May 28, 2010
Day 30: Escalante to Dixie National Forest
It never got very cold overnight. I got on the road at 8:45. The first few miles east from Escalante are nearly flat with a bit of headwind until passing the Hole-in-the-Rock road turnoff. Then highway 12 turns mostly north and I had a tailwind for the rest of the day. The road climbs 500 feet through sagebrush and junipers, then descends into a radically different environment-slickrock. The landscape is swirling rock and it all appears to be one giant sculpted solid rock. There is virtually no soil or sand.
The road descends 1000 feet through slickrock to the Escalante river near the mouth of Escalante canyon. Then it goes upstream into the canyon.
The road closely follows the river for 3 miles, then climbs steeply away from the river. At the bottom of that climb I turned left into Calf Creek Recreation Area, a popular BLM campground. I was here once before during a 1992 bike tour. I parked the bike at the far end of the campground near the Lower Calf Creek Falls trailhead. The 3-mile trail dead-ends at 126-foot Lower Calf Creek Falls. The trail has some small hills and long sections of loose sand that is slow to walk on. The trail is much more forested now than in 1992. It's very popular-I had a lot of company on the trail and at the waterfall.
The hike took 3 hours. At 2 PM I was on the road again climbing steeply out of the canyon with excellent views looking down into the canyon.
After a steep 1000 foot climb the road continues to climb gently on the "Hogback", a long ridge that drops off steeply on both sides. I didn't get any decent pictures of it. It seemed more impressive in 1992 when I traveled in the opposite direction. Being on top of a ridge, it was very windy on the Hogback. Lots of blowing sand.
Eventually the hogback gives way to a long descent to the farming community of Boulder.
I ran into Matt again at the store in Boulder. We rode together for a couple miles, but he left me far behind when the road started climbing steeply into Dixie National Forest.
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Just east of Boulder is an excellent creekside free camping area, but it was already occupied with a large group. So I kept pedaling up the mountain. Unfortunately all the land for the next several miles is fenced irrigated pastures. At 7950 feet elevation it was nearly sunset and I was a mile past the last power lines (generally the last houses as well). So I turned into an open ranch gate and set up camp in a grassy irrigated pasture. It was a nice site. I carried 2+ gallons of water up from Boulder.
Today was warm and mostly sunny. It got up to 85F in the lower elevations at Calf Creek recreation area. But it was cooler later in the day as I climbed into Dixie National Forest.
It was a long and strenuous day with a lot of climbing and 6 miles of hiking. I would have preferred to stop an hour or two earlier. I had a flat tire today on the Hogback, second one so far...
Distance: 36.8 mi. (59 km)
Climbing: 4262 ft. (1290 m)
Average Speed: 7.2 mph (11.5 km/h)
Maximum Speed: 31.5 mph (50 km/h)
Hiked 6 mi. (9.6 km)
Today's ride: 37 miles (60 km)
Total: 1,360 miles (2,189 km)
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