Made it!

Alllllmmmost there!

So close! I definitely could have finished off the trip today, but I've got a schedule to keep. I'm a little over 30 miles away :)

Went through Wine Country: Napa and Sonoma valleys. Lots of vinyards and wineries. It was hilly, but not too bad. There were three passes through mountains that were about 300' climbs and not very steep.

I'm doing my own routing to get into SF. Overall it wasn't too bad but there was one iffy section in high traffic where the shoulder went away in the middle of construction. Got yelled at by two cars but didn't have any close calls. Having "Share the Road" signs up in work areas is quite nice.

I did 52 miles, though a few of those were because I routed around route 37 to minimize my time on it, which turned out to be a mistake because for the short time I was on it I had a 10' shoulder. Ahh well.

I also changed my destination midway because the cheap motels in Petaluma are too out of the way. I'm in Novato: a little north of San Fran. I keep looking for ocean but there's too many mountains in the way!

I can't believe the trip is almost over! During Nevada I was totally ready to be done because it was just day after day of really hard riding ever since Colorado, but now I'm definitely going to miss it.

The only problem now is how cold it is. I start in the 50s and the max is in the low 70s. San Fran is even colder. Tomorrow's high is 56!

The winds suck too, but I'm quite used to that by now.

Stay on target!

Getting there! Another 50 easy miles today to Fairfield.

Met a guy called Joe who used to be 4 days behind me back in Utah/Colorado. We rode together for over half the day but he's going all the way to San Fran today. I'm actually only 30 biking miles from the end if I took the maps :). He's faster than me and was pushing me pretty hard. My legs are actually pretty tired for such a short day.

Two more days and under 100 miles. Woohoo.

It's getting colder out.

Stay on target!

Easy day. Wahoo!

I did 60 easy miles today though a few of those were off route since I took a wrong turn at some point. 2,000' downhill then flat to Sacramento with a few bumps inbetween.

Half the day was on a bike path from Folsom to Sacramento which was quite nice. I rode with one guy who was interested in the trip for around 15 miles (Dave) so it was nice to have some company. And yup, I was right next to the prison from the Johnny Cash song but never got to see it (just some fencing with barbed wire on the top).

I didn't see the couple from Indiana. Goodbye!!

I did, however, see a group of 8 just starting their eastbound trip to DC. They're a group calling themselves Bike4Peace (you can google it). One's actually a former 6 term congresswoman who's now running under the Green Party. They're intending to join some sort of bicycling rally in late September in DC.

They're not going to make it. There's no way. I don't think they quite grok what it is they signed up for. I haven't seen a single person on the Western Express who wasn't in very good shape and in their 20s or early 30s. They're mostly older and mostly overweight. I've seen other older people and other overweight people, but never two in one and never on the Western Express. On top of that they were carrying too much stuff... especially the congresswoman. On top of that, they've got a very aggressive time table. *Maybe* they could handle the TransAm on a more flexible schedule.

Their website is also treating their trip a bit nonchallantly. It doesn't seem like they know what they're in for (it's just like going for a 20 mile ride inbetween meals! Anyone can do it!). They've got to respect the physical and mental challenge that lays ahead of them.

Good luck to them though. I hope I'm wrong. They were going to get a taste of their first actual climb today. Hopefully it opens their eyes a bit.

Saw a rattlesnake on the path! It got into the bushes before I could get a good shot of it. Another biker almost swerved into me to avoid it then apologized explaining it was a "rattler" at which point I exclaimed, "Really?", looked, then "That's so cool!" and stopped for a picture. Ahh well.

It's all gravy from here

Those were the words of the last eastbounder I saw, and now that I'm finally done with all these mountains, I'm looking forward to some easy days.

Today was hard though: almost the hardest of the trip. I think it was about 5,000' total of climbing. The initial climb to get over Carson Pass was just the beginning as there were two more big hills ahead of me and the entire 6,500' descent was punctuated with small hills every few miles.

I didn't get much relief from the downhills either. For the first half, the road quality was really bad (lots of cracks and potholes) and there was lots of traffic. For the second, the route took a turn and I got on the backroads: road quality got worse, it got more winding, and gone were the turn-specific speed limit signs which are very useful. During the fast parts I had to constantly scan for potholes directly ahead, turns in the distance, my current speed, and cars behind me in the mirror. It took a lot of concentration.

However, during the second half the traffic was almost all gone, and I went through a national forest with very big trees right up the shoulder. It was actually very nice, just me and the trees. It was slightly depressing because there were so many dying trees, but overall very enjoyable (mild winters and early springs are leaving way too many pine bark beetles alive which is killing huge swaths of trees and turning the pacific northwest into a tinder box).

I reran into the Indiana couple last night when they rolled into the campgrounds past 8pm. I also ran into them at my destination in Placerville. Hopefully we'll ride a little tomorrow. I didn't see them last week in Austin because they got a motel and took a rest day.

Speaking of camping, it was really windy last night and I got very little sleep. I'm very tired, especially considering how hard the day was.

It was really hot again. I took an hour rest mid-day because it was getting to me.

I'm at 2,000' elevation. I haven't been this low since Kansas. Tomorrow I'll be at almost sea-level. I haven't been *that* low since Albany.

I did 86 miles. Last long day of the trip :)

Today I bathed in a river

I think when most cyclists are confronted with this situation, they simply opt to go without, but not me... especially not me with this horrible backne problem.

It's the West Fork Carson River and it was so cold... so very very cold. I think it was cold enough that if you stayed in much more than a few minutes, you might get in trouble with hypothermia. It took my breath away when I dipped all the way in. It felt great afterwards though!

Speaking of great, today was awesome! I got a very early start, my body was extremely well rested, the terrain was easy, there weren't any winds, it wasn't too hot, I was back in civilization, and I'm nearing the end! I felt good throughout the 95 miles I rode: 2nd longest day of the trip.

Two things weren't so great though: I flatted in the morning because I didn't see a big rock in the road (it was a pinched flat) and the place I was going to stay at didn't have lodging, so here I am camping without water. The food situation isn't so great either, but I'll get enough calories.

I'm camping 1.5 miles west of Woodfords, CA about 1,000' up the Sierra Nevadas. I'm in California! It's so nice to be back around people and services. The desert was really tough.

FYI: a pinched flat is when you flat from your wheel striking something (like a pot hole or big rock). The inner tube gets stuck between the tire and the rim on both sides and you get two small holes: also called a snake bite. I've had just about every type of cycling flat tire this trip: two punctures, a slow flat, a blowout, and a pinched flat.

Getting no reception right now so I'll post this tomorrow morning as soon as I find some.

Last rest day!

Only 385 miles left: 64.2 mi/day to San Fran (28th). I plan on 2 long days to get over the Sierra Nevadas then 4 short days in CA so I can enjoy it a bit more and not have to race to the end.

Almost there!

Civilization at last!

I finally entered the more densely populated part of Nevada today. Fallon is quite nice since before you hit downtown there's lots of trees, grass, and farms: things I haven't really seen since Colorado.

It's a little strange because 20 miles before Fallon is the most desert-like environment I've seen: no vegetation, just dirt, sand, and salt (I think the area was called Sand Springs). There was even a giant sand dune called Sand Mountain. The picture shows some of the salt part. I got off my bike, walked to the salt and tasted some: it was salty... and sandy.

I ended up taking a half mile detour to try and get a better picture of Sand Mountain. It was off the highway on a very bumpy dirt road. I decided I had enough and stopped to take a picture. First, though, I had to wait for a couple of cars to pass the other way to get out of my shot. The first car stopped and asked if I was alright. "Yup. I'm fine." Then out of nowhere I got the question: "You crazy?" That was awesome. I've never been asked if I was sane before. I think it was the spine sitting on top of my tent because after I told them that I was indeed all there they asked what type of skeleton it was. I told them I didn't know, I just got it off the side of the road, but given their line of questioning I should have immediately responded with "human" and stared. Ahh well.

I only did 48 miles today because Silver Springs doesn't have lodging. I'm going to try to make it up over the next two cycling days. The second day's gonna be *tough*. Rest day first though :)

I was right about the military base. I rode by a bunch of naval air stations an saw a whole bunch of jets. The main base is right next to Fallon. It's actually bigger than the town if the maps are right.

Behold the town of Middlegate

The signs say "middle of nowhere." 64 miles to the east is Austin and 48 miles to the west is Fallon. It's actually pretty nice. They have wifi, a super cheap motel, a bar/restaurant/mini-mart, and somehow cell phone reception.

Today wasn't as easy as I had hoped, mainly due to the heat. I'm not sure why, but it really started getting to me towards the end of the day. I left late figuring the terrain was easy, which was a really dumb idea. It was 98 when I arrived. It was also really windy again :(

Today also marked the end of the service drought through the desert. Fallon is 48 miles away and after that it seems there's a town every 20 or 30 miles. That'll make things soooo much easier. Being able to stop for shade and maybe AC from a gas station is huge in terms of comfort.

For some bad news, it seems there's no lodging in the city I was planning on stopping at tomorrow (Silver Springs), which really mucks things up. I had a very nice plan that would carve up Carson Pass into a two day climb, but now I might need to do it all in one. Bah. It's also a problem because this means tomorrow will be a 48 mile day. My friend extended the date of his party one day ahead so it's no big deal, but I was hoping to get my shorter days in CA. It's good though because I really need a short day + rest day. Legs are tired.

There must be an air force base nearby because I can hear (but not see) jets all day long. I may even have heard a distant sonic boom because at one point there was a very loud boom that kind of shook the ground.

Who builds a city on a 6% grade?!

I'm at a place that started as a mining town. Getting around is quite difficult by bike. It sucks because the RV park is at the top of town while the food and stuff is over a quarter mile away.

Today started as a good change of pace from the last few hard days. It was nice and easy all morning. I think I overdid it though because my right calf got quite sore and stiff about halfway through. I pressed for speed because I hadn't had a stretch that easy for that long (40 miles) for quite some time. So now I'm sporting my compression tights and taking in lots of protein (these drinks are nasty).

Of course I developed the sore calf right before the very difficult climb at the end. Oof. I'm pretty sure it'll heal up by tomorrow which is an easy day anyway (mostly downhill without any steep terrain). It's already feeling better than it did.

I passed the group of two again. They were just starting a rest when I caught up with them and I was interested in pushing on because I was making good speed and I would run into a water problem if I stopped for too much or went much slower. I was a little agressive this morning when packing water into the bike: kinda stupid thing to do when you've got 70 miles of desert ahead of you. Oops.

I'm actually a little worried about them because we had the same destination and it's 8:40 as I write this and they haven't showed up. I'll send a text a some point but reception has been terrible throughout Nevada. They've camped at the side of the road before (which is perfectly legal in most of Nevada) and they're usually very well supplied. They're probably fine.

Got a couple of easy days ahead of me. Woohoo :) I'm in Austin, NV after 70 miles.

Last hard day (for awhile)

Today finished off three extremely hard days. I won't have another 4,000' day until I hit the Sierra Nevadas. Yay. Tomorrow will be 3,000' but 500 of it is very gradual.

It was 78 miles with no services, no shade, high 90s heat, strong headwinds (up to 30 mph!!), and 4 mountain passes (though 1 was easy (the one in the picture)). It's good to have these few days behind me.

Again, I caught up with the couple from Indiana and rode with them for the rest of the day (they start early). That group of 25 is now behind me.

Not much other than that. I'm in Eureka. Whew. Hungry.

The loneliest road in America isn't that lonely

Today I started on route 50: the supposed "loneliest road in America" dubbed by Lifetime Magazine. It's not lonely. There's a car every one or two minutes. Maybe it's the loneliest federal route, but yesterday's state route 21 had a car every twenty or thirty minutes.

I ended up not planning on riding with the other two since they were going to leave extremely early, but they ended up leaving late and I caught up with them pretty early. Unfortunately Georgia (the girl) flatted and I decided to move on.

The rest of the day was me playing tag with the group of 25. They would pass me and I would catch up as they regrouped (which was often). Today was naked day for the group. This meant that some of the guys went shirtless and some of the girls went sportsbra. Pretty weak stuff. Apparently last year they went full nude and got caught and charged with rape of an inanimate object. They plea bargained down to indecent exposure.

Our legal system is so messed up. What should have been a simple "Put your clothes back on" turned into diminished career prospects for several overachievers. Yeah okay America, very constructive there. You sure made society a little bit better.

Our legal system needs an enema. Badly.

Anywho, the terrain today was very difficult and I rode 63 miles with nothing but a bar along the way (which made a decent steak sandwich). Had two major climbs about 2,000' each with a valley inbetween (see pic). The winds sucked. Hot again but the cloud cover and winds made it not so bad.

In the morning 2 of the 25 were riding parallel about 50 feet behind me. A motortrike wanted to pass them but didn't want to get into the other lane even though it was completely clear. So he honked a couple of times and almost hit the rider on the left when he passed (I watched this in my rearview mirror). I gave him the tracking middle finger as he went by. He responded with the shaking fist middle finger and that was that.

I'm now in Ely. The group of 25 rests tomorrow so I may or may not see them again after my rest day.

Ow my legs

Today was 84 miles of desert with nothing inbetween. There was a small town after 75 miles but there wasn't much there. I woke up very early to avoid the forecasted 100 degree heat (see pic) but got lucky with overhead clouds.

On top of the nothingness were 3 mountain ranges to go through for a little over 4,000' climbed. I'm really tired.

The couple I rode with yesterday ended up not staying in Milford and took the first range to avoid such a long day today (camping on the side of the road). As such I was alone, which I was looking forward to. I had wanted to do this particular day alone because it's the longest without services and people. I reconnected with them in Baker and maybe we'll ride together tomorrow.

A little after 50 miles in, I ran into 25 Johns Hopkins students. They're doing a supported tour for charity (to do it they each have to raise at least $4,500). I'll be seeing them on and off for the next few days... Which I'm not sure how I feel about. Nevada's supposed to be barren and lonely and having 25 other guys around with 2 vans of gear kind of diminishes that.

Got some tough days ahead. Made it to Pacific time!

Pretty easy

Biked 55 miles today to Milford. Pretty easy stuff since there was only one range to pass through and it was a pretty easy grade. Tomorrow I'll have 3 ranges at steep grades for 84 miles and finally hit Nevada.

Almost halfway into the ride I caught up with a couple of students (one just graduated, one's almost done) doing half the country (they started in Missouri I think). There's a good bet I'll be riding with them for a little while at least. They seem pretty nice.

At the end of the ride, while I was working on getting a motel room, a 67 year old lady with an end-of-world fetish accosted them. She originally was quite nice and gave them about $15 to contribute to the trip. I joined the group and then she asked us if we knew about the New World Order.

She believes the Illuminati and the power-elite are working to eliminate 80% of the world's population via a modified Ebola virus while keeping the young and fit (us) around as slaves. This effort was started by Bush and is now being led by Kenyan-born Obama. The rounding up of people is already starting in other countries and in some US states (people are being sent to FEMA camps). Oh and don't ever talk with black people because they might be a member of the Black Panthers who are Obama's henchmen in all of this.

She went on and on for about an hour while the other two just nodded while I sat there with a huge grin on my face. I wanted to engage her on some of her crazier points, but I didn't want to jeapardize the money she gave the other two and they felt obligated to listen to her ramblings because of the money.

She 100% believed everything she was saying. It was awesome.

Rest day in Cedar City

My good buddy Dave is having his bachelor party on the 29th, so my new goal date is the 27th (box bike on the 28th, fly early 29th).

On top of that, my maps have me take a ferry in Vallejo to get across the SF Bay. I want none of this. I took one ferry across the Ohio awhile back, and that was taint enough. Plus this ferry is like 25 miles long! That's so much taint! As a result, I'll be extending my trip about 67 miles.

Thus I've got 849.5 miles left: 65.3 mi/day to arrive July 27th. Including a rest day that's 70.8 mi/day! Oh my!

Wish me luck.

Final easy day

At least for awhile. The next week or so of biking will be dictated by services. Coming up I've got stretches of nothing that go on for 84, 63, 78, 68, and 65 miles. It's over tough terrain too (lots of 1,500' climbs). I'm looking forward to it just to have done it, but I sense I'll be sick of it after day 1. Hopefully the weather stays reasonable (low 90s).

Did the final 39 miles into Cedar City and I'll be resting tomorrow. Got lots of movies to catch :)

The descent coming down from 10,600' wasn't as good as I was hoping for. For the first half the road was being worked on and wasn't really pavement (small rocks) and there was a fair bit of traffic throughout. No biggie.

Met a German couple doing a tour going all over the place west of the Continental Divide (Seattle to San Diego, Grand Canyon, etc). They were quite nice.

Picture is from 10,500'. I got a panorama that I've got to put together when I get back (discovered the "Stitch Assist" functionality of my digital camera).

Shortest day so far

Only did 36 miles today: 1,200' down, 1,800' up. I could have made the 75 or so to Cedar City, but I figure I can afford the short days and I'm going to have plenty of long days in Nevada whether I want them or not.

Utah's having some odd weather. I haven't really had any days over 90 and last night it got down to the low 40s (at 7,700' though). My bag is rated for 30 degrees but standard practice is to add 10 to what's advertised, so I was quite cold. It took me forever to get up. Long sleeves and tights tonight!

At the burger place a grandfather, a father, and a young son were eating next to me. Towards the end, the son spilled his french fries all over the deck. They left without cleaning up. I was a bit upset that the father set such a terrible example for the son in not cleaning up after themselves, but also happy because the cashier was terribly inflexible with substitutions, overcharged me, and couldn't provide change for a 5. Have fun cleaning up!

Other than that, not much happened. I was forced onto a 4 mile bike path that was skinny, had lots of sharp turns, and forced me to overuse my brakes. Met an eastbounder named Sarah doing a supported trip who seemed nice. Had yet another Very Strong Headwind. Gonna have another one tomorrow too. I'll leave a lot earlier though so it won't be as bad.

Camping near Lake Panguitch tonight. It's USFS so no showers. The nearest place that sells them is 3 miles away so looks like I'm having a sponge shower out of either a hydrant or a sink. Ugh. Maybe I'll make the trip for the shower.

Looking forward to tomorrow's 4,600' descent. It looks awesome and so hard going the other way.

Hard day

I only did 50 miles but man was it tough. 1,800' up, 1,600' down, 1,800' up. Add an 18 mph headwind and I am *tired*. Slowest day yet at 8.5 mph beating out the Monarch Pass day of 8.7. Most of my days are under 10 now :/.

I woke up late due to staying up watching MSNBCs marathon of Lockup. That was my first mistake. My second was poor tire maintenance because as I was about to leave, I noticed my rear tire was flat. The culprit was a sharp piece of rock that probably worked its way in over time that I could have removed if I was looking after my tires properly. As a result, I didn't get out the door until almost 10 (I usually aim for 8 or 8:30).

Rained again, but it wasn't nearly as dramatic as yesterday. I rode through it for the hour that it lasted.

Not much other than that. I'm camping near Bryce Canyon near Ruby's Inn, UT.

I'm alive!

Holy moley exciting day.

First I had a 3,000' climb to 9,600'. For two hours of that climb it rained. It was pretty light so no big deal. I was worried about the descent because I didn't want to do it wet.

Fortunately it looked to be clearing up when I got to the top and I had a nice downhill ahead of me. About 5 miles into the downhill: clouds move in out of nowhere! It started to rain pretty heavily. I think it was very small hail too because it really stung my face and my waitress mentioned it later on in the day (I didn't try stopping at 35 mph to find out for sure).

I eventually got way ahead of the clouds and got into Boulder with the sun shining: 26 miles to destination. There I decided to keep going to Escalante and try to beat the storms.

I didn't beat the storms... at all. In fact, the clouds descended upon me just as I entered The Hogback: a 3 mile stretch of road on a ridge that drops off to either side and features intermittent 14% grades. It started raining lightly, lightning started flashing almost constantly, and gusts of wind led the storm.

So there I am, bombing down 14% grades with cliffs on both sides, huge gusts of wind, and lightning everywhere. It was becoming difficult to control the bike and I needed to get off.

I was able to make it the 3 miles when the road entered a canyon. At this point I should have immediately gotten off the bike and next to a canyon wall, but I kept looking for a good spot with shelter from the rain. Then the sky lit up and I immediately heard an incredibly loud clasp of thunder. Ohhhh boy. It was right on top of me.

I stopped the bike immediately, put it up against a mile marker and moved as quickly as I could to a canyon wall. I lucked out with the winds and when the sky really opened up and started to pour only half of me got soaked. I stood there for about 45 minutes before I decided I needed to move on. It was only raining lightly at that point and the thunder was in the distance and I couldn't see lightning. Plus I was getting extremely cold and needed to warm up. There was a climb two miles down the road which sufficed nicely (you get really hot during steep uphills even in the rain).

Anywho, that was my day. The rest was an uneventful ride to Escalante: 65 miles total. I looked for Slim Jims at the gas station in town to add a little more excitement, but sadly couldn't find any.

I saw 3 eastbounders right before the big storm and they all stopped to talk: the last one especially because I was the first guy he saw the whole trip. I was a little anxious to be off because we both could see the storms coming.

Saw some cows walking along the side if the road. Utah has lots of open ranges. This means there're lots of cattle guards across the road which are horribly bumpy if you don't hit the 2 inch strip of metal that parallels the road.

The Hogback had the best views of the entire trip so far. I didn't get much for pictures considering the circumstances :(

I've got 125 miles to Cedar City with some very tough terrain. I think I'll split it into 3 short days.

I'm pretty sure Utah is a fair bit harder going east from looking at both the maps and from experience.

Ahh, this is the life

I was originally planning on camping tonight, but it was starting to rain, I got finished early, and I didn't want to be outside any longer (see below). Thus I found myself checking into this awesome hotel. For a little over 50 bux, I get wifi, a pool, a hot tub, a hot breakfast, laundry, and an awesome view of the mountain I'm going over tomorrow. To top it off, this is the first place that actually has separate conditioner in addition to shampoo :). I just got out of the hot tub after swimming a bit in the pool. Sooooo relaxing.

What's not so awesome are the gnats. For the past several days, I've been getting swarmed by gnats whenever my speed drops below around 10 mph. It's especially bad when stopped. There's got to be at least 50 of them at a time and today was the worst (I think because I was tracking a small river and there was lots of vegitation).

I checked it out and apparently mid May to mid July is gnat season in southern Utah. Wherever there are Juniper trees (their home), there will be gnats. They hone in on your CO2 exhalation and go after you (apparently females need blood to mate). I've had gnats in my ears, up my nose, in my mouth, and in my eyes. I even spit one out in the shower a full 30 minutes after stopping for the day.

I tried some of those Bounce sheets that apparantly can act as bug repellants... didn't work. Tomorrow I'll try carrying bug spray and maybe I can find some netting for my head, because I'd really like my breaks back. I think the trees go away by Nevada.

Other than that, did another short day: 48 miles and I'm in Torrey. It was all uphill for a 2,500 foot elevation gain with the occasional steep part. I didn't do more because that would be almost 3,000 more feet up and I can afford short days for a bit.

Calm before the storm

Today was another relatively easy day. I only biked 51 miles and the terrain wasn't so bad. There was one half mile climb that must have been over 9 or 10 percent grade that I took at a robust 3.5 mph, but not much other than that. I forgot to check at the top for the exact steepness (Utah usually has signs).

I've been getting free drinks all over the place. I passed a couple yesterday doing a supported tour and the lady in the SAG car gave me a bottle of vita-water. A random trucker saw me struggling with the broken soda machine at the lake and handed me a bottle of apple juice. A guy and his wife (Jeff and Rachel) were interested in my trip and brought over some mango drink (along with a whole bunch of questions). Jeff followed up with a big ginger cookie this morning. Finally today 4 eastbounders asked if I needed anything (I told them no, but they offered!). Altogether pretty sweet :)

In looking at Monica's blog, she's almost done with CO and says the climbs are nothing compared with Utah's. They start tomorrow. Oof.

I'm in Hanksville.

And check out my new accessory!

Today I bathed in a lake

The service station has wifi, but somehow they don't have showers. Not a bad lake for first time lake bath, though. It's Lake Powell, part of the Colorado River.

I finally hit desert today. I'm not sure if I've officially entered the Great Basin, but I saw my first cactus, so I'm calling it desert. Plus there's nothing around except orange dirt, balls of grass, and canyons. Spectacular scenery though.

Other than that, biked a pretty easy 80 miles: 1,000' down, 2,000' up, 3,000' down. I'm at Hite, UT by the lake. Tomorrow will be pretty easy again and much shorter. It'll get harder after that.

Had shade for the first time at mile 75 next to a large rock :/

Also, I had the Day Man theme song from It's Always Sunny in Philidelphia stuck in mr head all day long...

Long days ahead

In looking over my maps, I've got some REALLY hard days ahead. The terrain's going to be at least as hard as the Rockies, but with far fewer services, and it'll get very hot. It starts tomorrow with a 74 mile dead zone! (but just one 2,000' climb).

There's a good shot I don't get any reception tomorrow since I'll be at a primitive campsite at Lake Powell with no town around me.

I mentioned that there won't be any huge climbs left, but I actually have three: two coming up and one at the very end. If I was going east, there'd be one climb that'd be 8,000 feet! Fortunately I get to go down this at the very end (it's the Sierra Nevada pass).

Anywho, resting in Blanding. 1,148 miles left. 45.9 mi/day for Aug 1 (down from 49.7). 35.9 mi/day for Aug 7 (down from 40.8).

Out of the state of Colorado!

And into the Mormon settlement of Utah! Say what you will about their cultural diversity, they do make some fantastic signs. I'm seeing three different meanings of "elevated."

I'm also pretty much out of the Rockies. There are some mountains still around, but I'm not going through them. Today didn't have any big climbs; it was just hilly. The end of the day was nice due to a 1,000' drop.

There's still some extremely difficult terrain coming up though. Instead of one 4,000' climb on a given day there'll be multiple one or two thousanders. At some point, Utah becomes the Great Basin desert which will continue through Nevada and have lots and lots of ranges.

I did 82 miles and I'm in Blanding, UT. Despite all my complaining, this was actually a very good week distance wise, especially given the terrain. I haven't calculated it, but my miles/day to Aug 1 is going to go down considerably. This should give me more flexibility going forward, though flexibility my not be an option in the desert due to lack of places to stop.

Much needed rest day tomorrow.

This trip would have been sooooo much easier

if only I had done it west to east. Every single day the first thing I do is check the weather on my phone. Every single day there's a W in the wind forecast. Usually it's a pretty light wind, but these last few days have been brutal.

Today was supposed to be a 23 mile 3,000+ ft climb over Lizard Head Pass followed by a 50 mile easy ride to Delores on the descent. Instead it was a 50 mile struggle because of the 17 mph in-my-face headwind I faced the whole day.

On top of that it was cold. When I left it was in the low 50s with a high of 70 forecasted (at 7,500 ft). This made it extremely cold once I got above 10K ft. Bah.

I'm at an RV park in Dolores after 72 miles. Happy 4th.

If you listen carefully

you might be able hear my dad cursing the day he bought me that new tent. There were some bear sized droppings at the side of the road too :D

Today started out pretty good, but turned bad after 25 miles.

I got out of my tent and on the road much faster than yesterday. Then I had a not-so-bad 1,000' climb followed by the best descent of the trip: wide and clean shoulder, good visibility, not very sharp turns, and no wind.

No wind until I hit Montrose, that is. Once there I faced a 20 mph, right-in-my-face headwind that would last the rest of the day. The rest of the day was a 3,000' climb to Dallas Divide that got very very hard at the end followed by the descent. It was steeper than Monarch Pass, but that part only lasted 4 or 5 miles so it wasn't as bad. The descent sucked too because it wasn't nearly as steep and with the wind, I had to pedal through most of it.

At Montrose, I spent a ton of time trying to figure out where to stay for the night. I really wanted to get over Dallas Divide because otherwise I'd be doing two 40 mile days. Unfortunately, all the campgrounds looked to be closed (disconnected phones when I called). Stealth camping was out because I'm right at two national forests in the mountains and I really don't want to worry about big animals.

It had to be motels... The only lodging is in Telluride... A world-class ski and summer resort town... On July 4th weekend.

As luck would have it, there's a lodge on the trail 12 miles out of town in Placerville that's only costing me $125 for a night. I got it $60 dollars off (originally $185!) and the places in Telluride proper were $250. This is ridiculous.

I wish I was mayor of Telluride because I would immediately order some low income housing and campgrounds to be built just to piss of the whiney rich bastards that can afford this place. They'd be able to fight me though since it's a National Historic District with strict zoning laws. The ironic part is that Telluride started as a mining town filled with saloons and bordellos. Rich People Only now. Don't want them poor folk to enjoy nice things.

The one bright part of the 2nd half was getting a late lunch with an eastbounder at Ridgeway (Hi Monica). She teaches Swedish at a university in Sweden and is getting the summer off. If you're reading this, Monica, I forgot to tell you about "The Route" page to the left as well as "Progress" (Monica's interested in going to NYC instead of Virginia but doesn't have a route).

With the delay in Montrose, the absurd winds, and the lunch, I wasn't able to get to this retardedly expensive lodge until 7:30. I'm in Placerville and did 75 miles.

At least they serve good meatloaf.

Much easier

I wanted to do 98 miles, but I bailed at 75 and am in Cimarron instead of Montrose. The additional 20 miles would have included another 1,000' climb and it was getting late and a storm front was coming in and I was heading into some very strong winds. Ahh well. Probably a hard day tomorrow.

The rest of the day wasn't too bad. A lot of it was a very slight decline but with strong headwinds completely nullifying it. I got lucky with the weather and dodged storms all day long.

Met an eastbound couple on a tandem who said that Monarch Pass looked to be the hardest climb of the trip. If true, it's encouraging to know I've got the worst behind me (especially since it's a harder climb going west).

I'm camping again. It's much better with a real tent. I've got to figure out how to get out the door faster in the morning though. I think the rain is hurting because I've got to get everything inside the tent and it takes some time to dry it after waking up.

The roads can be incredibly deceptive at times. I could have sworn I was going downhill for several miles but I was really going up. Sometimes I turn the bike around just to test the other way and make sure I'm not going nuts.

Again no reception! Just wireless.

The tap water here comes out yellow.

I thought these were supposed to be gradual!

Today was so hard. It was almost all uphill. The first 25 miles weren't so bad. The next 10 got steeper. Finally the last 10 were at a 6% grade incline and completely kicked my ass. I know it was 6% because they had signs to warn truckers (including runaway truck ramps for emergencies). I'm pretty sure this was harder than the Ozarks.

I did 10 more miles at a 6% decline which was scary as hell because I was so tired at that point and you really can't afford any mistakes.

That said, I made it and I'm in Sargents, CO after only 54 miles. I'll be camping tonight. Let's see if the tent can handle some rain!

Max elevation was 11,314 ft and it was called Monarch Pass. I was freezing my ass off towards the top. I think that'll be the hardest climb until I hit Utah.

Speaking of temperatures, it's a lot colder here. It's especially bad in the morning because it's hard getting out of bed when it's so cold (was in the 40s last night). Which is a problem because of the inevitable afternoon showers I'd like to avoid (it showers in the afternoons in the Rockies a lot).

Other than that, as soon as I hit the campground, a family from Texas offered to have me sit down with them for dinner. That was awesome. They're renting out bunk house with 8 or so bunk beds and going 4-wheeling during the day. They talk funny too, but I'll let that slide.

I'm pretty sure the lady at the campground cash register is a total meth head. That, or it's something else. She is definitely not all there.

The picture was taken during the steep part.