Not to early to bed, early to rise, makes something or other – or so the saying goes. Anyway, I was up early, did my final faffing and packing and getting ready to leave. The sun was just coming up, and I captured the view from my hotel room.
I was down in the parking area before 7, but it took about 20 minutes of packing, relocating, adjusting and re-adjusting before I was ready to roll, so as Big Ben struck whatever the equivalent of 0714 in Nevada is, I rolled back onto the road to begin the journey back home.
I wanted to get an early-ish start, before the temperatures got out of hand. It was 43c when I arrived, and wanted to be far away before those types of temperatures prevailed. Still, it was pretty warm – 28c at 0714 in the morning. The hotel was close to the motorway, so in a matter of a few minutes I was on the I-15, heading north (and slightly east-ish). I enjoyed the feeling of putting some distance between myself and the city of sin, I can tell you.
The roads weren’t too busy at that time and I passed through the outskirts relatively quickly. About 45 minutes later, I took an exit road, and headed towards the Valley of Fire. About 10 or so miles of very very desolate road later, I arrived at the Valley of Fire State Park southern entrance, paid my fee and rode into the reserve.
The Valley gets its name from the red sandstone formations that line this part of the Moapa Valley. The colour is strikingly red, but there are lots of greys, whites and burnt-orange colours too. Some of the layered rocks are unbelievable. I made a couple of stops, to see some petroglyphs that are 4,000 years old, and some of the amazing stone formations/colours.
The park was not that big, and a few miles on I came out the other side, riding on eastwards to the UT 169, where I turned northwards. I stopped in Overton for breakfast (decent, nice coffee), and then continued until I rejoined the I-15 about 15 minutes later.
I did about 90-120 minute run on the big highway, eating up some miles. It was warming up, but nothing too horrendous and the high-speeds were helping keep me cool. As long as the outside temperature is lower than body temperature, it helps. The I-15 passes through a corner of Arizona, so I said hello, and about 40 minutes later was in Utah.
I left the highway at a town called Cedar City, where a fuel stop awaited. I also filled my water bottles, ready for some sparser roads. A couple of place names caught my eye today. One was Carp, but my favourite – maybe my favourite of the whole trip – was a speck on the map called Browse. Go figure.
The UT 14 runs east from Cedar City, and passes through Cedar Canyon- another wonderful, imposing monument to the ages. I love the geological features in this part of the world – they are so raw, and emanate with the very very old soul of this planet.
The route twisted, climbed, cooled and lowered me gently back down to where the 14 meets the 89, which I turned onto, now proceeding northbound. Another isolated road, quiet and gentle – still pretty, but the scenery was not nearly as imposing as some of the other desert I had passed through. I was soon re-tracing my steps from the outbound journey, and joined the road that I I ridden out of Bryce Canyon on. As I was passing through another beautiful set of red stone, the Red Canyon, the skies blessed me with a rather heavy downpour.
Having largely boiled myself on the outbound journey, and certainly had cooked myself to at least a medium-rare in the morning, to be wet and cool was wonderful. Well – for a bit. The rain was quite heavy and was hitting my face hard enough to sting, even though I had slowed down somewhat. It continue for about 15-20 minutes, by which time I was largely soaked.
The sky stayed quite overcast for the afternoon, but fortunately did not rain on me again – though I passed along a number of very wet roads. The route that i rode was another wonderful presentation of desert rock formations, canyons, high walls, the odd arch/window in the rock, and some great vistas. The road was not often straight, either, so I had a really nice and gentle, cool ride for much of the afternoon.
The last hour was a little less pleasant, because the road was recently paved, and had not only received a lot of rain but also was rather steep and twisty in many places, so I felt a bit uncertain about my traction. I slowed down a fair bit, and had a cool, damp and gentle trundle until I arrived in Torrey, where I am staying tonight. This place is a small motel, but has a number of covered wagons that one can rent instead of a room (which I chose not to do).
Most of my gear, other than my boots and socks, were dry. I hope the boots are dry by the morning – but its not like I have a choice about wearing them tomorrow, dry of otherwise.
My ride today lasted 10 hours and 400 miles – the longest of the trip. I was happy to arrive here. The motel also has a reasonable restaurant, so I ate dinner, spoke to Lena, added some air tot he bikes tires, and wrote my blog. Now I can go to sleep.
Tomorrow is largely another new route for me, but I am staying in a familiar spot tomorrow evening. Night night, see ya later.