Baker to Milford, UT (July 18)

From Rebecca:

Today was going to be a long ride, 84 miles.  We entered Utah in the first 5 miles.  I caught up with the guys about 50 miles into their ride.  I was expecting to see them around mile 30-35 for the day.  I was surprised to drive so much farther.  It turns out that they had a nice tailwind for that portion of the ride. 

There were not many camping options or any in Milford, so we stayed at the KOA in Beaver which is about 32 miles past Milford.  When I was only about 2 miles from the KOA I received a call from John letting me know that I should head back to pick them up ASAP because of storms that were developing.  These storms were non-existent less than 1 hour earlier when I was in that area.  I rushed to drop the camper at the KOA and head back the 40-50 miles.  I'll let John talk about the details of the ride.  I'll just say that we all made it back to the truck and camper safely.

This KOA is really nice.  We have a patio at our site and there is a pool, however we can't enjoy any of it because of the cooler air and rainy weather.  It was about 85 F during the middle of the day and dropped to about 62 F once the storms rolled in.

We spent some time mapping out the rest of UT tonight.  I am excited to see some of the national parks along the way.  Bryce Canyon, Lake Powell, etc.

Tomorrow we arrive in Cedar City for a 2 night stay.  I am looking forward to a day of rest.

From John:

Today's start of the ride was the best ever. We have an incredibly flat to slight uphill ride in an exceptional 20 mile an hour tailwind. We are easily averaging 

nearly 18 to 22 mph for the first 30 miles.

Since we are still actually climbed the first 30 miles from the start we had gone up quite a bit. For the first decent we had an awesome tailwind and came into wide-open Valley where we could see for miles in front of us. The second climb was definitely longer and steeper. We were still assisted by great tail wind. We met Rebecca for lunch almost all the way at the top and we're glad that we had a nice shady place to stop and use facilities. Again, I can't say how grateful I am to have Rebecca along as our SAG wagon as most days we have often 70 to 90 miles without any services or restroom facilities. That translates to 5-8 hours on the bike with no shade, extra water, food or toilet. 

Since our tail wind was going so nicely we had determined that perhaps we could do a century today and ride one further city south where we would be going tomorrow anyways. As we approached the third climb for the day a number of dark stormy clouds started to develop above the peak.

We rode about halfway up the pass and we determined it was too dangerous and to much lightning to continue. We were not yet in the storm and we wanted to keep it that way. We saw there was still sunshine in the valley below and so I called Rebecca to have her start making her way back towards us in the event we could not make it over the pass. Andrew and I decided to stay where we were for about 20 minutes and determined that if the weather deteriorated we could always go screaming back down the mountain to the valley below. However, after about 20 minutes storms were developing on the mountain range behind us and in the valley. With a small break in the storm in front of us and knowing that Rebecca was still at least an hour away,  Andrew and I decided we should make a break for the top of the mountain and get over the pass. During the time we were stopped, looking at the weather, and thinking about what we should do I have neglected to eat any food. When we were about 2 miles from the top of the pass I really bonked and ran out of energy and speed. The storm was definitely on our tail at this point and it took all my energy to hammer over the mountain and enjoy a very rainy and stormy backdrop as we raced down the decent. I think we got lucky and picked the right moment in time to approach the pass. As we went down the mountain we noticed many wet roads that we surely would have been rained on if we pushed ahead initially. I think we picked the right time to make moves on this climb but we also got very lucky. I was reminded again how dangerous it is to climb over mountain passes and how quickly the weather can change.