Day 62: Elapsed Time Warriors

Lava Point Campground, UT to Milford, UT — 89.5 mi, 3,849 ft

I’m exhausted when I wake up at 7:30am, which is entirely my fault because camping seems to bring out the insomnia demon within me. After packing up the tent and my belongings, I head to the campground table to make some brekkie. Greta has a terrible habit of THROWING AWAY avocado halves I’ve left in the cooler, so this time I leave nothing to chance: I make myself a scuffed avo toast using our overly crumbly marble rye bread because the ~artisanal~ bread I bought yesterday was devoured before I could have a piece. It was still quite yummy.

Now, Lava Point Campground has no service, as is expected of a campground. Greta and I were silly and did not upload navigation to our bike computers the day before, so we’re reliant on others to guide us today. We start off by following Charles, Ishaq, and Sarah, but I ditch them for Tian at the first rest stop because she doesn’t spend an eternity on her breaks. We descend upon a nasty gravel descent that I take slow and Tian takes slower. I resolve to meet her at the next intersection. Ramona does not take gravel descents slowly, so she zooms past the both of us. At the end of the worst part, I see Ramona sitting at an intersection in the distance. I assume it’s the second rest stop and sit down next to her, but she clarifies that she also does not have navigation. So we sit. And wait. We actually have service here, but can’t seem to upload the route to our bike computers. So we sit. And wait some more. A couple minutes later, Joseph, today’s driver, passes by us, explaining that Tian fell and he’s on his way back up to pick her up. He points out on RideWithGPS which direction we should go, then dips. This is when Ramona realizes that we can just navigate from our phones! Equipped with a bunch of screenshots of the route, we head to rest stop 3, a cafe in Cedar City.

When we get there, Tian and Joseph are inside. This is when I realize that Tian took a real beating. Like really bad. We get her some ice for her face and eat our lunches in silence. I was trying and failing to think of ways to make her feel better, when Charles pulls up and buys her a drink from the cafe. Very sweet. Despite the bruises, Tian manages to keep her sense of humor, joking that her “modeling career is ending before it began” (she’s probably only 50% joking though). Ramona and I head out shortly after, as we typically do, leaving as Greta starts doing her very legitimate tarot card readings. 

Over the next stretch, something magical happens, so faint that I barely even notice it. But Ramona’s spidey senses perk up. “Is that… a tailwind?” I gasp. Yes. Yes it is. It’s fleeting, which makes it all the sweeter. For the next five miles, I daydream of tailwinds carrying us to SF. Sigh.

Now sometimes (actually a lot), Ramona talks to me while we’re biking and I have no idea what she’s saying. This is partially because of the wind, partially because Ramona speaks quietly, and partially because I’m a little deaf. This time, I hear her mumble something incoherent then promptly swerve to the left side of the road. I’m slightly concerned because I see an oncoming car, but I trust Ramona with my life so I follow her anyway. Soon, I understand why. She’s led us right into some sprinkler mist! Slightly wet, she looks back at me with an evil grin, and I grin back. Typical Ramona shenanigans.

When we arrive at rest stop 4, I look at my phone and learn that Ishaq’s rear derailleur broke. Luckily, he was in a bike shop to look at the gash in his tire from an earlier ride. I’m pretty sure everyone but me and Ramona went to the bike shop to check out something or another, but I have no idea because we are far far away from them by this point. Ramona and I have enough water and snacks to keep biking, so we leave again.

Over the next 10 miles, very little happens. Ramona recites poetry to me, something about a dream in a dream. We point at a lone cow on the side of the road. We look in awe at the barren landscape around us, a landscape so desolate it’s hard to believe civilization was all around us only an hour ago. Where’d it all go?

At rest stop 5, Ramona and I are tired and have maybe 4 oz of water left each. Joseph would be there in 30 minutes. We both hate waiting, but not having water is a pretty big deterrent. Ramona is leaning towards staying, while I’m leaning towards biking the 11 miles and hoping not to get dehydrated. The next rest stop is a gas station we can refill at, and the next stretch is completely downhill, which is convincing enough that Ramona agrees to leave. We are the true elapsed time warriors.

While gravel downhills are the bane of my existence, paved downhills are quite the opposite. We max at 37 mph without pedaling. Impeccable. We get to the gas station in under half an hour with water to spare. After refilling and snacking, we head out for the last 18 miles. Mother nature decides to bless us again with tailwinds, and we arrive at the church slightly before 7pm.

The rest of the night is pretty boring. After showering and helping unload the car, I work on this blog. Others are washing bikes, calling family, sending emails, cleaning dishes, or napping. This might have been the quietest post-ride ever. Joseph makes quesadillas for dinner, but by the time they’re ready I’m utterly exhausted and have gone to bed. I’m sure your quesadillas were fire though, Joseph.