Wow! So much has happened since my last entry. Let me see... well, we stayed in Escalante for three glorious days. While we were there, I got my new tent (did I mention that we were camping?) and almost immediatley one of the poles broke. That was a bummer, but I had to make do. I am still working with the company to get a replacement. The reason I stayed in Escalante? Steve Roberts. We were kind of hijacked (in a good way) and he wanted us to stay for their Art Festival. The Art Festival brought artists from all over the country, and it was on the weekend. We had a chance to meet a lot of the artists and spend some time in what Steve called, Small Town America. It was a really good place to hole up for a few days. The only problem is, it's hard to get going after such a long rest. So we were there for 3 days and then we were off to those mountains, that were patiently waiting for us.
From Escalante, we traveled to Bryce Valley KOA. A nice campground and a stunning rainbow awaited us. We tried to capture it, but the photos don't do it justice. We arrived at the KOA just before dark, had a quick meal and headed off to bed. The next day would be a tough one, but a short one. We were going to Byrce Canyon.
The ride from Bryce Valley to Bryce Canyon was all uphill. The views were amazing, like all the other days before. It's difficult to make good time because you want to capture all the beauty before you. So, because of taking so many photos, we got caught in a storm. We found a place to "hole up" called, "Mossy Cave". The cave is famous, not only for the moss, but because it maintains a cool/cold temperature throughtout the year. You can even find ice there in late June. After we were there for awhile, it looked as though the rain wasn't going to let up and it started getting late, so we decided to push on in the rain. Did I mention that my jacket is no longer waterproof?
We still had a several thousand foot ascent to get to our destination. That was tough. About a mile before our stop for the night, there was a Subway restaurant. We stopped there for coffee (I don't even drink coffee), and to warm up. After some soup and sub, the rain slowed up enough for us to ride the last mile and a half in the campground, shivering.
The campground was Ruby's Inn RV Park and Campground. A nice place with a unique history. After we set up the tents (mine is still broken), we noticed that someone left us a nice gift of firewood. It was wet, but I was cold and wanted a fire. This would turn out to be the coldest night of the entire trip. After the fire was good blazing, I tried to warm my cold, wet feet and one of my wet socks caught fire. Did I mention that it was cold? Also, my sleeping bag got wet from all the rain... needless to say, I had a miserable night. The next day I went and tried to thaw out in the hot tub. While I was thawing, Clive decided to go and check out Bryce Canyon. He had never been, so he jumped on his bike and rode into the park. That meant that we would be getting late start today. We would only be going as far as Panguitch, it was all (mostly downhill), but we didn't leave until 4:19. Better late than never.
The ride to Panguitch was AWESOME. We rode through Red Canyon... beautiful. We took a lot of photos, but we were racing the sun. It was getting dark and cold again, so we picked up the pace and arrived just as it was getting dark. We stayed at the Panguitch KOA (I love KOA) as guests of Kim and Bob. When we arrived, we met Roy and Linda from Las Vegas. They were riding their Harley to Telluride, back the way we came. We talked to them for awhile, made a quick dinner and headed off to bed. We were still at just about 7000 feet, so it would be cold again tonight. In addition to the cold, the coyotes got started howling and made it almost impossible to go to sleep. At least that's what I thought. The next thing I know, it's 6:30 and time to get up. We have the toughest climb of this entire trip waiting for us...
