Day 20: Kanab, UT

Day 20

June 5, 2015

Miles: 38

Jacobs Lake to Kanab

Yesterday all day my legs were dead tired and at night, crazy sore. I thought for sure today riding would be as difficult.  I was wrong.  Oddly, my legs felt great.  Perhaps it was the short distance and long descents today, not sure, but I felt great!  

This morning we met up with Node and had breakfast with him.  We decided to ride together for the day since we were all headed to Kanab. Node has been riding for two months, mostly alone, so this worked out great. Node is in medical school for naturopathic medicine. He carries a medicine bag with him. He has given us different natural topical lotions for sore muscles and joints in case we need it during our ride. With one year to go, Node decided to take a year off to ride his bike down the pacific coast where he started his ride, and then throughout the west; he also plans to sail with a friend from Hawaii to Seattle later this summer, before returning to complete his program. Node, Steve and I left Jacob Lake after a great breakfast, around 10:30am. We all had pancakes and eggs.

As soon as we left, the sky darkened.  The forecast said scattered thunderstorms, so we knew it would be a wet day. 

View of the land

The road ahead

At one point we passed snow on the side of the road.  Crazy right!   The day before we saw temperatures in the middle 90s.  Later in the day, we heard that 30 minutes north of Kanab they got 2 inches of hail.  The weather is somewhat unpredictable with the change in elevation, so we will have to be mindful of this going forward.

Lingering snow

We essentially rode about two hours on and off in the rain. At one point, we rode out of the rain and crossed over into pure sunlight.  Like leaving one ecosystem and entering another. It was so beautiful with the sun glistening on the asphalt. I thought at that very moment, there is nothing more peaceful than sunshine after rain. A moment that came so suddenly, and then in an instant, disappearing as we continued our descent. 

So, we entered our third state - Utah! Woo hooooo! And away with Map 2 and on to Map 3. 

Scary looking sky

Moments later - different sky

We rode an easy 38 miles with few hills. We averaged for the first 29 miles 18.3 mph. The latter miles were not difficult either.  After a short stop in Fredonia, we continued with our ride. We rolled into Kanab at about 4:00p. We checked into our hotel, then landed in what else but a coffee/bookstore/camping shop.  What a combination. Just perfect!  We then had an early dinner.  Nothing spectacular, buffalo burgers and a grilled chicken sandwich.  We went to Big Al's, a local favorite.

Big Al's

We then hit the bike shop.  I needed some minor adjustments, my chain lubricated and some spare spokes.  Darren, the owner was go great!  He not only straightened out my bike, he hooked us up with a few tools we didn't have and some spare chain links that we needed.  He didn't even charge us!

Before we called it the night, what else - ice cream!

My Favorite - coffee w/chocolate chips

Steve had cookie 'n cream ice cream and Node black raspberry pecan.

We are treating ourselves to a day off tomorrow; we plan to stay an extra day in Kanab to rest up and do some laundry. We have some difficult climbs ahead of us. We descended 3000ft today but must ascend that and more before we roll into Bryce Canyon National Park in a few days. We plan to meet Node for breakfast tomorrow at 8:00a. Although, we let him know that he is welcome to hang with us, I suspect we probably will not see him after tomorrow.