Day 56: The Seasons of Spokes

Capitol Reef NP, UT -> Escalante, UT — 68 miles, 6,031 ft

👋 Charles here with a driver blog. After last night’s magical stargazing experience, we took the liberty of sleeping in this morning. Despite the mountain of tasks that stood between us and getting on the road, I woke up with a ball of energy and a strong desire to be the best driver ever. The route that lay ahead for the bikers included a long gravel ascent, so I promised everyone I could pack up the campsite solo and told them to get on the road after getting ready. Some tried to sneakily help out, but I shooed everyone away and got to crackin’ on packin’.

After doing last night’s (we left them for the morning, oops) and the morning’s dishes, everyone had left and it slowly dawned on me that perhaps I bit off more than I could chew. I still felt determined, but I was realizing that I would probably be way late to rest stop 1, and I had no cell signal to message the Spokies.

Even though we’re at the point in the trip where being a driver is less enjoyable than biking – it’s a lot of chores without any company – I found myself embracing the opportunity to pay off last night’s loan we borrowed from our morning’s readiness for our time under the stars. Or maybe I was just really in the zone. To pass the time, I guessed that I had maybe 40 things to load into the car was packed. I loaded the roof storage. 39. 38. 37. 36… My phone had overheated and died, so I had no music, no concept of time, just a bunch of gear and a slowly filling car.

Eventually, the finite and decreasing items reached 0 (actually like -10) and I hit the road. Almost 2 hours had passed. Oooops. When my phone turned back on (at a very opportune time since I had no clue which direction to head in after retracing the entry road to the national park), I saw that all the bikers except Tian had moved on from rest stop 1. Double oooops. I reached rest stop 1 and picked up an extremely frazzled Tian, who had requested to hitch a ride.

Tian had made her way to rest stop 1 in record time. Record slow time, that is. She was fine, thankfully. But biking was simply not in the cards for her today. Highlights included “I was going so slow… I think if I tried to finish today I would arrive at like midnight,” “I felt like I was in a dream,” “my legs were not cooperating,” and “the whole thing just didn’t feel real… it was so surreal.” So, I had company for the day!

Tian filled me in on the cute boy they met at the general store who actually was at MIT and on vacation with his family. Ruth and Ramona, who had left the earliest, had narrowly missed this chance encounter. We concluded Ruth would be crushed to learn of this.

Getting close to rest stop 2, we hit the ascent, and not long after, the gravel. To make matters worse, the headwinds were so strong we could hear them from inside the car. I certainly did not envy the Spokies who were biking today. We passed most of the bikers a mile from rest stop 2 and gave them food and encouragement. Tian tried to hug Greta from the window but missed as I was pulling away. A half mile of reversing later and kicking up a nasty cloud of dust, we rectify this grave sin 🙄

Ruth and Ramona had conked out at rest stop 2.

Triple ooooops. They snacked and refilled on water as Tian told them about who they had missed. Really dreamy eyes apparently. Over the past few weeks, the idea of the “seasons” of Spokes has taken ahold of our group, starting with the Spokies narcissistic enough to believe we are characters in a TV show, and slowly becoming a regular conversation topic. At the rest stop, Tian, Ruth, Ramona, and I decided last night was the season 3 finale. The others agreed when they reached the rest stop. We wondered what would be in store for us in season 4, proposed possible character arcs, and speculated on if season 4 would be a good one (narrator: it was certainly an exciting one).

Not a tree was in sight at rest stop 3 — a tiny pullover from the gravel road in the midst of an endless, dry grassy plain. The sun was bearing down, so I thought it would be a good idea to fetch the ground tarp from the roof storage and try and pitch a shaded awning besides the car with some rocks holding down the loose corners. We quickly realized this was a futile effort given the windy conditions. But this quickly turned into a far better idea: running around with the full tarp flapping behind us and pretending we were superheroes.

Tian and I made parachutes and tried to fly; we pretended we were fashion models debuting extremely avant garde capes on the runway; we curled up in the tarp and hid from the sun; we held it up as high as we could and made finish line tunnels for bikers as they pulled in to the rest stop. I did not work on my blog.

After rest stop 3, the climb flattened out. A few minutes into our next drive, Tian randomly shouts “Charles you’re a dumbass!!” Taken aback, I ask what she means. “Charles you’re a dumbass!!” Truly unhinged behavior. Top tier bit; I can’t lie. I threaten to roll the car and kill us both. Tian demands I do it. An eventful 15 miles later, we pull into rest stop 4. At this point, I am the truly frazzled one.

The route had turned into an extremely bumpy descent at this point. Have I told you how glad I am to have missed this ride? Ruth and Ramona were not having a great time when we met them at the rest stop. As Tian and I chatted away, full of energy, Ruth lay on the ground, unmoving. She says maybe five words the whole time before standing up and charging on with a determined look on her face. There are definitely two types of responses to a particularly difficult route. The first is to grit your teeth, saddle up, and try to get it over with as soon as possible. The other response rolls into the rest stop a full HOUR after Ruth and Ramona DEPART.

Nonetheless, we congratulate everyone on nearly finishing this terrible, no-good bike. I pass on a few murder threats from Ruth and Ramona to Joseph, our resident route architect. I unsuccessfully try and kick my bully (Tian) out of the car.

We arrive at the host’s house after dusk. Ruth and Ramona have already arrived. Tian and I unpack the car. Joseph and Sarah arrive not long after. Greta and Ishaq, Spokes’ two fastest bikers, are nowhere to be seen. Some 15 minutes later, they arrive. They’re in fine condition. What took them so long? Greta pulled over a couple times on the gravel descent to give her hands a rest, and one of these times, just fell backwards (??). Yeah, I didn’t understand either. But she’s okay! Just a bit… frazzled (word of the day).

We eat a hard-earned (ok, the bikers eat a hard-earned) dinner and chat with our host, a pastor. We meet their dogs before everyone retires for the night. One last bout of silliness strikes Greta, Ishaq, and I’s room. The last thing I remember the next morning is Ishaq’s extension cord of pure greed: