Day 19, Cedar City to Panguitch: Doc Gets Too High Too Fast

August 10, 2017

Leaving town I was surprised to see that the fire danger wasn’t listed as being higher than this;

We are following Coal Creek upstream this morning. And it’s definitely upstream, as we climbed for 6 hours to cover only 18 miles. We encountered wind whooshing down from the mountain, and it cooled things enough such that we were all scrambling for the rain jackets and warm accessories. Most of the climb was only moderately steep, but there were occasional steep sections.

Southern Utah University has a nice retreat and conference center located along the climb;

Southern Utah University Retreat About Half-Way to Cedar Breaks

Here’s a picture of us and the view we have earned taken by a nice fellow we chatted with;

Us and The View We Earned (Photo Credit; Some Nice Guy)

Six hours of climbing is usually a pretty full day. But it's just the start of the ride today, although most of the hard work is done now. Our speed had averaged only 3 mph at the time we entered Cedar Breaks.

We're up in alpine scenery now, and the mountain fields are filled with beautiful flowers;

Here’s our bikes parked at Cedar Breaks National Monument;

Here is the spectacular canyon view at Cedar Breaks; the term "Breaks" refers to the canyon being a "break" in the ground surface.

And here’s us with the canyon in the background;

Us at Cedar Breaks Canyon (Photo Credit; Another Random Guy)

Doc wasn't feeling too good at this point. The 8-day layoff, followed by the quick flight from sea level to Cedar City and then about 5,000 feet of climbing this morning at an altitude exceeding 10,000 feet, had all combined to give him a bad case of altitude sickness. He tells the story below, but suffice it to say that Sis and I were quite concerned with getting him down to a lower altitude. Fortunately, he was tough enough to gut it out and keep rolling, otherwise we would have been looking for a pickup truck driver heading our way.

The ride down was fun, but I know Doc wasn't enjoying it. After descending to a nice lunch that Doc wasn't able to participate in, we got underway and enjoyed more of the downhill run, and eventually Panguitch came into view.

View Approaching The Valley Toward Panguitch

Our lodging for the night consisted of a "family suite" at the Canyon Lodge motel. A bit crude, but good enough; we were inside, warm and dry for the night. And a sign in the room gave us some worthy instruction for the remainder of the trip;

Doc recovered at the lower altitude, and dinner was good. We are amazed at the number of European and oriental tourists we encounter in Utah, and the streak continued at dinner tonight with a group of Germans dining next to us. I'm just happy to be here. Good night all...

Doc speaking;

We are so glad to be back! The scenery was beautiful today as we snaked our path between Sirius and Venus, eastward to Cedar Breaks. Judy (Sis) and I were both apprehensive about a 5,600 ft climb after a week's layover at sea level, but Judy did great, and I was the weak link today. Things were fine until about the 9,000 ft level, and then I was dealing with nausea and vomiting for the last half of the ride. I was finally able to keep a couple of glasses of Sprite down after we got below ~ 8,500 ft, and I feel like a new man in Panguitch at 6,600 ft.

Today's ride: 58 miles (93 km)
Total: 848 miles (1,365 km)

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