Day 50, 51, 52

Dry Utah

Miles Biked: 85
80 (95 for me)
0

Hello from lovely MOAB, UTAH. We have entered the 11th state on our bike trip across the United States, crossed another milestone (literally), and are enjoying a day off in the middle of the desert. Thank God, because my legs were telling me if we had one more day with 2,000 ft climbs, they were going to fall off!

From Day 50 we woke up to Andy telling us that instead of a 55 mile day......he had rerouted us to make the trip 85 miles. Apparently the road he originally had us on was dirt for 50 miles. The ride took us South towards the San Juan part of the Rocky mountains. We climbed back up to the side of the Rockies in an uphill that took the wind out of me. I passed the two guys we saw on top of Monarch (the guys with no helmets and chain smokers). After lunch Pat and I stopped to mark another Milestone.........3,000 MILES BIKED!!!!!!!! We then headed out of the edge of the mountains along side the San Miguel River......which turned into the San Miguel Canyon. The walls of the canyon shot upward at least a thousand feet and red rock appeared. We had finally hit the desert. Eventually the road shot up and out of the canyon, meaning we had quite the climb (but quite the view) and the afternoon took us to Naturita......a podunk border town in Colorado that had little plant or people life.

A group of us decided instead of spending our evening activities in Naturita, we would shuttle an hour back into the Rockies to check out Telluride. Telluride is one of the most amazing towns I've ever seen. The town sits at the bed of 3 mountains which closes in the community. Bob Dylan was playing a show in the parkwhich Francis and Chris attended, but a group of us decided instead to hang out and watch the Tour De France in a sports bar. While walking away from the bathroom I noticed several Uconn Husky Championship posters on the wall. As I shouted to Bertoli "check out this Uconn stuff" a waitress told me half of the staff was from CT including the owner who she introduced me to. Much of my night was spent chattering over hot spots in CT. Apparently back at the homestead in Naturita the remaining HBC-ers tracked down beverages to play beirut with. Colin and Pat won two out of three.

The next day we headed out of Colorado and into Utah! I decided I wanted to beat the heat as much as possible....so I flew out of the gate with Corey and Chris. We winded down alongside the San Miguel river for 14 miles before the van came speeding up behind us. As I stuck out my "thumbs up" with a smile, Claire was hanging out of the passenger seat with my most feared phrase on her lips "you went the wrong way".
Me: "For how long?"
Her: "For 14 miles"

It appears our directions were a little screwy and I had missed a turn that was in town. Instead of biking back (up hill), I jumped in the van which dropped me back off at the start and I was an hour behind the lead group. The day led us down into the town of Bedrock which only contained a general store which looked like it hadn't changed since 1890. We then found ourselves biking towards the end of the valley with cliffs and mountains all around. Lisa and I played the game "where does the road go". She won.......straight up to the left.

We climbed for the next 20 miles through curvy switchbacks that took us up one mountain, into a canyon, across the state border, and up another mountain. By the end my legs were giving up, and the temperature was rising. Lucky for us......it is cool in Moab......95 degrees. That's 10 degrees below their average! We biked by some awesome red rock before entering the town.

Last night all of the 21 year old HBCers headed over to the Moab Brewery to try and understand Mormon Utah Liquor Laws. It appears that in Utah, you cannot buy a beer over 3.2%. Not only that, but if you go to a normal bar you have to pay a membership fee. Since we were at a restaurant, we didn't have to pay a fee, but when Lisa wanted wine she had to leave the bar area (which only sold 3.2% beer and nothing else), get a table 5 feet away in the restaurant, and order from there. The mood in the bar was a little strange with people struggling with the amount of liquid in their drinks. The Moab brewery was alot of fun even with the confusion and the best part of the night was buying "growlers". A growler contained 64 ounces of beer, came in a cool jug, and could only be purchased as a "to go" order. Gizmo happened to be turning 21........so we bought him a growler and hit the road.

When we returned we found out the Giz had tried to enter a bar at 12:00 Eastern time......which didn't fly with the Moab bouncer. After a growler was drunk and a nude bomb of streakers attacked a room full of sleepers the clock struck 12 and Gizmo turned 21. Unfortunately for the Giz......the only bar open in town after 12 was the one that rejected him. So myself, Francis, Bertoli, Lisa, and Craig headed down to the bar to let him buy his first legal drink. As soon as we walked in the bouncer now bartender looked at Giz......instantly remembered him.....and told him due to him trying to sneak in as an underage drinker (3 hours underage) he was not welcome. That answer was not acceptable for Francis who threw a tantrum, a scary man was called to kick Gizmo out of the bar, Francis made a scene and we left. Gizmo goes down as the first person to get kicked out of a bar on their birthday in 3.5 seconds! Well done!

Today's day off started with a rafting trip that I thought would have HUGE rapids. Instead it had about three class one rapids that were more like ripples. It was fun to jump in the Colorado River and float down it. We all agreed our tubing in Boulder Creek was 100 times more extreme. When we returned I got my bike tuned and wrote this blog. Apparently it will be pretty hot the next few days and I'm going to try and get some hiking in tonight in Arches National Park. Three more states of biking and I'm done.......wow!

Good news for those who love pictures....Pat has thrown his pictures up online (up to St Louis)......you can view them at http://picasaweb.google.com/patrick.muha