Day 49: Capitol Reef, UT to Escalante, UT

• Team distance: 65.40 mi
• Team elevation: 5,476 ft
• Dedication: Liora Wolder and the team
• Van group: Santi and Maggie
• Host: Escalante High School

I always fear for us logistically when we camp because our morning routine definitely does not need the added struggle of packing up tents but this morning actually went pretty well, even with a van swap! Our water van took a sudden but steep decline yesterday and the brake system was not doing well, so we decided to make host van our water van so that Santi, Maggie, and I could take care of replacing the water van.

We had a beautiful but mildly harrowing drive through Dixie National Forest to Escalante. The sky was incredible the entire drive, light purple clouds and blue skies with sun streaming through the clouds despite the fact that we were well past sunrise. We stopped at most of the overlooks along the way to appreciate the views, and then ruined the moment for everyone around us by screeching out of the parking lots. We also saw a TON of cows. They are open range in the forest and many of them were grazing and wandering right along the road. There were lots of very cute baby cows!

The route today was absolutely incredible. It was a tough climb for sure (it’s never good for the riders when your ears pop in the van) but the reward was a stunning ride along a ridge at the top with 360º views before an incredible descent. I would absolutely come back to visit this area and do this ride myself– I don’t know how I’ve assigned myself to van duty on two of the nicest descents of the trip!

We arrived safely in Escalante thanks to Santi’s expert driving skills and got breakfast and coffee at Escalante Outfitters. It was such a neat shop with great food; they also provided dinner for the team! The entire town of Escalante was so welcoming and excited for our arrival, which was cool to experience. They were also having a town parade to celebrate Pioneer Day, Utah’s state holiday to commemorate the arrival of pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley. Unfortunately for us, we were trying to get the van to our host site so we could unpack it and hand it off to a tow truck and were trapped by the parade.

Once we escaped we set up at Escalante High School, unpacked all the bags and everything else in the van (which was a lot), and took off all of our magnets and bike racks. Then, we did a lot of waiting. I was in contact with several people at Enterprise trying to figure out the best way to get a new van from the nearest service center, ~200 miles away in St. George. Enterprise couldn’t bring us the van and initially tried to set me up with an Uber, but to no one’s surprise no Uber driver was willing to drive us there. When the tow service coordinator reached out to me, though, she asked if it would be an unattended tow, and I said it depended on where the van was going. In an incredible stroke of luck it was headed to the same place I needed to go, so after a few hours of waiting around Maggie, the water van, and I were on our way to St. George with a tow truck driver named Charlie.

It was a very long 3.5 hours but Charlie was very kind and talked to us about all kinds of things. It was interesting to hear about the area from a local. I was pretty tired but thankfully Maggie is more of a social butterfly so she carried the conversation while I zoned out in the back and blogged a little. We had a super smooth experience at the Enterprise center and were proud renters of a 2021 Ford Transit 13-passenger van! It’s not a perfect fit, as we really need a 15 passenger and this van does not accommodate our roof bike racks, but it will get us to a more populated area that will hopefully have more van options.

Maggie and I treated ourselves to a phenomenal Thai dinner in town before heading back to Escalante. I had two Thai iced coffees, both because they were delicious and I really needed the caffeine. It was honestly a nice drive back but I was so tired and also jittery that I was so ready to be done when we were 15 minutes away. I was relieved to be back! The team had gone to a rodeo after dinner so some people were still up but most were asleep or on their way there, and I was grateful for the relative quiet to quickly journal about the day and get to bed at a semi-reasonable hour.

Until tomorrow!

Lauren