Early Saturday afternoon I arrived in St. George where it was over 100 degrees with the forecast calling for more of the same for the next week. Why had Adventure Cycling advised us to bring cold weather gear? The designated RV camp in St. George was beautiful, and we put our tents up in the well manicured lawn behind the reception/recreational building beside the pool. Doing this ride solo, I was on the look out for a riding companion or a small group to fit in with. After the welcome aboard meeting, where I met John, he enticed me to go watch "Mission Impossible" while sucking up some air-conditioning and still crawling into the tent by 10:00. He'll prove to be an enjoyable companion for the week.
The group: Adventure Cycling, an organization founded by and for self supported tourists, decided to diversify and sponsor several supported tours for its members who can’t swing a summer off every year. I expected to see mostly touring bikes, but racing models were the most common with maybe 30% of the bikes being designed for touring plus 4 tandems. There were about 50 of us for Cycle Utah though AC likes to have 100 and has done this ride with 150. Tom, the tour leader, is confident, funny, experienced, and heads up most of Adventure Cycling’s supported rides. The A/C Staff includes a cook, mechanic, and 3 or 4 sag drivers. That staff and riders were a great group, no hot shots and no one overly impressed by his own cycling ability! A mixture of touring bikes, tandems, racing bikes, and one mountain bike. I’m impressed by a few: a gal who 6 weeks after a debilitating stroke velcrowed her bad arm to a tandem so she could get back to riding! Unfortunately, she’s never regained full usage of that arm, but she’s no longer restricted to a tandem but has both front and back brakes on the left handlebar. There’s also the “No Crybabies”, a group of 5 guys from San Diego who ride centuries together regularly. They say when the first one dies, he’ll be cremated, and his ashes carried by the others on the future centuries! Maybe I should move to San Diego? Writing of people I hope to someday emulate; the eldest rider is 81 years old!
Day 1: 4 June 2006
St George to Zion’s Canyon Park: 64.4 Miles 5:11 riding time
On the first morning John showed an ability some of my touring friends would love to have. Although the tents had been close together most were down (with the usual zipping noises and clanging of tent poles that serve as an alarm clock for most of us) as everyone readied themselves for a breakfast after packing. John had slept through all the noise! I rudely awoke him 10 minutes before breakfast! Our position as last out of camp was secure, and then I looked at his thin frame and realized our paces might not be similar at all! Rude as it was I left with the next to last group leaving John alone to catch us, something that would give him no problem. The Virgin River was beautiful in the heat of the final hours of the day reminding me that I should always have my swimming suit with me while “on tour”. In that 100+ degrees I saw several good swimming holes! We set up camp, had lunch and rode into the canyon. Zion’s Canyon is beautiful. There are two ways to see it: hop on the shuttle, or bicycle through it. You know which choice I made. John thinks like I do, so we rode through the canyon together and hiked a bit up at the end of the road. After dinner we finally got into the river.
Day 2: 5 June 2006
Zion’s Canyon to Hatch: 59.8 Miles 4:39 riding time
We rode through the edge of Zion’s Park climbing out of the canyon. Adventure Cycling advertises that it is the only tour company to have permission to truck us and the bikes through the tunnel exiting the park. Park rules, of which there are many, don’t allow cyclists in the tunnel, and the tour actually has to pay park staff to come monitor us! The A/C staff considers getting everyone through the tunnel one of their chief challenges, but it was so well done, it seemed like nothing from the customer’s perspective. Of course, John and I were lucky enough to be the last 2 to load on the first truck. Last on means first off, so we had almost no delay for the tunnel! As we entered the next town, my call of “Runaway horse” meant nothing to city boy John who's from Seattle, and it was the first time I saw a horse almost run down a cyclist as it bolted the stop sign crossing our four lane highway without a glace to either side - almost hitting John on its hurried way home! We’d climbed high enough that this night I got to sleep in my sleeping bag instead of on it! There’s the Sevier River which looks clean enough for a swim, but its banks are mud and it is swift everywhere, so I give up on a 2nd swim.
Day 3: 6 June 2006
Hatch to Bryce Canyon: 67.9 miles 5:29 riding time
Today I noticed that John is calling each of the 50 riders by their names! He claims it’s an ability he learned as a school teacher. I’m envious, but he sets a very friendly tone I try to emulate though I won’t have all the names learned by the final day’s ride. It’s a short ride to Bryce Canyon, but our mileage includes the length of the park and a side trip to Bryce Point. With careful planning we arrive 10 minutes before dinner, but with good luck dinner has been postponed ½ hour, so we have time for a shower. Kathy’s a great cook if I haven’t mentioned that! After dinner we have a moonlight hike down into the canyon. Actually, the sunset lighting was perfect for the descent. The 3/4 moon at that altitude provided more than ample light to hike out. What a great day, but it was well after 11:00 when I crawled into the tent!
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| Steve and John |
Day 4: 7 June 2006
Bryce Canyon to Panguitch Lake, UT 43.8 miles 3:51 riding time
With this short day scheduled, breakfast was planned a little later to allow everyone to sleep-in a bit, and John & I headed for laundromat right after breakfast. It was after 9:30 when we left camp. Some of the others hadn’t made it through the park yesterday, and that was another option. There was a strong side-wind coming out of the south or maybe SxSW. When we got to Panguitch, the route turned straight south and climbed a steep hill directly into the headwind. I noticed I was going 3.7 MPH at one point! Don’t we lose our stability at 2.5MPH? After about 5 miles of this, the road had climbed enough we entered a juniper forest and the road finally turned slightly and started following a creek bed providing considerable relief from the direct head wind. Although 44 miles is a short day for a supported ride, I was glad to get into camp this day!
Day 5 8 June 2006
Panguitch Lake, UT to Cedar City, UT 42.2 miles 4:02 riding time
Fortunately, it didn’t rain last night. Several riders, including John, set up tents in what was obviously a streambed during storms! We were between 7,000 and 8,000 ft elevation, and yesterday’s wind brought in some clouds. Within 5 miles of camp it was raining or maybe more accurately sleeting on us, still with some wind. We climbed up into the aspen/fir forests and got a short reprieve from the rain as the sun came out briefly. We continued to climb until we reached the 10,400 ft elevation sign! The rain/sleet returned just as I started down. Most people got cold, and some were in shorts with only a windbreaker! I’d taken the packing advice seriously, and had rain gear and glove liners. I preferred the rain to the previous day’s headwind, but most wouldn’t agree with me. The rain dampened the fun of the descent somewhat, but it dried out for the bottom half. From Cedar City out the 5 miles or so to camp, we had a great tailwind- as we were headed north. This campground is a neat place of gardens, neat cabins, and a place where many weddings are held. A few lucky motelers got rooms here while most of the motelers stayed in town.
Day 6 8 June 2006
Cedar City, UT to St. George UT 63.0 miles 4:02 riding time
Downhill all the way as the winds moderated, but they were still from the south, just the direction we were headed. 10 to 20 miles of today’s ride was on I15. The rest was frontage roads and paved county roads. Most of the terrain was still interesting as the rugged desert is although some of the freeway miles began to take on that “brown grass” look I take no pleasure in.
50 people is a great size, small enough to be friendly and large enough to talk to someone new almost everyday. Kathy, the cook, was great. I’d say food was better than Cycle Oregon (which was hard to beat in 2006). Cycle Oregon probably served better breakfasts, but Cycle Utah’s lunches are far better, and Cycle Utah would win on the dinners too though both organizations did well there. One of the riders brought some sort of dysentery that unfortunately immediately spread to the cook, the mechanic, and from there to almost everyone by Panguitch Lake. I thought I had escaped it, but on the drive home as I neared Salt Lake, it began to catch me, and completely caught me in the middle of the city in rush hour traffic. Adventure Cycling offers a longer version of this trip (11 days I believe) called Utah Parks that goes into Stairstep National Recreation area. Both trips have camping or motelling as options. Having John as a companion helped make this ride a fun success for me. I enjoyed it enough that in a few years I’d consider joining friend for Utah Parks!
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