Evelio Villarreal
Great pics! Keep them coming! Ride on and stay safe!
Jun 13, 2019
Great pics! Keep them coming! Ride on and stay safe!
Jun 13, 2019
Looking Forward
Riding to Kanab involved a long, steady uphill, and then a long, rockin' downhill. At least, that's how it looked on the map.
The majority of the uphill was hardly noticeable, and a certain section of it even went downhill, inside a shallow canyon. Some of the most fun I've had this far. This is what it's all about!
Side note: Teeder is awesome, and the decision to go with a 27.5"+ bike was a perfect choice. With the tires at the right pressure, you hardly notice you're on a dirt road. The Wild West Route is every bit as difficult as the Great Divide, if not more so, but a better-suited bike makes it feel less so.
It turned out the long steady uphill was more of an all-at-once kind of thing. Several minutes of grunting later, half of which was in my ridiculous lowest gear, I made it to the top of the ridge and was promptly greeted with a roaring headwind.
What should've been an easy ride into Kanab, with a screaming downhill in places, was now merely at a decent pace, but incredibly loud and obnoxious. Then the road flattened out and stayed directly pointed into the wind. Only 20 km more of this…
Eventually, I took a right turn, and in quick succession, left Arizona behind and arrived in Kanab, UT. After checking the elevation and water sources, I ditched my water bladder. 3 L should be plenty. I'll run across multiple water sources every day and may not see temperatures above 30 C again.
Kanab is a touristy town, which is surprising until you realize it's an hour or less from both Bryce Canyon and Zion, and it's only about two hours from the Grand Canyon. There was a hostel. It was nice on the inside, but for one reason or another, had a lot less leftover food compared to most hostels (which is one of my favorite things about hostels). Nevertheless, I found enough scraps to whip up some salmon breakfast tacos.
I was glad to be out of Arizona. From here on, I expected it'd be both cooler and prettier. And at higher latitude, the sun wouldn't beat down as directly.
The first full day in Utah confirmed at least one of those suspicions. I made slow progress because I kept stopping to take pictures.
Eventually, I wound up in Bryce Canyon. Like the Grand Canyon, because I came in on back roads, there wasn't a gate and I simply rode on in.
I'd been to Bryce Canyon before, and unlike last time, didn't really have time for a hike. Like the Grand Canyon, a few overlooks would have to do.
June
