THE DESERT and SNAKES

YES!  Good connection!

August 21st and 22nd Day 53 and 54

After a great trip to Jackson, Wyoming to visit with my wife Melissa and her family and Brent spending time with some of his buddies we were back in the full swing of things on the trip.  The day after we returned we were scheduled to ride 130 miles through the desolation of “Grand Staircase Escalante” (which totals 2 million acres by the way and is a “monument”).  The first section was 75 miles with no services to “Hite Recreation Center” at Lake Powell in Utah.  We loaded up on water and set out to our first full day back on the bikes.  The ride wasn’t that bad and we had plenty of water to make it to Hite, we have these large water bags/bladders that we fill with ice and water.  We arrived at Hite around 5PM after riding through some really stunning scenery and seeing maybe 20 cars the whole day.  Scott and Zane, two students at Santa Cruz University were waiting at the Ranger station (which consisted of a bathroom and water fountain), they were heading east and had an impossible schedule planned out.  They were trying to make it to New York for their flight the 18th of September, attempting to do an average of 117 miles a day on average and that particular day they had only biked 60 miles and stopped because of the heat.  We chatted with them a bit and then they decided to go back out to the road and try to hitch a ride 50 miles east.  Apparently they got a ride from someone because we didn’t see them again.  What’s the point in "biking across the country" if you plan on catching rides over long distances, they were even talking about catching a bus at some point!  

After destroying Brent in several card games of “Speed” we got ready for sleep in the middle of the desert.  Brent decided to sleep outside while I set up my tent.  Our sleeping spots were about 100 yards apart and as Brent was walking back to his I heard this primal yelp that was a cross between a young girl’s scream and Homer Simpson’s scream.  Brent almost stepped on a baby Rattlesnake and the only way he avoided such a fate was because the snake rattled at him, thus causing the hilarious (in retrospect) yelp.  He was a little snake but it doesn’t matter we still would have had to go to the hospital somewhere more than 100 miles away if a bite occured.  Even after the encounter Brent still slept outside with no tent.  

Waking up the next day in the desert to absolute dead silence and the most vivid sunrise I’ve ever seen was pretty incredible.  We hopped back on the bikes to head to Fruita, a place where you can pick your own fruit in the Capital Reef National Park.  We had a significant amount of climbing out of Lake Powell, but I didn’t mind at all because of how ridiculously beautiful everything was.  We stopped in a Bakery on the way to Fruita (with nothing around for 50 miles) and had an interesting chat with the owner Randy.  He focuses on sustainable farming in addition to organic farming.  He gave us a sample of tiny fresh picked tomatoes (literally minutes before) and Ambrosia cantalope which he says doesn’t ship because it’s so fragile.  Unfortunately, we arrived 30 minutes too late for the “U-Pick” fruit picking in Fruita, we did have some tasty spaghetti O's and Chef Boyardi Ravioli though.  After two days of nothingness we were glad to be in a place with water and people and prepared to get a good night’s rest for the next day which would be our biggest day of climbing in Utah.  


        

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Blanding, UT to Hite Recreation Center, UT

Hite Recreation Center, UT to Fruita, UT