The ride today wasn’t too bad. I woke up refreshed after a night in a real bed in a beautiful hotel room. There were a few long climbs, which was especially difficult since we did not expect them. Because of construction, we had to use a different route than the one in the grid sheet, and ended up doing three times the amount of climbing. Most of us did not realize this, so after a 15-mile climb up the first peak (which we thought was the only one), we almost died on the second 5-mile climb (followed by a third, and a fourth, etc.). The downhill into town was also rough with some strong headwinds slowing us down to 12 mph.
The roadside scenery was great for a change. After a long time in the desert, we were met with a lot of greenery and a few dry patches. We saw hot air balloons in the early morning, and rode through a few small towns. One thing we saw a lot of was road kill, which wasn’t very pleasant. There was a dead moose on the side of the road in the first 10 miles, and a freshly killed deer strewn across the highway at mile 60. That’s not counting the dozens of small rodents and birds we dodged on the shoulder. Bleh.
We arrived in Duchesne, UT for an afternoon sponsored by the mayor of the town. We went out to Starvation Lake and went tubing and sunbathing! Although I couldn’t tube because of my arm injury, it was hilarious watching my friends skid into the water on turns. I wish I had brought my camera onto the lake to catch some of those falls! Dinner was amazing. We had homemade pulled pork and some of the best brownies I have ever had. It’s funny because I came into this trip expecting hamburgers and pizza for most of the trip. The quality of the food has really surpassed my expectations. It seems as tough every town is trying to outdo the one prior to it.
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