Escalante

We woke up and anxiously walked over to the food-stashing tree. The squirrels or chipmunks or whatever had gotten into Jeremy's baggage somewhat, nibbling on the corner of the bag where he dumps his cereal and granola and wheat thins and whatever else. We called the minor loss a success. It was hot chocolates all around before the riding began. Excellent.

And begin it did. The climbing flared up during the exit of the driveway of the campground and didn't relent for a while. Ten to twelve miles of sustained up to make it to the top of Boulder Mountain. Glad to have split it up into two days. Always good to deal with a stiff climb first thing. The mountain is the highest timbered plateau in North America at a peak of around 9,500 feet for the paved road. We traded a few words with a pair of motorcyclists at the top and began a very short descent before another climb to the real summit. A group of cows blocked the road but the bikers honked their horns and our bovine friends dispersed. We were getting some light rain at the summit and had to take it easy on the way down. It was just enough to annoy but not enough to warrant rain covers with a fast downhill to try to exit the clouds.

Down through the timber and around a curve and a deer is standing in the opposite lane. I'm still a ways off at this point saying: “OK deer, just stay where you are. Be cool. Stay cool. Just stay right there.” The next phrase was “Oh fuck.” The deer doubled back on the road, ran directly in front of me and down the shoulder. I jammed on the brakes hard and managed to avoid a collision. I was shaky the rest of the descent though. Wheh, deers'll do you every time.

After that near miss we continued the descent and arrived in the town of Boulder, UT. We went to an Anasazi museum there and saw displays on flint knapping and Native home construction and arrowheads and all other manner of artifacts. Behind the museum are the remains of the foundations of buildings that made up an Anasazi village around a thousand years ago. This area of Utah is steeped in history. Didn't make it to the dinosaur museum in Blanding though. Next time. We cruised over to the general store and met some motorcyclists who had just ridden the “Hogback.” I'll let the map's description introduce the road: “On Map 36, the highlight (or terror) on this section is The Hogback south of Boulder. It is a 3-mile stretch of narrow two-lane road along a ridge spine with no shoulders or guardrails and has drops on both sides.” The bikers told us it was gnarly, crazy, scary – but that we'd be OK because we ride bikes without engines. One of them said something to the effect of: “I don't even know how they built the road.”

After finishing our snacks it was six or seven miles to the beginning of the Hogback. We were excited, giddy even, to ride something so terrible. The beast turned out to be a lapdog. While it was a good descent, it was definitely the victim of too much hype. The majority of the road was cut into the hillside, the dropoffs were not that steep, there was a bit of spine at the beginning, and one hard turn with a suggested speed of 25 mph. We got to the bottom and went: “That was it!? That was it?” “Boar-ing.” We had a few minutes of insulting the hill at the Escalante River before it was time to go up again.

The climbing to follow was real steep. We were stopped by construction workers at a road closure and enjoyed the Utah blacktop for quite some time. We yelled at drivers to give us something from their cooler, and for the flagman to let us through, and generally bemoaned the blockade. We continued eventually and tried to draft behind a work truck hauling logs. He wasn't having it and accelerated hard and spat clouds of loose gravel at us from the incomplete road. We persisted anyway before losing interest or energy and finished the last of the steep climbing. Had a break about ten miles out of Escalante, our destination.

When we arrived, it looked like the place to be was Escalante Outfitters. The building houses a well-stocked gear shop as well as a restaurant. We ordered a delicious cheese pizza and watched the rain come down, Hard. It was quite nice to be done for the day and not caught in the storm some five or ten miles on. Jordan enjoyed a quality beer and we used their wireless internet and courtesy computers to kill time. Then a grocery stockup as usual before we set our stuff out at the campground next door to the Outfitters. The owner came over to talk to us about our ride and told us the story of his buying the place. He had been riding through Utah some years previous, stopped in, and had purchased it within four hours of his arrival. He also talked to us about Everet Ruess, who you should probably look into if you're unfamiliar, and an arts festival he had started and his involvement in the town. The conversation became a very heartfelt and earnest discussion about our connection to the land and stewardship of the wilderness and appreciation of the beauty of what hasn't been spoiled in this country. It introduced a philosophical and perhaps even spiritual bent to the nature of the journey.

Before bed we made one final trip to the restaurant component of the joint and had soda and beer and delicious baked goods and talked about the nature of the conversation and our return to normalcy in a few short weeks. Jeremy maintains that the guy just sort of disappeared into the ether when he walked away, that he's actually been dead for twenty years.

And before I forget we saw quite a few foreign travelers stop in today. There was a French father and husband who I talked to about the Tour de France and other races. Very animated, he kept telling me that we were very “courageous.” And then a French vixen wearing some kind of belted dress and on vacation with her parents. Intoxicating. Many words today, this is the final... one.

The food is safe. We are happy.

Climbing, climbing, climbing.

View from the top.

I wish it lived up to the sign.

Good canyons though.

Hey, look. I'm in Utah.

Yeah, that one was pretty good.

"Goooooooooooooooooool!"

Happy to have missed that.