Friday, September 25, 2009

Day 16 (9/25/09) Cedar City to Glendale - We came, we rode, we conquered!

So, we are starting this day really early as we are all hyped up for our big climb. Bill catches us on our porch swing stoking up for the big climb with low fat yogurt, a banana and granola bar! We know how to eat don't we?! But we have found a big climb on a big breakfast just doesn't work. We are off for our 18 miles, 3910 ft attempt. We have given Bill the day off as we arrange for him to stash some water for us near the summit. The climb through the canyon is just beautiful and made even more so by the stark contrast to the last 9 days of mostly sage brush, chamisa and a lot of barren land. It is cool and refeshing and even with the climbing we keep on our warmer cloths. Then, as it turns out, Bill has taken in his fill of Cedar Breaks National
Park and has come to check on us. So you see this picture of us riding up and up and up as most of the climb is an 8% grade. We even have a road maintenance fellow wish us luck and tell us the the worst part is almost over with. It gives us hope. Bill is waiting for us once again at the summit to take our photo and verify that we did in fact make it! Our total time for the 18 miles, 3910 ft climb was 3 hours and 10 min. YEA! We ride a little further down the road where Bill has offered to drive us up to Cedar Breaks. We
grab our lunch and hop in the car getting both a break and a view at the same time. While resting and enjoying the breathtaking view, Martha asks what town we are looking at in the far distance valley floor. When we inform here that is Cedar City, where we came from this morning her only comment is WHOAAAA! But, we still have 38 miles to go and despite our hope, it is NOT all down hill and so we must get back to the bikes. It is a beautiful ride sometimes through arches of golden aspens that seem to have been placed there just to congratulate us, sometimes through amazing vistas, and even once by a little place that had two pieces of pie waiting for us to eat them, and they insisted that we put ice cream on top of them!
Once we get to HWY 89 we are in Long Valley, a very long valley that is so bucolic what with the apple orchards, alfalfa fields, horses grazing, and lovely farm houses. All this is backed on both sides by the reddist of red rocks making the red and green just pop out at you. However, it is also quite a fast down hill ride and so we did have to concentrate on the road and the traffic, detracting some from our enjoyment of the scenery. We finally arrive in Glendale, UT and Bauers's Ranch and RV Park. What a sweet little find and Bill has us set up on a grasses area amidst the apple orchard. We enjoyed our rest and our camp after a very full and exciting day. We have ridden a total of 57 miles and the total elevation gain was an amazing 8174 feet!




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