Hite, UT to Capitol Reef National Park – 78 miles
Yesterday I woke up at 330 am because I couldn’t sleep due to the heat. I was super tired. Saw what looked like a mouse run away from my bike as I walked over to it and discovered that he had chewed through a couple of my bags and gorged himself on my food. Luckily he didn’t touch the oatmeal. I made some for breakfast and drank some coffee to try to wake up. I was packed up and riding out to the Hwy with Thierry just before 5. We wished each other well and went opposite directions.
I rode across the Colorado River. It was really cool looking at dawn, but couldn’t take a good picture of it in the low light. As soon as I started to climb the other side my chain gave out. It took a little work, but after cleaning everything really well I was able to get a new link in there. Not a great start to a long day. I continued riding and in a couple more miles my chain fell off of my rear cog toward my spokes and was lodged pretty bad. It took awhile to get it out and I was nervous that I was going to get stuck in the heat before I got to Hite. Eventually I got it dislodged and continued riding. The sun was rising by now and I decided to stop at a pull off and walk down to the river that was running near the road to soak my clothes to keep me cool as it warmed up.
The ride to the next town, Hanksville, really seemed to drag on probably because I was feeling pretty discouraged. I got to Hanksville at around 11 and stopped at the first restaurant I found. Ate some breakfast, drank a lot of coffee, and hung out in the A/C. I stayed there for close to 5 hours and considered getting my first motel of the trip, but ultimately decided to try to make it to a campsite just outside of Capitol Reef National Park, about 30 miles.
It was still pretty hot as I pedaled on and I started to feel exhaustion set in. I found some shade behind a rock before it got too bad and ate some food and drank some water. The heat seems to really stifle my appetite, so I constantly have to remind and force myself to eat something so I have energy.
I was about a mile away from the campsite that I was shooting for when I found a fantastic spot on the Fremont River and decided to camp there. Clouds had rolled in, so it didn’t look like it was going to cool off much. I setup my tent, made some food, and crawled into my tent as soon as possible to get some rest.
