We knew today was going to be a tough day. We had to climb up to Cedar Breaks National Monument which was almost 2 miles above sea level (10,400 ft). Cedar City was around 5,500 ft. We left the church ready for our second huge pass of the trip. This one was steeper, higher elevation, but not as long as Carson Pass had been.
We made a stop at the grocery store before the climb to stock up on anything else we needed to get over the mountain. As we were getting ready to leave outside the store, a store employee asked about our trip. We told him where we were going and he casually mentioned that the mountain would be full of drunks by 3 in the afternoon for Memorial Day weekend. We have started to lose track of days as the trip has gone on and only know where we are going and where we have been. We heard his warning and knew we couldn’t wait around. The mountain needed to be climbed.
We turned out of the town and almost immediately started going up. The first few miles were relatively easy. Nothing we hadn’t done before. Then we hit the sign above and it started getting tough. Huge cliffs with red, orange and pink hues towered around us as we climbed.
The worst part of the day, and somewhat of a theme, was the fact that cars are awful. People were heading over the mountain to get to their memorial vacation spots. Many were pulling RVs or even worse, a huge RV pulling another behind it. The roads were narrow and windy so almost every pass felt like it was dangerous. Some drivers were very respectful and gave us space while others would pass and leave just enough space that they wouldn’t hit us.
During one break, we looked down the road and saw another cyclist coming up after us. As the figure got closer, we realized it was actually two people riding a tandem bike. They stopped to talk to us and we found out they were from Great Britain (it was sort of obvious by their flag jerseys 🇬🇧). They were most likely in their 60’s and had toured all over the world. They had started at 5am in Milford, the town we had left the previous day and were heading to the same town we were for the night. They were staying in hotels so they didn’t carry anywhere near as much stuff as we did.
We would bike for about an hour before stopping to check in and regroup. The number of miles traveled between stops steadily decreased. We eventually reached a high enough elevation that it was affecting our breath. This made it even harder. Fortunately, the scenery kept us going.
Just a quick reminder that there is still a constant barrage of cars and RVs passing us as we roll our way up.
One sign that we stopped informed us that the different layers of color on the cliffs were caused by an ancient ocean that this area was formed under. The different colors come at different altitudes.
We eventually reached a point that flattened out at just under 10,000 feet and even descended a bit. The cliffs were no longer visible and a large meadow surrounded the road. We turned into a new route that took us towards Cedar Breaks National Monument. A miserably steep 3 miles suddenly turned into one of the most beautiful sights of the trip. We wanted to get a good view of it so we rolled towards the viewing platform. Before getting their, we realized there was a toll station and we asked how much it was to continue. The attendant said “$7 per person” which caused us to instantly turn around. We continued down the road until we we saw a trail and then followed it 40 ft until it came to a good view of what apparently was $7/person down the road. It was absolutely stunning and we justified stealing a peek by the fact that we had biked up there. The toll was for the nasty cars.
There were still some ups and downs left on the road but they were nothing compared to what we had just finished. The views made the climbs feel easy. We stopped and talked to a cyclist who was local and on a day ride up and then back down the mountain. He told us that the road we were going down had some of the steepest grades in the area. They did not dissapoint.
We began the long descent into Panguitch, Utah happy with what we had accomplished and once again totally forgetting the miserable climb that we had completed that morning.
One thing we had wished for the entire trip was for a car to get pulled over for passing us too close. This was wishful thinking we thought because it required three things to happen all at once. 1. A car needed to pull a close pass on us. 2. A cop needed to be there to see it. 3. The cop needed to care enough to go pull them over. We had talked about the greatness of this moment many times but always dismissed it. As you can probably guess based on the amount of discussion, IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED. We were descending around Panguitch Lake on a pretty open road. We were riding two wide which is allowed. Suddenly, a car came from behind and went by right up next to us without using the full other line that was open next to us. We reacted in our normal fashion, yelling, throwing our arms up in disgust, and throwing a choice finger. Almost immediately after, we passed a cop who had his window down. He yelled “they’re stupid!” As we passed and then, in poetic fashion, turned on his lights and zoomed around us to chase down the car. We threw up our arms and yelled in celebration with high fives all around. With all of the amazing things we had seen, this still felt like one of the most triumphant moments of the entire trip.
A few miles down the road, the car came up behind us again. This time they were much more respectful. They waited behind us for a long time waiting for a very clear moment to pass. They went by with lots of space and we gave them a somewhat gloating wave. It was a great moment.
The last hills down into the town of panguitch were the steepest. We hit a new top speed of 54.8 mph. Definitely a scary speed for being on a bike.
After arriving in Panguitch, we found the grocery store and started thinking about dinner. We called a few campgrounds and they were all full. Finally we found one that was 8 miles away that had space. We bought hotdogs and made our tires sprint ourt of town. After what felt like forever, we arrived. We showered and started a fire and started eating our hot dogs along with some marshmallows we still had from Nevada.
A couple at an RV site near our fire invited us over to have s’mores and asked us about our trip. They were in awe that people would do a trip like this.
It was a cold night with temperatures reaching 38° but it felt good knowing how much we had done that day.