Backwoods Utah

Another 98 miles in the books today. We did not have a lecture today, just stacked on the mileage, but did stop and talk with tourists who were intrigued by the many orange jerseys that they passed on the road. It's official: bike seats are not the most comfortable thing to sit on for 7.5 hours day after day. After readjusting my seat pitch angle this morning, I think I am finally getting close to minimizing my total body discomfort (to a bearable 6/10 in severity)! Utah has the most amazing scenery though. We started the day with our huge climb, grinding the gears for 2.5 hours up to the peak of 10,000. We spent most of the day cycling in snow covered terrain, sometimes with snow banks towering over our head. The temperature was warm enough though and each turn of the road revealed a different colored soil or different beautiful mountain range to keep our mind off our aching legs.

It was a day of near misses. I nearly got hit by a bowling ball sized rock as it tumbled down from the embankment above. Luckily the snow bank 3 ft way between the cliff and the road absorbed the impact instead of my leg and my bike. Then on our way into camp, we had to slam on our breaks to allow a heard of cattle to finish crossing the road (there seems to be a correlation between our century ride and encountering angered livestock on our 90+ mile). The heard was a little distraught at us interrupting them, but after some coaxing, they all shuffled off the road. Except, that is, for the alpha bull who stood firmly in the middle of the road with his horns staring at us. It was quite a stale mate for a long 30 seconds until an approaching car won the chicken battle against the bull and I promptly used the car as a shield to speed past the beefy foe. Some people are into running with the bulls. I guess I am into riding with them.

Our campsite was inside a sheltered embankment formed by a three sided plateau in Bryce Canyon. There are several impressive sized smokestack-shaped rocks jutting out in the skyline and smells from the Ponderosa pines. Hopefully it remains dry for us tonight and our ride tomorrow- although storms are predicted.