Altamont - Hanna, UT - The cat named Chevy won't stop this tour, and neither can COVID

July 1, 2020

Altamont - Hanna, UT

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1,912 elevation gain

I am among the mobile this morning. When I arrived last night, I wasn't so sure! My quads are a little sore, but I'll stretch later.

I can't believe I stayed awake until 10 PM last night. We watched a movie on the computer, A Little Bit of Heaven with Kate Hudson. She reminds me of her mom. It was a good movie. Sad. I slept the sleep of the exhausted.

We are being relaxed again this morning. Wind forecast (you can believe I checked that!) is mild. We have 39 miles with 1,900 feet of climbing. It should be a nice ride. I hope our lodging is OK. I'm happy it's there, don't misunderstand me. But a room over the bar doesn't conjure anything luxurious.

46 degrees at 7 AM. Jacinto might not move until noon!

Later - My legs had no go today. None. It was a long slog of a day. Too bad, as the scenery was nice.

Jacinto and I started out together at 9:30 (!). His idea of riding together isn't the same as mine. My definition is staying within sight distance. Jacinto's is starting together . . . .although he did wait for me at the top of a climb. It appeared he had been there quite a while because he walked back too me at least a quarter of a mile from his bicycle.

For the miles today, there wasn't much climbing. My legs wouldn't agree with that statement. The first ~15 miles appeared to be downhill if you look at the elevation profile. That is definitely not correct there were a number of short, steep uphills that I struggled on with my tired legs. Jacinto loved those. Stand up to climb, sit down to descend.

I was worried - if the 'downhill' was that tough, what would I do on the next 25 miles that was all uphill?

Highway 87 from Altamont continued to have double semis, both belly dump and tankers. I waved consistently to all drivers. Only one semi driver waved back out of all of them. Everyone was polite, but that doesn't mean friendly. Scenery was good. I was fresher this morning, I looked around more today.

Jacinto waited at me at the top of a hill at mile 11. Mile 15 was the turn. From the top of the hill, we had a long view across the valley. Jacinto's opinion was that we crossed the valley and started up the other side. My heart sank. Sh**, I think he is correct. What will I do with these tired legs? I took two Anti Fatigue capsules and a perpetuem. Anything to help at this stage. I shouldn't be needing help today, but I do.

I went down the hill first and rode across the valley. It's much more fun to ride without a headwind. You think?

Words cannot express how happy I was to discover that we didn't immediately climb up the other side, instead we turned right onto State Road 35 and went down valley. This was nice. Very nice. We lost the truck traffic and most other traffic also. 35 continued mile after mile with a gentle 50 feet per mile climb. We had 1,000 feet of gentle climbing. No more of those short 10% climbs!

Jacinto caught and passed me. 35 was excellent riding. The view reminded me of the area around Gateway. Except I didn't see a river here at all. There's lots of ranches and hay in the fields. Horses and cows grazing. There seem to be quite a few farm roads. This could be good bicycling.

That was all lovely, but I was still tired and more than ready to call it a day. We had checked the area carefully for lodging. That was tough. There were cabins in a couple of places, but no food. Sage Inn you would think had rooms, but it's a cafe. Originally, we were going to stay in an RV rental for $60. at the Over the Hill RV Park. No food there either, we would have to carry. When the others canceled the trip, I looked at the area again. I ended up canceling the RV and renting a room above the bar/restaurant. At least there would be food!

Now that we are here, I question the wisdom. I was happy to get to town and happy we didn't have to ride that extra six miles to the RV park. I wasn't quite so happy to see the room. It is very small. Shared bath in the hallway. The bikes are downstairs. We made a number of trips to get what we wanted. No fridge/microwave. Neither of us can get the wi-fi to hookup. But the TV has every channel known to man.

I don't think they are worried about COVID here. The bathrooms don't appear to have been cleaned in a long time. I have my shoes on as I'm in bed . . . this place was $9. cheaper than our cute room last night. You win some, you lose some. When we pulled up, the cafe kitchen smell was enticing. Now I'm concerned everything we own is going to smell like fried food.

Speaking of food - Jacinto has gathered up an astounding amount of food. After I requested potatoes last night and we didn't eat them, he sternly told me I have to help reduce the leftover status. Remember we don't have a microwave? I'm not a huge mashed potato person anyway - I can say for sure that cold mashed potatoes aren't my thing. I added some taco sauce on top. It helped a little. I had one cold BBQ rib left over from . . . . Vernal (?). Now my stomach sort of hurts. I hope we get to go to dinner. Sitting in the cramped, depressing room eating three day old, cold food, just made the situation worse. I'd at least like a good meal. The restaurant was hopping when we checked in.

Tomorrow we have a climbing day to a B&B. Hopefully it's more welcoming than this and my legs are ready to go.

The motel owner said there's only 200 people in Altamont. I wonder how they ever managed to build this big theatre?

Jacinto is walking back to his bicycle after going to the crest of the hill looking for me.

There were all sorts of old buildings today and interesting rock formations.

Google could not tell me anything about this ranch.

Jacinto is waiting for me at our lodging. Notice that they are having dances on July 3&4. No COVID concerns, it appears.

Jacinto thought we would go down/across the valley and up the other side. I gulped in reply. My legs were not prepared for that sort of climbing!

Today's ride: 40 miles (64 km)
Total: 1,342 miles (2,160 km)

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