The upside to staying at what they call a 'primitive' campsite (meaning a patch of grass with proximitiy to a 'droppy'/dunny and a spigot)-is that it spurrs early start. We were on the road at the mild hour of 8am. Sadly headwinds don't seem to wait for any particular hour, and the first 12 miles of the day were brutal uphills into the wind. We were both privately prepared for a tough day by the time we rolled into our first town, Torrey, for breakie. The map informed us that now we had passed some foothills, we had a mountain over 7,000 feet to climb. So we entered Subway to prepare for battle.
We returned to the road with our weapons of choice under our belt (Matt; a foot-long sub and coffee, Sal; a 6 inch sub and more coffee.) On the upside (mind the pun)-the climb out of Torrey was gradual and scenic before hitting the mountain switchbacks. As we gained elevation, the craggy rockfaces and desert landscape was replaced with 'pygmy' pine forrest (what's on the tin; half-size fir trees). By the time we reached our first mountain pass of the day we felt like we were back in Colorado; surrounded by mountains and trees. At a 'scenic overlook', we sat on a log for some peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. A car pulled up and three Asian-Americans piled out to take photographs from all angles. One guy asked Matt incredulously 'Hey man, did you ride up here?' (full of sandwich, Matt nodded and tried to smile whilst chewing)-the guy responded; 'That's awesome!' Sometimes its' nice to be apreciated. Especially when we had another mountain to climb (and their car looked awfully comfortable.)
After a bit more uphill, we descended upon Escalante National Park... And what a descent! The steep gradients and turns were hair-raising and the scenery was distractingly jaw-dropping. We were glad to roll into the bottom of the canyon with hair and jaw intact. Just in time for a brutual uphill. It was hard but the odometer said we only had 17 miles to go, so we crawled on up.
After a long climb, the route took us along an impressive ridge almost a road-width wide with dramatic canyons on either side. What made the ride even more exciting was the complete lack of barriers; you snooze you lose! So we hurtled down the slippery slope feeling like we were playing a driving computer came. Luckily there was no Game Over.
Finally we reached the sweet town of Escalante, found a General store/RV park and introduced ourselves to the pretty lady at the counter. Apart from being a charmer at the front-desk, Michelle is a reporter for the local newspaper. She wanted to know our blog and might just feature us at some point. Michelle had other customers so we told her we'd be back once we'd secured some groceries. On our way back from the store, a couple of guys shouted at us from their varandah on the oppostie side of the lonely road. To shorten the ensuing interchange, they asked us where we were headed and Matt responded 'San Francisco'. They then asked where we were staying tonight, and we pointed to the store/RV park up the road. They laughed and the older guy on the left called out 'How'd you like to stay for free -tell 'em that Steve says so' -while the other guy added 'He owns the place!' We laughed and told them of our 3,000 milestone today, to which they charged their glasses. 'What friendly characters' we thought, as we cycled back to the store to settle up and set up camp.
When we returned to Michelle, she greeted us smilingly 'So Steve says you can stay for free, isn't that great?' -Somewhat taken aback (we thought the guys were joking!)-we established that no money was to exchange hands for camping and so we graciously set up camp. Two glorious showers in log-cabin washroms later, we sat by our campsite enjoying beers, camp food and wi-fi. An older gentleman sidled up who we quickly recognised as Steve; our generous host. Steve joined us at our table for a beer and told us of how he came to be the owner of the campsite, and of his business-plans for the future. He was in his 60's and owned 30 businesses; his next venture is a cycle-touring business based from his home. Steve had recently sponsored his neice to complete a Trans-America cycle of her own, and soon invited us to his nearby home for a guided tour.
Half an hour later, we were strolling through Steves' converted garage (future cycling-tour office)-and additional shed full of his own favourite bikes. Steve then welcomed us into his home, with its' ultra-modern interior despite its preserved 150+ year exterior. We talked art; looking at Steve's impressive print collection and he handed us a brochure for the Art festival he organises each year. Steve introduced us to the legend of Everatt Ruess, a Utah pioneer of old, and the muse for his own ventures. We exchanged contact details, promised to read up on Ruess and finally left Steve to prepare for his flight to Japan tommorrow. Never a dull moment for this retiree! Matt left starry-eyed at the idea of working for Steves' cycle-touring business some day.
Tired yet inspired, we managed to hit up our store/rv park/restaurant for a few beers and some live music. We soon retired to our tent, hoping to return to Escalante before too long.
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