Cedar City - Brian Head, Utah - I've never been so ill prepared or so determined to tour

June 17, 2019

Cedar City - Brian Head, Utah

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5, 028 elevation gain. This is 200 feet less than the downloaded ride estimated. Oren wants his 200 extra feet! 1,470 elevation descent.

Oren and I agreed to be ready to go before the 6:30 breakfast, with a hopeful departure of 7:00. This morning the breakfast had eggs, bacon, and hash browns. Oren and I both finished breakfast with a fruit parfait.

The morning looked very nice. Sunshine and blue skies. It had rained so much last night that cars moving over to the center line caused a significant spray up out of the rumble strips in the center of the road.

It's 6:30 PM now. We've eaten dinner. I'm so tired I can't remember what happened today. Let's see if I can reconstruct. Oren is chipper. He says it's the Hammer brand anti fatigue capsules that he took before we left town. I'd like to be in that good of shape. I need to order some.

I don't think we'd gone a mile before we started climbing. Our lodging was well placed for exiting town. We were climbing through a canyon with the morning headwind. Ugh. I knew better than to start a climb up a canyon in early morning. Cold air goes downhill in the morning, warm air goes up in the afternoon. It wasn't a huge headwind, but it made me think of the LaVeta day last year where I spent all of my energy getting to LaVeta and then I had nothing left to get over the pass. That was one long day.

I had told Oren multiple times that I wasn't going to try and keep up with him, to ride his ride and I'd be along. He said he was really fatigued the day before and probably stopping more often would help. He didn't mention the magic pills at the time . . . we did stay within sight distance all day long, although I stopped far more often.

At the one hour mark, what should appear but a trailer full of potties. Oren had forgotten about the one hour stop. How could he possibly pass potties up even if it were not right on the hour?

We got going up into the canyon a bit more and the sun started hitting us. The wind died down. I didn't even bother to look at our elevation gain or the time for a long, long while. I knew we had a 5,000 foot climbing day and I was estimating 3 mph climbing. There's no use torturing myself with numbers just yet.

The climbing started early, which was good. As much gradual climbing as we could do would be in my favor. We had a section of ~8% climbing at about mile 12-13. I was taking more often breaks there, but it didn't seem to bother Oren. He just kept going. Jacinto says he's a machine that never quits!

I was happy when it leveled off somewhat. My legs are used to the gentle grades in Colorado, we don't have too many steep grades. I know there are more coming up this trip and I'm not looking forward to them. My low gear is a 24 in the front and 32 in the rear. I used it frequently today.

I told Jacinto over dinner it's not that I can't climb. I can do it, my body is capable. But I don't ENJOY that much climbing. I like enough climbing to make my dinner taste good. Not so much that I have trouble walking in the evening. Jacinto hasn't met a climb that he didn't want to do again, just for fun.

Today was made for Jacinto.

On one of our breaks Oren pointed out the dark clouds to our right. I was in survival mode. I wasn't looking around much. Clouds? What clouds? Oh, ok. I see them. But I'm giving you all I've got. I can't go faster. This is what I have. I ate a few Perpetuum tablets, several mile stops in a row. It's the same story - I don't know if the grade got easier or the tablets kicked in, but the climbing got easier.

We went through a long area that had heavy water on the road, but it wasn't raining on us. Our luck was holding. We were in full mountain territory - aspen trees, pines, etc. It was certainly pretty when I stopped for breaks. When I was pedaling, I was just trying to convince myself that I could go one more mile, then I started picking trees out. Then I was reduced to trying to ride three songs worth before stopping. It was dismal, but I was moving forward.

Things were looking very, very black when we got to Cedar Breaks. Oren pulled in. I was just thinking to stay in front of the storm. Really? Do we have to go look at beautiful rock formations? Can't you go look and I'll borrow your photos? Ok - I really should go. Oren got us both in on his Senior Pass. I wonder if that would have worked at the Grand Canyon? It was $20. each for cyclists. We parked by the picnic tables - no one was picnicking, the tables were covered with rain drops.

We walked past the information booth to the lookout. It was a shame the sky was so black and not a bright blue. We saw two touring bikes, parked under the overhang. We chatted with the two young men. They had started in Reno and would pick up the TransAm in Pueblo and go all the way to Virginia. They had camped just down the road and weren't sure how far they would go today. They were hanging out waiting for the storm to pass over. One of the cyclists showed Oren the weather map on his phone. The storm cell was sitting right on top of us. I felt a few thunks of hail. But it quit. We both used the bathroom . . . no more weather. Let's go for it. We are ten miles from a hot shower and dry clothes. What we didn't know. However, we were pessimistic, we left Cedar Breaks with our rain coats on.

We were perhaps a mile down the road when the hail started. No warning rain or anything, just hail. We were over 10,000 feet and there were a few rollers that were real killers. I had to stop for quick breaks. Oren was gone. Later Jacinto said he felt those pitches were steep, which was vindicating.

I had warned Oren that the last time I had a descent in the rain was when the P-38 had that horrible shimmy that I had to keep my speed under 5 mph. Thank goodness the Stratus is steady going down the road. I was cautious, but it didn't matter. We went smoothly down the road. Right through the hail that reminded me of California with Jim and Genny. Jim had pointedly said we shouldn't be riding because riding on that much hail would be like riding on ball bearings. I saw an RV at a pull out. I debated knocking on the door and asking for shelter. The hail was smarting when it hit me. The worst (and funniest) was one chunk that hit my big toe (I wear sandals). That hurt! I decided if I could get off of the top, maybe I could ride out of the hail. It was so thick in the road that I couldn't see the pavement. A Jeep passed me and I rode right in their tire track. I figured the bicycle tires had a better chance of getting traction in that part of the road.

Oren says we had snow also - I just remember the hail. We also had a discussion about the difference between hail and sleet. Once we hit the intersection for Brian Head, we got some good downhill. But I went slowly. Now it was plain rain. I had some REI brand Overmitts that I was trying for the first time. My fingers were getting cold inside, but were they wet? I wasn't sure until we got to the lodge. No, for that distance at least, the mitts are good.

Oren had pulled in at the general store and asked how much further to our lodge. .8 miles. I said I'd rather take my chances at getting in to the room early and getting out of the wet clothes. We were way early, but we would certainly look pitiful.

As we continued down the road, I wondered why I picked something that much further from the intersection. We would be backtracking 5 miles/1,000 feet of climbing tomorrow. Listen to me whine already. I'm sure my choice of lodging had to do with availability of food.

We have a fabulous 950 square foot apartment with two beds/two baths. $180. It's the best deal of the trip so far. Down side is that it's on the second floor, so we had to fit the bikes one at a time in the elevator. It was a process. We were wet and cold, but they were nice and let us in early. I think we got in about 1 PM, Oren says 2 PM. I don't know what time it was, just that I was SO, SO ready to be there. Oren says his fingers were so cold he couldn't feel his fingertips. He was visibly shaking while we checked in.

We got in the apartment - Oren cranked up all of the heaters. It didn't feel quite so cold. I had asked both the clerk and the maid for rags. They both said to use the bathroom towels. I didn't want to do that. I know Jacinto had some rags when he got in. I used paper towels to wipe off all of the bike and left the chain for a rag. I have standards to keep up. One of the bike riders at Cedar Breaks had asked me how I keep my bike so clean, it looked brand new.

I checked on Jacinto via Strava. I thought he was lost because Strava was so slow to load. It looked like Jacinto had cycled past the lodge and was at the end of the road. I called him and he answered. He wasn't even to Cedar Breaks yet. Finally the map loaded and I could see his actual location.

Oren hadn't had anything to eat at all, but I'd eaten an apple, a banana, and a granola bar. Oren was ready for dinner right at 5 when the restaurant opened. Jacinto arrived about 4 PM. We talked about the day - he hadn't left town until 11:30, he had gone by WalMart first. He hadn't gotten wet at all, although as he left Cedar City, he said it was a black wall ahead of him and he was sure he would get soaked. Jacinto lives under a golden umbrella or something. He never gets wet when we all get soaked. Jacinto says the secret is to wait to leave town until the motel kicks him out.

Oren walked over to Annie's Grocery to get something for breakfast. There's no breakfast served here. I was thinking tomorrow would be a nice payback day -except for the climb out of Brian Head. We have 36 miles that are almost all downhill. However, it's supposed to rain and be windy. We shall see what the day brings.

We went to dinner when Oren got back. I had already warned Jacinto I was ordering a ribeye steak. I did. It was delicious. I ate about half and have the other half to tomorrow. Jacinto's breakfast is three left over burritos from the hotel breakfast buffet a couple of days ago. They are nicely aged now. He offered Oren one, but for some reason Oren didn't take him up on the offer.

I'm ready for bed now and it's not even dark. Just because I can climb 5,000 feet in a day doesn't mean I like it. We don't have any more 5,000 feet days, but we do have several days with steep climbs. I like those even less. Slow but sure wins the race. I think this has been a tougher ride than the Sierra Cascades. Neither of the guys agree with me. I think it's my lack of conditioning . . . .

This is a beautiful area, you should follow our route. Even around Tuba City was pretty at bicycle speed. But do some training first . . .