Biketodetroit

Days 10 and 11 were gruelling, with wind and heat alternating. On Sunday we left the Utah state line in strong headwinds and rode a pace line for an hour, struggling for a 10mph pace. As we began ascending the wind was replaced with intense heat until we reached Frisco Summit, the last of three 1000+ foot climbs. We were tired but anticipating a 14 mile descent to Milford, a small town with a large Union Pacific railroad operation. As we started the descent we were hit with as strong a wind as Ihave ever ridden in, coming across from the right. We would normally have coasted down at 20-25mph. Instead we worked hard the whole way, pedalling hard while leaning to the right into the wind for fear of being blown over by a gust. We checked into miserable motel rooms and ate frozen spaghetti in the room.

The next day was better only in being shorter. The pattern of strong headwinds followed byheat continued. We arrived in Cedar City grateful for the respit.

We have had a delightful time here, and are a bit reluctant to push off tomorrow, but we are going into some of the most beautiful country of the trip, beginning with Cedar Breaks national monument. We have tried to immerse ourselves in the local culture, as you can see from our beverage container pictured above. I also successfully bought a copy of Krakauer's Under The Banner Of Heaven at the local bookstore without incident. Prodded by Cindy's comment the other day I bought Basin and Range. The quote about the mountains as battleships is dead on, and the entire passage describes exactly what we saw and felt. In fact I am humbled at McFee's ability do describe this emptiness in such moving detail.

Miserable Milford did have one redeeming feature. As we prepared to roll away from our dump in the morning we saw an elaborate construction in the park across the street; a series of stone monuments with elegant reliefs depicting the history of the region, and thorough descriptions. The most interesting was the story of the Dominguez y Escalante expedition of 1776. They were Franciscans attempting to find a land route connecting Santa Fe and Monterey. They ran out of water and failed to get across the desert, but Escalante's journal of the expedition described the ordeal and became an important record for future exploration. I found a modern translation of the journal in the bookstore today and bought it in the hope that it will help me to relive the agony of the past week. Thanks to Braun Books of Cedar City and thanks to Tom Huster for recommending this town for a stopover.

# posted by Jeff @ 9:02 PM