June 2, 2005
Day 16: Cathedral Gorge to Enterprise
Cathedral Gorge was lovely this morning. We moseyed around for a short while and then rode back into Panaca where we shared a quart of strawberries sitting on the sidewalk in front of the little grocery store. I pointed out to Itty that the flags were blowing the wrong way. He doesn't have the instinct yet, but I can tell which way the wind is blowing all the time. And today it was blowing from the east, again. The climb up to Panaca Summit was even steeper than yesterday's climbs. Plus there was a headwind. Itty was a real trooper.
When we stopped at the top, Itty discovered that his rear fender was rubbing. I absolutely hate the full fenders with the wire rigging. I run across more people trying to adjust these than you can shake a stick at. I've got a 3/4 plastic one that doesn't offer as much spray protection, but also has never rubbed. The process of removing the fender was long and tedious since it was nearly impossible to access all the attachment points, but we finally finished and got back on our bikes to ride down to Modena. The forest floor was filled with wildflowers - red indian paintbrush and orange globemallow.
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Itty and I got to Modena just as a storm was coming in and took shelter in the abandoned saloon. Must not have been a Mormon town. We made a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. When the rain let up, we strolled around. There was a battered, old piano in the schoolhouse and old texts strewn about. The little store/post office that I had stopped by in earlier visits was now closed. It was for sale, but I feared that there would be few, if any, offers.
The Escalante Desert was a carpet of green - - unbelievable - - an area that gets maybe five inches of rain per year. But the east wind persisted. I promised a watermelon in an uncomfortable spot to the NOAA weather person who kept predicting northwest winds.
We stopped for an early dinner at the Mexican cafe at Beryl Junction. After dinner, the wind shifted to the north and we flew down the highway to Enterprise - racing a huge storm. We got in to the convenient store just before the sky opened up. We waited and waited for it to let up, but it just kept raining. At 10:00 p.m. we figured we might as well get a motel room rather than get soaked.
Today's ride: 60 miles (97 km)
Total: 874 miles (1,407 km)
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