80 miles. Naturita, CO to Moab, UT
What a day. First of all, seriously, what is it with every single building we sleep in needing obnoxious amounts of air conditioning 24/7. I understand its summer and all but can't it at least be a little lower, and its not always super hot. I feel if there weren't air conditioning i might just complain about the excessive heat instead but i still just find this air condititioning ridiculous sometimes, especially since i dislike sleeping in it so much and always choose heat over cold. I really thought the goal was to just temper the outside climate, not create a whole arctic ecosystem in your building.
Despite the lack of honey buns in my pack, the day started very well. We rolled along this crazy straight, rolling road that was mostly downhill for about 25 miles. It was in the middle of the red rock desert and huge cliffs surrounded us on either side. Gotta love canyons. Even better was the fact that we were riding through "Paradox Valley". Larry and I tried to think of some kind of tangible paradox pose for the picture with the sign but realized none really exist(Get it!).
Towards the end of our climb right before lunch i popped the first of what would be an epic day of flats. Jenny showed me how to use one of the superglue patch kits, which was great since its always cool to learn a new skill. Number 1. From there on it all went downhill (Downhill, Get it!, both literally and metaphorically!). Coming down the sweet descent Emily got her first flat of the trip(What?) which was quite removed from my most recent eighth. I chilled out while she changed it, and when we were ready to head out i got on my bike only to realize that the tire i just fixed had deflated. Was I mildly pissed at not having fixed it at the same time Emily was doing hers? YES. Number 2.
By the time we rolled into lunch i was too exhausted and demoralized to even bother making an effort to eat. It hasn't been the first time and i had to actually just force what little food we had down my throat for the sake of absorbing calories. OH and in case your wondering, yes it was once again peanut butter.
So then guess what happened when i got back on my bike ready to leave lunch. Number 3. And guess who had a tire they had just fixed pop and deflate as they held it in their hands ready to put it back on the bike. Number 4. By now i had realized that my back tire couldnt stay on a second longer so i replaced it with one lying in the van. The only problem was that the pile i was looking was full of discarded tires, meaning they had problems with them. Fortunately i managed to find one in decent shape and got myself going. By now though i had 6 broken tubes lying around me which I knotted onto my camelbak for maximum hobo effect apparently. This last ordeal all happened at the Utah border, so my picture there was not exactly my best.
All of this tire changing had eaten at least 2 hours and Sweep(the last 2 riders) had been chilling with me and Emily. It was decently late and we still had 40 miles to go and the sun was at skin melting status. All we could do was truck on through the remaining climbs, and slowly but surely we kept going. And going. And going. Once again, I emphasize the slowly part.
Staying positive was definitely a challenge, as once again cycling is an extremely mental sport. Towards the last 20 miles we finally hit the downhills we had been waiting for and they were some of the best yet. There was this one amazing one i can never forget where these massive red rocks just emerged from over the crest of the hill and were beyond glorious. Its also been a while since i hit 40+mph which was great. We ended up pulling in at 7pm which was late, but after a certain level of struggle, getting vanned is just mentally crushing and basically erases all of your effort for the day and we couldn't let that happen.
Moab is in a crazy canyon surrounded by these unbelievable crazy jutting red rocks everywhere. It basically makes me think of Mars is how i can best describe it. I can't even compare it to the Rockies because its a whole other type of beautiful.
Today our group contest was to find the most interesting thing on the side of the road. Hopefully nobody will miss their black latex glove they left on the side of the road... (though it ended up losing to a license plate Jenny and Larry found that was a US Govt plate)
On a more unfortunate note, today Miranda took a bigger spill on the road early in the day on a downhill. I remember seeing an ambulance blaze by us while we were riding on this desolate plain thinking "Oh man, whoever that is for isn't getting help for a while" Well imagine my horror when i found out that it had been heading back to get Miranda. She had gotten a concussion and broken her collarbone. It was pretty scary since she had initially had some trouble remembering some people's names which i think is really petrifying. She was taken to the hospital in Moab and is in very stable condition. She'll be just fine and will recover fully but her riding for this trip is definitely over.
Its really weird to write about this and acknowledge that something this bad could really happen. Of course it could be much worse but it isnt thankfully. Its just that Miranda has probably been the most improved cyclist out of all of us and for her amazing trip to get cut short like this just doesn't jive well with me. Its times like these that i really like to think that everything happens for an ultimately good reason. And i really hope that it can become clear to us, Miranda, and her family as soon as possible.
Our second day off is tomorrow, and it should definitely be a "rush" to get some time to ourselves...
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