Panguitch and New Realities

We left Escalante and did some moderate climbing up to the first peak of the day. Then some downhill to redeem the Hogback. Hard, winding turns. Steep descent. Hit a new tour record at 52.7 mph. An excellent piece of riding. We continued pedaling on the flats and met another touring cyclist and stopped to talk. He looked to be in his 60's and was riding solo to New York City for a high school reunion. It was awesome, impressive, and inspiring. To have four or five more decades of strong riding in front of us is pretty cool. We cruised on through Henrieville and took our first real break of the day in a town called Tropic.

Tropic was surprisingly well-developed with a thick cluster of stores right along the highway. The tourist trade seems to lift it up. We stopped at the small grocery store and watched a whole slew of foreign travelers come through. There was a French guy who talked on a pay phone for at least 45 minutes, and then a woman who cleaned her windshield with frantic, spastic movements, and a few girls speaking French – but wearing smocks, which meant they worked there, but why do they speak French, but? A confusing place. Jeremy broke the lid of one of his water bottles and cried briefly, we all refueled on calories.

Soon it was time to ride again and we did some gradual climbing up to a plateau with all sorts of motels and hotels and ATV rental places. The map indicated that we'd be exiting the highway for a separated bike path and we saw a dirt road that paralleled the pavement. Great, Adventure Cycling. Not on these tires. But we were just premature in our judgments and soon enough, a paved bike path. Man was that thing fun. Whoever is responsible for the road descending down Red Canyon apparently thought bicycles and traffic shouldn't mix so they built a walking and riding path. After thousands of miles of open American highway it was pretty strange to be riding on a miniaturized road. But the curves were far sharper than a car could take and we zipped down the mountain, Jordan and I trading spots off the front, racing. We got to the end of it and realized that we had totally missed the scenery of the canyon in the novelty of having our own route. Five miles of good time.

We stopped for a piece of fruit or two and began the last stretch toward Panguitch. We had downhill terrain and some fine tailwind assistance and showed up in short order. We stopped first at the library but their internet wasn't working due to some fiber optic cable nonsense. Or so they said. We surveyed nearly all the local restaurants and settled on a pizza and pasta place which treated us well. So well, in fact, that Jordan laid down on the floor and had a brief nap next to our booth. Back to consciousness and we sought out the pool which was very cleverly hidden indoors, inside the high school, and with the very limited hours of 2 to 4 PM. Just missed the window. We made another inquiry at the library and the internet was functioning again. There wasn't any better spot so I set up the laptop on a miniature chair while I sat on the stairs of the reading area in the children's section. We goofed off in the library for a while and eventually Jeremy and Jordan joined me on the steps as well. We were offered a small child to take with us but it turned out the mother wanted to hold onto her after all.

The library closed and we headed over to the Hitchin' Post campground to begin our campaign of doing what we feel like. We looked for somebody at the office and eventually settled our debt with a woman who may have been slightly drunk. The tab was 15.15 but we gave only bills and that seemed to be fine. We also helped ourselves to bite-size Butterfingers from a jar on the counter. We headed over to the grass tent area and were shown a three car garage which housed a pool table, ping pong table, and various storage for the campground. It began to rain lightly so we moved all of our stuff inside the unfinished garage. We later overheard some older intoxicated ladies making some noise about our apparently unorthodox sleeping arrangements. There was no migration though, we're tired of being pushovers at private campgrounds. We now create our own realities. We talked to ATV riders traveling on the Payute Trail, and some RV campers from East Texas, and then dozed off.

Top of the first climb.

Is that the best you can do?

I've seen tougher.

Take a look at your computer screen and now imagine it about three thousand times bigger.

Isn't that cute?

Red Canyon Bike Path.

Bottom of Red Canyon.

Everybody has a good time in Panguitch.