Last night I was so tired that I could barely eat two tortillas with peanut butter for dinner. Following in my previous night’s junk food dinner this did not bode well for today.
Breakfast was two tortillas with peanut butter. This didn’t bode well either.
After taking a picture of the moon in the west, I loaded up The Mule and began to climb back out to the main road at 6:30. Two-mile climbs are a bad way to start any day.
The climb was followed by a steep descent to the Colorado River then a long slog back out of the canyon. This involved some walking as my legs were dead from yesterday’s adventure.
Even though the climb was a bit of a drag, the scenery was hard to beat. Glen Canyon is truly awesome. After seeing it, the next 40 miles paled in comparison.
I kept rolling along a gradual uphill following the road along a river. This was punctuated with a few climbs around mesas and buttes.
My body had nothing to offer. Pop Tarts didn’t help. Water didn’t help. A Fuji apple helped but it’s beneficial effects faded as the sugar wore off.
Ride. Stop. Drink. Calculate the miles remaining. Repeat.
When you’re this bonked you spend most of the ride looking at the ground in front of you. What a waste of spectacular geology.
I arrived in Hanksville hoping to find people dressed up as Woody from Toy Story (“Reach for the Sky!”). My luck was bad except for the very first shop, a hamburger joint named Stan’s. Double cheeseburger, fries, and a large vanilla shake.
What a gut bomb. Did it ever taste good, too.
I ended up grabbing a cabin at an RV park. It’s expensive but has a shower, TV, WiFi, and quite.
After making some phone calls (l’d been out of cell phone range for two days) I fell asleep writing yesterday’s post.
When I woke up the wind was blowing and rain was falling. This is pretty much the norm for a summer afternoon in Utah, it seems.
Total miles: 52
Tour miles: 1,941.5
Top speed: 37.1 mph
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 
Rest Eat Sleep. Repeat. Please take care of yourself.
Average speed and elevation would be interesting. Bonking sucks. I did see a couple of typos there after 40 miles parked (paled), might have done hoped (helped), up hill (uphill). Sorry, I was a proofreader once. I have plenty of typos. Point is you’re out there cranking out the miles, and I’m not. Make all the typos you want. But maybe take a rest day?
Some of these are not so helpful corrections by WordPress. In any case, I am usually so tired when I write these posts they it’s a wonder they make any sense at all.
Yeah, I thought of that but went ahead. I’m always correcting.mine the next morning, without 50+ miles either… New nickname for ya: The Big Bonker!
Bonking sucks but then you know that, hope the rest of the tour is bonk-free. I was headed to Glen Canyon when I took a VW bus tour of the states in 92 but had some mechanical issues and ended up dropping it from my list. I did get to see Bryce Canyon with snow as a consolation. Desolate Gorgeous country in Utah.