Length of the State of
When we woke up this
morning, we encountered the first vestiges of the inclement weather that had
been plagueing the northern part of the state.
It was cold and cloudy, foreboding of rain.
We ate breakfast at Subway,
and began cycling at
It was a
cold morning as we left Panguitch
We started pedaling, and
didn’t get rained on, but it was cold, and we had a moderate head-wind, making
the going tough.
After a long ride, we made
it to Bear Valley Junction, hoping to find a convenience store. But the only store there appeared to have
gone out of business decades ago.
We stopped there for about
15 minutes, waiting for the road to dry out from a rain squall that had apparently
been there awhile before we came.
We were soon underway again,
and entered a section of the Sevier River narrows. I explained how the mountains to the west
scrape the moisture out of the clouds coming generally from the west, leaving
this valley relatively dry. At this, I
broke into a song:
♪ We’re cycling in a
rain shadow.
Rain shadow, rain shadow.♫
The thought of our being
protected from rain by 12,000 ft peaks reassured me, but it was to be a false
hope.
You and me
against the world, in the
The
weather did clear up a bit, as we outdistanced a storm passing just to the
south of us. We even got a tail-wind for
awhile, coming from the downdraft of that storm. As the valley opened up, approaching
Circleville, the sun came out a bit, and it was even pleasant for awhile.
Along
that stretch, some dogs came out of somebody’s yard, barking and chasing
us. Malcolm sped up a bit, pulling ahead
of me, saying “I only have to outrun you.”
I smiled, remembering that as the punch-line of a bear story. But the dogs were swarming around me (being
behind). Very soon we reached the edge
of the dogs’ territory, and they sat down dutifully, watching is pedal away in
peace.
We
made it to Circleville
We
stopped at a KOA camp store, snacked, and used the restroom. A person there told us that the bad weather
in the north extended south to I-70, and that Richfield was socked-in with
rain. That was a disappointment, since I
had been hoping to perhaps make it to Richfield this day. He did say that it was clear weather from
Marysvale south.
We
talked for awhile, then continued on.
The wind (which mercifully had been from the south for about a half
hour, changed to coming from the west, and as we cycled on toward the town of Junction,
came from the north again, making the going harder.
Junction
is the county seat (of Piute county?), but it is a small town, and the
courthouse seemed not to be used anymore for its original purpose.
We
stopped in a convenience store there, and snacked. When we came out, it was threatening rain, so
we went back in and holed up there for two hours. Later we decided that it looked a bit better
(and feared it wasn’t going to get any better than that). Hoping for the best,
and bouyed-up by another assertion that the weather was OK in Marysvale, we
pedaled on toward Marysvale.
The
wind was now cold, and strong from the north.
Making things worse, the road goes straight north, climbing the broad,
high, alluvial fan west of Piute Reservoir.
And this climb we had to do against a stiff headwind.
Climbing
high above Piute Reservoir
More
climbing, against a head-wind
As
we travelled north, a drizzling cold rain began. With the head-wind, it seemed to dry up about
as fast as it fell, but it kept us cold.
As
we got closer to Marysvale, there were stream drainages to cross. It cheered us up to at least get a bit of
downhill once in awhile. That cheer
quickly faded when we discovered we had to gear-down and pedal hard to go
downhill!
Strangely,
it wasn’t as bad going uphill, because we were a bit sheltered by the
hill. But the moment we reached the hill
crest and started down the other side, the head-wind hit us with its full fury,
and we actually had to gear-down at that point.
Malcolm said this part of the ride was worse than anything he had
encountered in riding across the U.S.A. years ago.
We
came to a drainage, where I was certain Marysvale lay, but there was no town
there, and we had to keep going.
Finally, a few miles onward, we finally saw Marysvale ahead, nestled in
the bottom of a stream drainage valley.
It was a welcome sight for weary, cold travellers! It had taken us three hours to cycle from
Junction to Marysvale.
We
arrived at 7:00 PM, and got our motel room, then ate in a restaurant. Malcolm says this was the hardest section of
the trip, but to me, the worst was yet to come.
On
this day, we travelled 48.7 miles, averaging 11.4 MPH. The bicycles were moving for five hours and
25 minutes. We took 8 hours to do
it. It was a hard day.