First Half of Utah

Our time in Utah has certainly not been as interesting as Colorado, but it has still been fun! There has been a lot of hot weather, many people getting sick, camping, fly infested buildings, gravel road for miles, and lots of ups and downs. I can't say for sure, but I think the route we've taken through Utah is perhaps my least favorite of the trip!

-Paonia to Grand Junction, Co
Today was my turn to drive again. It was a very short day and the tailwind helped people move along very quickly. We had quite a few flat tires a lot the way, but we all got in around 1pm. We stayed at Mesa State University and had very nice beds to sleep in. A good number of us went out and say the Bruno movie, it was pretty funny. The 4am wake-up the next morning was a bit rough though!

-Grand Jct, to Moab, UT
Welcome to the day from hell. The distance was crazy long, over 100 miles, and it was going to be HOT! Some of the day was actually spent on I-70, but the first 15 miles in Utah were old paved road covered in loose gravel. Not fun to bike on. So after our bikes were given a violent massage, we finally made it back onto paved roads. After lunch was about 50 miles through the desert with nothing around. It was pretty and very desert-like, but it was over 100 degrees. We had some flat tire problems and the last 20 miles crept by. Eventually we made our way to Moab. Our host couldn't let us in until 8pm so we had a little time to kill. Lets just say we found a local brewery and had just a little taste of the local brew. The names were cool because they were named after bike parts and such. Got a good night sleep and slept in a little on our day off the next day!

-Day off Moab
Welcome to the most fun on the 4k yet! Conor, Richard and I rented four wheelers for the afternoon! A little over 4 hours of riding around in the desert, seeing awesome views, dinosaur bones, and no one else was great. The pictures Conor took speak for themselves. We were really out there and it was like nothing else. Plus it was nice to be able to go more than 20 mph and have an engine helping ya along! After we got back all 27 of us went to Arches National Park and celebrated our last day of the second leg! 2/3 of the way done! Crazy!

-Moab to Green River
Not to bad of day. Not a really long distance and rolling hills on alright roads. We got in early and had some time to relax. It was interesting because we stayed at a community center that was also the local food bank. We got put in charge of sorting the food that just came in. 9 pallets of food! After tossing cans and boxes around, and managing to hit a few people in the head it was all sorted. We had dinner and went back to killing the million house flies bugging us during our sleep... They were nice enough to offer us anything we wanted to take with us.

This is where all the fun begins. Never did we really stop to think about where food banks get their food. Lets just say we learned the hard way to look at expiration dates before eating food. The ham they gave us for lunch the next day expired in April of 09. So about half the team has been having problems for the last few days, myself included, and all things point back to the food bank... Dealing with the heat and having mild cases of food poisoning suck.

There is one girl on the team who has not been very lucky. She has fallen a few times, had bathroom problems many times, and wasn't spared by this bug this time. To top that off she also has a bad rash, maybe poison oak? Ha, she is falling apart! But still trucking.

-Green River to Capital Reef National Park
So after people had been up all night due to the food problems, we already had full vans and people dropping like hats. I started the day with 5 people in my group and finished (well was picked up) with only me and Shareef. Caitlin dropped after 4.6 miles and Maddie was done after 30. Mary Lacey made it to lunch but got in the van shortly after that. Shareef and I biked together for a bit and found another group at a coffee shop in the middle of no where. I ate some bread and that's where we formed team 'Shuttle'. Our goal for the day was to get shuttled to the camp site. :)
So the mileage was wrong and actually about 20 miles further than thought. With a pretty good hill at the end of the day there was no way we could make it. About 15 miles from the end the van came and got us! One girl had a badly pulled muscle and the 3 others were just not feeling good at all!
After many discussions with the park rangers about the size of our group we finally pitched out tents. We showered in the river at Capital Reef and went out to some restaurant for Pizza. People were still feeling pretty bad and almost half of our team had had some symptoms. We all just went to bed and hoped tomorrow would be better.

-Capital Reef to Escalante
Welcome to the second day from hell! Last minute last night they decided to change the route for today because of some problems last years group had with the park rangers and the size of the group. Lets just say they thought we were a 'parade' and should pay outrageous fines.

So instead we ended up on a dirt road in the middle of some other forest. The groups were pretty spread out and mine still wasn't feeling too good. After a few big climbs up loose gravel roads, we rested under a tree. There must have been someone watching from above because this awesome sheep farmer named Andy stopped to check and see if we were alright. We said yes and asked about the road. He said it was about 40 more miles of gravel and wasn't going to be fun on a road bike. As he headed away, someone jokingly put out their finger to hitch hike... Not really expecting him to back up and offer us a ride! So the 8 of us put our bikes in the back of his truck and were taken about 9 more miles up the road to where all the rest of our groups were. Originally we thought that the hitch hiking would be looked down upon but in the end everyone was going to get shuttled because of the road conditions. So from there we emptied the vans and shuttled people the rest of the 30 miles on the gravel road. People and still really feeling sick and pretty tired, and I'm no exception, but tomorrow shouldn't be too bad and hopefully everyone will feel better.

Escalante looks like a fun town for outdoors people and the campsite we are staying at is also an outdoors outfitter, so lots of fun things I could spends lots of money on! Luckily we have to pack pretty light and I am broke so I won't buy anything!

A few more days then a day off in Cedar City. I can't believe the trip is almost over, but I'm pretty excited to cross over that bridge and enter real life again! 2 months on the road can really take a told on your mental processing and social function! I miss everyone and can't wait to see you Chels at the bay in a few weeks!

Back to my amazing tent for the night! Talk to you later down the road! Peace, Love, Spandex!