Day 19, Sat 9/26: Kanab to Page, Welcome to Arizona

We hated to leave Kanab, having had such a wonderful time in our cabin, and touring the area, but we needed to continue. We were looking at a long day, 75 miles, in Page. It was cool and hazy to start. We found out there was a fire on the Kaibab plateau, not producing enough smoke to smell it, just haze, spoiling some of our photos of far off cliffs. The Vermillion Cliffs east of Kanab were visible to us for many many miles.



The climb out of Kanab was very long, but mostly moderate. Once near the site of old Paria, we began our downhill, which took us almost all the way into Page. We met Stefan, a young Swiss man whose plan was to ride from Alaska to Argentina, but after five months his knees hurt and he was tired, so was heading to Flagstaff for a flight to Cancun to rest, then continue his journey. We had lunch together at a BLM visitor center in the shade. Bill met us there with deli sandwiches, after visiting the area of old Pariah, then he was heading on to find the Toadstools, hoodoos of sandstone.

Crossing the Paria Creek reminded Martha of her Grand Canyon rafting trip earlier in the summer, and she felt grateful for having the opportunity for two trips of a lifetime within just a few months of each other.

Kit's back tire was low. Thank goodness for CO2 cartridges! We squirted some in twice so she was able to get to Page without having to change the tire. It was hot; we still had 35 miles to go.



Yippee, Utah behind us and into Arizona.

We had one last climb before we descended to the Glen Canyon Dam. We met Bill there; he had scouted out the campground, deemed it not tenter friendly, so we would meet him at the Holiday Inn Express. We stopped at the dam for a break and photos, one looking down to the river below and the bicycles resting on the bridge. It was still hot, and the last short climb into Page was hard, but we were spurred on the the prospect of a nice cool room at the motel.