Day 48: Green River, UT to Capitol Reef, UT

• Distance: 104.94 mi
• Elevation: 5,108 ft
• Dedication: Michael and Eli’s dad, Doug
• Ride group: Collin, Julia, and Mike, then Collin, Julia, Bryce, and Santi, then just Julia and Santi
• Host: Thousand Lakes RV Park

After a restless and hot night we woke up at 4 for a long and hot day. Unfortunately I neglected to realize that the sun would not be up by the time we were ready to roll, so we did have to stall for a bit before hitting the road. We did have a beautiful ride as the sun rose, but very early on we hit a gravel/dirt/sand road that proved to be… not super bike friendly. Overall it was much better than some of the gravel we traversed in Iowa, but at times the sand was very loose and deep so we had to walk through those patches.

There were other sections of the road (I honestly hesitate to call it a road lol) that the van couldn’t get through, which we also usually had to walk. At one point we walked through what was either a dried-out riverbed or an irrigation ditch… either way it was difficult to walk up and impossible for a van to cross. I honestly had a great time, though, even though our bikes weren’t really meant for this terrain. I’ve only been mountain biking once but I think I will have to try it out more in the future!

After about 10 miles we got on a road which was not in great shape either. The roads were not very smooth all day which was very hard on my hands, feet, and butt. It was also stupid hot today, like 90º at 10 AM hot. I did a good job of hydrating though– I think I filled up my 1.5L Camelbak five times and went through a few of my water bottles too. We were truly in the desert for most of the ride, sand dunes and all. Julia lost odds with Collin and had to make a sand angel, which was super cute.

We had an interesting water stop at a gas station that was built into the side of a hill, very Hobbit-esque. They had a hose outside (incredible!) which we all used to soak our sun sleeves and Buffs. After that stop we were heading into Capitol Reef. As we were climbing up into the mesas we ran into some crazy strong winds as a storm rolled in. I was thankful for how cool it got, but the winds were so strong that I had to lean into them to avoid getting pushed over and then nearly fell over in the direction I was leaning when the wind let up. Thankfully we had a lunch stop soon after the climb (in Cainesville!). I was exhausted and took two separate naps, which felt nice but also didn’t give me much energy.

Heading into the last 20 miles I felt awful. I started with Julia and Collin but we somehow caught up to Bryce and Santi and joined up with them. That whole group is very strong generally but very strong climbers, which I have accepted I am not. I was struggling to keep up and mentally was not doing well. We had a rest stop with 10 miles left, I had a bit of a meltdown, and ended up finishing the ride with Julia and Santi. They were both patient with me and we slowly chugged up the rest of the climb together.

Capitol Reef was beautiful and we saw some very cool sights along the way, namely some petroglyphs on the rocks right along the road. I kept trying to remember “don’t forget to look up”, but when you have 1,500 feet of climbing in your last 10 miles of a ride that can be very difficult. We also had to deal with some aggressive drivers which was annoying; Capitol Reef isn’t a paid park like RMNP so people can just drive through and treat it more like a highway than a tourist route.

After some suprise hills right at the end we finally made it to our host site, a campground and RV park outside of Capitol Reef. It was super nice and we had plenty of room for all of our tents, with some people sleeping in hammocks or cowboy camping. It was a really tough day both mentally and physically but at the end of the day I had a beautiful ride and had a cozy spot to sleep. Can’t complain about that!

Until tomorrow,

Lauren