Day 16 & 17 - Cold and Hot in Utah, Nevada & California (1,000ish km)

I couldn't post an update yesterday, as the hotel we stayed in didn't have free Wi-Fi, and frankly, we're too cheap to pay thirteen bucks for it. Well, I know I am, anyway.

*****

We were up early and on the road to Bryce by half past eight. Our recent good luck with weather was holding, and it was sunny and cool as we set off.

A block from the motel we turned up a street that became UT Hwy 14, connecting the sleepy by pleasant town of Cedar City, home to a Shakespeare Festival and Southern Utah University, with US Hwy 89, from which one can access not only such well known metropoli as Panguitch and Kanab, but also, and more importantly to us, the entrances to Bryce Canyon and Mount Zion National Parks, both of which we intended to visit before heading to Vegas.


Colin had warned me that it would get 'very cold, very fast.' Still, I couldn't believe I would need more than my leather gauntlets and heated grips, and the lining zipped into my leather jacket. He was right, I was wrong. Hwy 14 ascends to some 10,000 ft above sea level, and at just after nine on a September morning, that means cold. Most of me was ok, just a little chilled, but my fingers were numb before we reached the summit.

Aside from that, and the occasional moment of blindness coming round a corner out of shadow into glaring sunlight, the ride was excellent. There were almost no other vehicles to spoil it either, a sign near the entrance to the highway proclaiming it was 'not recommended for semi trucks.'

In a much shorter time than foretold by Google Maps, we arrived at the entry gate to Bryce Canyon National Park. After a quick visit to the gift shop, to pick up another sticker for my bags, we headed into the park. I'm pretty sure we saw more deer in Bryce than in all the previous days of our trip combined. Thankfully, none were on the road. We rode to a trailhead for a couple of viewpoints, and hiked to them. Like Arches the day before, the scenery was out of this world. Tall spires of sandstone carved out by wind and rain over millennia, with arches high in the cliff walls.

We encountered wildlife on the trail, too: chipmunks and salamanders scurrying through the scrub. One of the chipmunks posed for several photos for us before scrambling to safety.

We could have spent hours there - some of the hikes would have required us to - but we needed to keep moving.

Next up was Zion National Park, a few dozen miles down Hwy 89 from Bryce. The ride there was enjoyably uneventful. The sun was higher in the sky now, and the temperatures were increasing. Never mind the gauntlets, it was time now for my warm weather gloves! The liner was out of my jacket, too, and I opened all the vents in my jacket and helmet. Let the air in! Breathe!

By the time we reached Zion it was approaching 'hot'. Proably 30 or more Celsius, if I were guessing. The landscape here was different from either Arches or Zion, although still predominantly sandstone. Here everything was oversized. This was a place made for dinosaurs, not people. Boulders whose diametres were measured in scores of feet were strewn casually about ravines like forgotten toys. We rode through a long, dark tunnel, with windows allowing the light to peak in every 500 ft or so.

We were stuck for long stretches behind insanely insecure drivers who insisted on going 15 mph if the signs said 25, 10 or less if they said 15. There were times I thought I would have to get off my bike and push it. Eventually we reached the South entrance of the park, and I ducked in again to the Visitors' Centre to pick up some stickers. It was, by now, well and truly baking. We rode into Springdale, pushed hard up against the Southern flank of the park, for lunch at a little Mexican place. I couldn't finish the taco salad, although it was easily the best I've ever had.

After lunch, we were back on the bikes in scorching heat of the Southern Utah desert, making our way to even hotter Las Vegas. I seriously considered taking off my leathers when we stopped for gas along the way. There were just too many drivers, though, who were more interested in their cell phones than the road to make that seem like a decent calculated risk. The two biggest issues on the road in America, from my casual and unscientific observations, are the preponderance of drivers who talk and text while driving, and the crazy everydayness of motorcyclists without helmets. I can't think of many combinations that could be worse.

We arrived in Las Vegas around 6 p.m., thoroughly exhausted and overheated. The 'secret hotel' that Travelocity picked for us is a few miles south of Mandaly Bay, at the Southern end of the strip. It's a nice enough place, but we might as well be staying at the airport, or in Henderson. We ate at one of the hotel restaurants, if only to avoid the additional cab fare of eating anywhere else. The casino is largely filled with largely filled-out Americans, and a large number of Phillipinos, too.

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We were up early, and out of the hotel by half past eight. I wanted to stop and pick up a replacement iPod for the one I lost in Utah, and we wanted to look at boots at CycleGear.  By the time all was said and done, we managed to clear the city limits at about one in the afternoon. The traffic was amazing. People in Vancouver should stop complaining. (Although I will join them when I'm back.)

We took the laser straight US Hwy 95 North from the City of Sin, pulling off for gas in Beatty, NV, immune to the siren song of Bikinis brothel, a few miles South of town. As neither of us were lashed to our bikes, we'll have to assume it was the earplugs that saved us from that ruination on the rocks. (If you don't know what I'm on about, go read The Odyssey.)

There was a sign leaving Beatty that read, 'Next Services 95 Miles'. I remembered a few years earlier, on my trip with Scott, that we had seen a similar sign at the Big Pine Junction. I also recall running out of gas 40 miles from Beatty. But we had full tanks today, and we should have no trouble making it a mere 155 km.

We continued up the 95 for another 83 km, then turned Westward on Nevada state highway 266. We continued on in a more or less straight line until reaching the state line. Then the now California state highway 266 began to change character. First, the pavement became much older. Then, after a total of 72 km on the 266, we switched over to the 168. And that's when the twisties began.

I didn't take pictures today, so here's another of Bryce Canyon.

California is twisty central. I'd almost forgotten, though, just how perversely this 61 km of road is. You crest a hill to discover a nearly 90 degree turn just past the rise. You're in a sharp upward turn, and find the apex is at the crest of the hill. This becomes especially challenging when you enter the thirteen miles of Inyo National Forest. Colin and I decided that the road designer was a frustrated modern artists, who thinks roads should resemble a Kandinsky. Either that or a roller coaster. In any event, our thighs - and buttocks - ached by the time we reached the junction with the US 395 to Bishop. About where the infamous sign had read 'No services for 97 miles' all those years ago. But looking at my trip metre, which I re-set when we filled up in Beatty, we'd traveled over 240 km. No wonder I ran out of gas! Oh, well. It wasn't much of a vindication. Better that I didn't repeat the mistake.

We took the 395 to Bishop, only to find the first three motels we tried to check into were booked up. Finally, we got the last room at the Comfort Inn. I asked why it was so hard to get a room on a Monday night, and the woman at the desk said, 'Why are you here?' Point taken.

Tomorrow we will cross the Sierras, passing through Yosemite National Park as we do. We hope to spend the night in San Francisco, before the rest of our journey becomes Northward. Homeward. It will be good to see our families again, and our other friends. All journeys have to have an end. But not yet. There are still four more days of riding. We have miles to go before we sleep, to borrow a phrase from Robert Frost.

In the meantime, here is Colin's latest video, featuring our rides through Mesa Verde and Arches National Parks. As always, we hope you enjoy.