up and had a very nice dinner at the “Hells Backbone Grill”.

At dinner this nice couple overhead our conversation about Len’s challenge which he thinks is he’s not used to, and not adapting to climbing with all the touring weight.  Dan and Lynea are avid cyclist living in Grand Junction, CO and came to Boulder to celebrate Lynea’s 70th birthday.  They offered to take Len’s now unnecessary gear, mostly camping stuff, cold weather clothes, etc to their home.  Our route was never supposed to go through Grand Junction but instead through southwest Colorado but I’ll address that in a future blog. The total offloading of gear felt like 20-25 lbs so we’re hoping for the best on our morning climb out tomorrow.  And more random acts of kindness by once strangers.