Day 57: a nice day to Bryce

Escalante, UT -> Bryce Canyon National Park, UT, 51.5 mi, 4290 ft

This was in many regards a standard Spokes day. We took our time in the morning, rested well at rest stops, but somehow made it to the end before dark. So, without major events to recount, I will show you all the pictures I took this day.

Starting off, headed out from Escalante with Ruth ❤ after saying bye to our lovely hosts and their dogs <3. My sealant fixed a puncture, but made a weird blob. We rode like this for a while.

At some point people caught up to us and we peloton-ed our way up the first climb (out of two) to a viewpoint. The peloton was great for efficiency in the face of headwinds. It was a good time (at least for me, drafting behind :D) This stretch of the day also featured some nice signs. Unfortunately, saw no Elk, and the steep grades for us were downhill.

Here are the views from the viewpoint, featuring weird rocks and some mountains in the distance. And here is Tian eating a sandwich? and Ishaq admiring the view.

I tried to take some pictures of the info plates, in case someone is super curious, but the sun made my efforts difficult.

The next reward (after the viewpoint) for climbing that climb was the downhill! Look at Ishaq speeding away! After zooming down, we met up with Ruth, Tian, Charles and Greta (I think….) and chatted for a bit. I think Charles was trying to bike with Ruth this day, a decision which he had mixed feelings about. The most important bit of the conversation centered around finding a measurement for people’s behinds. When biking we spend a lot of time with people’s butts in our sights, so it is a very relevant question to research. In the picture Ruth and Tian are discussing this question of metrics, comparing different options, like waist to butt ratio or height to butt ratio. (Spoilers, in the end Ruth implemented two of these in the evening, creating a Spokes buttocks ranking, which will not be published due to privacy policy. The chosen method of measurement also ended up receiving some criticism, so the study might need to be redone.) Anyways, back to the story.

We made it to our next rest stop – a great, green, shaded lawn, where we had some food, and I took some paparazzi style pictures through the leaves. Tian’s one is my personal favourite. Notice me struggling to get the leaves out of her face. We layed on the lawn for a bit and Greta read us some horoscopes, which was quite entertaining. She had also made around 8 sandwiches that morning for herself and other Spokies. This is a strategy (I’m guessing introduced by Charles?), so that people don’t have to make a sandwich every single day.

Getting to the next rest stop was pretty chill. Here’s Tian by some nice rocks. The middle one is a great image. Observe Ishaq cruising downhill in the least aero pose ever and Ruth (way more aero) struggling to keep up. Finally, there is Ruth entering civilization, where we would find our next and final rest stop for the day – a cafe. I did not take any pictures there, but people got some lattes, Ruth tried, but did not quite succeed at reading a book in German, and I was stressing over what to make for dinner tomorrow (since I am not driving, I am not usually in charge of picking a dinner, so I was having too many thoughts). The cafe had a cool ice machine OUTSIDE the cafe, which was interesting and very convenient for us.

After the refreshments we were faced with our final climb – getting up to Bryce. We entered the National Park territory, Charles stopped to take a picture of the sign. (I did not stop to take a picture of Charles taking a picture.) There was a winding road leading us up, and while I was too busy climbing to take pictures (there is one singular photo), you have to trust me the views were great!

Up there it was flat again and we made it onto a bike path that lead us to our campsite. Me, Ruth, Greta and Charles also stopped for some ice cream / milkshakes, but we all collectively forgot to take pictures. It was a great time though.

After we made it to our campground and were setting up, we learned that there will be a fire ban, starting at midnight, so after showers and dinner (pasta with salad and Italian sausage, thanks, Sarah!), we sat by the fire and collectively did not do much. Contemplating life, being tired, doing an Instagram post, tidying up, watching a baseball game, listening to music. We were lost in thought, small under the night sky, brought together by the fire.