Bad day

Today was not a very good day. I left my warmshowers hosts early in the morning feeling very well rested, and with all of my tires repaired.

From there the day went downhill pretty quick. On the way out of town I blew out a tube, which I changed out easily enough. A few minutes later I realized that my replacement had also blown, due to the cheaper patches that I had gotten at walmart, so I had to replace it again. Then my chain started squeaking a lot even though I had just oiled it, so I added more oil.

After passing through Santa Clara I was looking for a good place to camp, since I was getting worn out from climbing hills. Before I found a good spot I wound up on an Indian reservation that had all kinds of signs about no trespassing and no stopping, etc, so I had to do another ten miles to get passed there, even though I was already worn out. Literally right after the reservation property line there was a turnout, so I set up there for the night, pretty much right at sunset.

Hitchhiker

So far this trip I have seen the same hitchhiker four different times. The first time I met him was at the Bryce Canyon visitor center. I stopped by to up water bottles and he was filling out a job application. The second time was at the bottom of the Red Canyon, which is just west of the park. He was at an intersection with his thumb out towards Zion. The third time was when I was in the back of a pickup to get through the tunnels in Zion, where bikes aren't allowed. He had his thumb out so the driver stopped for him as well. We talked a bit about where we were both headed, and how we had seen each other before. He continued on in the pickup while I got out after the tunnels. The last time I saw him was at the visitor center in Zion. Apparently he had left his phone in a bathroom to charge and someone turned it in to lost and found. I don't think I'll be seeing him again, since his plan was to head towards the Grand Canyon next, while I'm headed west again.

Another day, another flat

Today was mostly downhill, so I spent a good part of the afternoon in a town park charging electronics and sorting through a bunch of pictures to upload. That way I can make good use of the time without overshooting my planned destination for the night.

Once I got started again I got to another little town where I saw a in biking gear with a loaded bike around the side of the building. I stopped over to say hi, but she didn't speak much English so the conversation was pretty short. I mostly got that she had come from the Grand Canyon and was headed to Zion the next day, and then east along the way I came.

After leaving her I started uphill towards Zion, when I immediately got a flat front tire. Again this one was due to the same sharp spiky plant as the other three flats. I was in the process of changing it when a couple that was touring headed the other way stopped to see if I needed help. They were also European and were also planning on taking the same route that I just took. It's most interesting because it is not one of the official Adventure Cycling routes, just one that I put together to hit a bunch of National Parks.

After getting the tire changed I started on my way again, when it started to rain. I'm just glad I got the tire changed quickly to avoid the rain.

Spooky nights

I spent last night I a graveyard, the second time I have done so on this trip. They aren't really scary or anything. Actually they are nice and quite, almost park like. I don't sleep on the graves, that would be a bit to weird or disrespectful for me, but somewhere off to the side is often nice.

This cemetery was actually really nice, with well watered grass. The little caretakers shed even had an outside faucet as well as an outside electric plug, so I was able to charge electronics, at least until it started to rain. Thats when I ducked inside my tent and made sure that everything was waterproofed. The rain stopped shortly, but by then it was already dark and I didn't feel like sitting in the dark just to charge something.

Bryce Canyon National Park

Once I got to Bryce I found out something really cool about the park which helped me out a lot. Apparently the park is too overpopulated during the summer months, so the park runs a shuttle bus along all the tourist points in the park. This gave me a break and saved some time and effort.

The major attraction at Bryce is the hoodoos which are tall rock spires. Basically it is part of the side of a plateau that has eroded strangely, not really a canyon at all.

I decided to use the shuttle bus a bit, but also take advantage of not having the bike to go hiking along the rim trail to see a bit more of the park. I have to say there is an amazing variety to the people in the parks. Most of them don't seem to be very much the outdoor type, but instead just the general tourist. There are a huge number of foreigners as well, some with large tour groups and others not. Most people also have gigantic cameras, many of whom probably also don't know how to even take it off of the auto setting.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61247038@N02/sets/72157631685089764/

More bad news

I woke up this morning to another flat tire, on the rear wheel. Apparently I missed a thorn, which had worked it's way further into the tire after I changed it last night, so I changed my third flat tire in the morning.

After that it was relatively uneventful until I got to the Capitol Reef area. Then the wind started to really pick up a lot, and of course it was a headwind. I saw some cool petroglyphs on the way in, and then went most of the way down the scenic drive in the park, until I was going up a steep road into a strong headwind, and didn't think I would see much of anything different I kept going. The way back was much nicer with the downhill and the tailwind.

That was until I got back to the campground area, where my rear tire blew out completely. I pushed my bike into the camping area and started to change the tire again, when I realized that the actual tire had worn through, and not just a popped tube.

I sat there for a bit trying to figure out my options until the camp hosts stopped by. I asked them about the area, and they didn't think there was anything close but offered to call the rangers. A bit later a ranger stopped by and told me he was going to call a place in the nearby town, about ten miles away. He took the info about the tire and rim and then left. A while later he came back and told me the store did have a suitable tire but that they would close in ten minutes. He offered to drive me and my bike there, so I threw everything in the back of his truck and he drove me into town. We arrived around 4:05 and the store was supposed to close at 4:00. Fortunately the owner hadn't arrived yet to lock up, so I was able to buy the new tire. It's a bit wider than the one I had, and more of a mountain bike tread, but it fits just fine. For $27 I was able to get back on the road and didn't even have to hitch a ride or take any extra time to get things up and running again.

Flats

I posted my last update from a picnic table in Hanksville UT where I was sitting with three other bikers who were headed east. I had already done fifty miles to get there and was planning on taking a break in the shade anyways so it worked out nicely. I know I made a post about how I hadn't had any flats yet, an it seems like I jinxed myself.

After taking care of everything in town I left, planning on spending several hours in the shade of a bridge by a river. I managed to get down to he water ok, and spent several hours relaxing in the shade. I realized that I had pushed my bike through some prickers to get there, since I was pulling them off of my socks, but didn't really think much of it. After I was done with my break I pushed my bike back u to the road, where I realized that both my tires were flat. Since I had been with my bike the entire time I knew it was punctures and not just someone letting the air out.

Replacing both tubes was interesting, since I was sitting on the side of the road with my bike completely in pieces. I started fixing one flat with a patch kit, when I decided to just use the two new inner tubes I had bought, and I would fix he flats later in camp. When I was part way through that I realized that the valves on the new tubes were different, being presta instead of schrader. I wasn't sure if my pump would work with these, but I knew some pumps were interchangeable. It took some work on the pump, and I had to take apart the pump head an reconfigure it, but eventually I got the two new tubes on, got the tires on the bike, and got them both inflated with air. Now I'm just hoping that the sharp points I felt on the inside of the tires were the only ones, and that I was able to fully remove the sharp bits. Otherwise I'll end up with more flats tomorrow morning.

1000 Miles

I hit just over 1000 miles today as I passed through Green River, UT. That includes all of the highway mileage as well as any side trips, including grocery stores and all of the mileage in the National Parks. And exactly 1 month of biking so far. Hopefully I will be able to increase the mileage as I go along, aiming for roughly 50-80 miles a day, but right now I am probably hitting 40-50 or so, unless there are special circumstances, like the mileage in the National Parks where I have to get back outside the park to camp for the night.

And the best part, so far, no flat tires!

Canyonlands National Park

Today I got to the Canyonlands Visitor Center right in time for sunrise. The sun rose just over the La Sal mountain range, with an interesting tint due to the smoke in the air. The smoke is from a large fire north of here, it's not enough to smell like smoke, but it does obscure the views from farther off.

After the sunrise I went to the Mesa Arch, which is supposed to be a nice short hike to another arch. The really cool thing about Mesa Arch is that it stands on the very edge of a cliff, so looking through the arch you can see an awesome backdrop. It would have been a good spot for sunrise, but by the time I got there it was a bit later, so a lot of the features were a bit ghostly. This made for a few really cool photos too.

After that I went to a bunch of different overlooks, and a few side hikes to different points. Along with a bunch of views off the edge of cliffs I also visited one spot that was a large collapsed dome area. This area is supposed to be either an old salt dome that burst and eroded, or the site of a meteoroid hit that burst the area and the subsequently eroded away to blast junk.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61247038@N02/sets/72157631685519221/

Arches National Park

Today I spent the entire day touring Arches National Park. I had camped two or three miles from the entrance so I got there early in the day and was able to devote the entire day to the park.

There was a pretty good climb just to get up from the entrance, and then several other good climbs throughout the day as well. The main route was 36 miles round trip, plus I took a few side hikes as well as an extra five mile detour to see a few more things in the park.

The main attraction was obviously the scattered arches throughout the park, with the most impressive being the landscape arch, which is one of the longest and is very skinny. What was really cool was that a tourist had been on scene when part of it collapsed and had actually caught a photograph during the collapse, which is on display at the arch.

Towards the end of the day I was getting tired, and it started to seem that the landscape was more of the same. One arch seemed just like the next, and the hills seemed bigger on the way out. It was definitely even worse because I knew I had to get back to Moab for the night to pick up more food and water, so I had to do an extra 5 or 10 miles at the end of the day, since I hadn't stocked up for enough days when I went through town the day before.

Conclusion at the end of the day, lots of cool stuff to see, but too many hills.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/61247038@N02/sets/72157631591615488/

Repairs

On the way from Monticello to Moab my bike started making strange noises so once I got to Moab I wanted to have it checked out. I went to the first bike store I came to, which was Moab cyclery, and described the noise and what actions cause it. Basically every time my right pedal neared the top of it's rotation there was a creak that didn't use to happen.

After I described it to the mechanic he was able to tell right away that the bottom bracket was either loose or dirty. He proposed to take it apart, clean it and then re-oil everything. After about 25 minutes he had it back together and had me try it out. Fortunately that fixed the problem, so I am back in business, at the cost of $15. At some point in the near future I would like to re-oil the chain and everything, but it can hold off for a bit.

After my previous research I have also been looking for different gears for the bike to give me a better ratio, mainly for climbing all the hills. I checked every shop in Moab, but none if them had any smaller gears for a five bolt setup like I have in front. Ideally I would like to replace the 30t gear I have right now with a 24t gear. This would help out quite a bit, dropping the slowest gear down to an ideal 6 mph, instead of the 7.8 mph ratio I have now. I might also replace the rear cassette with something bigger, which would also help the situation. That change is a bit more involved, likely involving a change in rear derailler as well.

Hello Utah!

After having spent the last several weeks in Colorado I finally came to the state border. The funny part was that I had completely forgotten that I was going to be crossing the border today.

There was a big bill board that from a distance I thought was just another advertisement. When I got closer I realized what it was, especially when I turned around and there was a similar sign for entering Colorado. There was a small little turnoff where I was able to stop and take a quick picture, and where a couple of motorcyclists pulled over for a break as well.