Wednesday, July 24th, 2024
Green River State Park UT —> Capitol Reef National Park UT
100.57 Miles (if you were me and Cleo), 3655 ft elevation
I woke up next to a pile of shit. Turns out Varsha and I set up our tent next to a pile of poop the night before, which just so happened to be on my side of the tent :(. No wonder I felt like I was in a literal dumpster.
Alas, I wasn’t the only one who had a bad morning- Hank, Cleo and Sophia all got flat tires before we even left the campground.
Twenty miles into the ride, Rebecca got a call from our driver Varsha that she wouldn’t be able to give us water at the first water stop. The bad morning luck was spreading- she got stuck on a pile of rocks that saved her from driving into a ditch. Ever the responsible driver, she set her Google Maps route to avoid interstates. But, little did she know, today we were cars. So, while we were on the nice paved roads of I-71, Varsha was playing Subway Surfers with boulders and loose gravel.
Luckily, after a few calls with Rebecca’s parents, Varsha was able to rejoin us at the second water stop with Chrissy fully intact. Ever the self-sufficient crew, we water farmed until we met up with Varsha, accruing a whopping 16 water bottles from kind strangers along the highway.
Reunited with our driver, we rode to our lunch spot for the day, Hanksville, while passing by the Henry Mountains. Needless to say, Hank (short for Henry) felt right at home.
The latter half of the day was long, hot, and headwind-y. At the last water shop, Varsha shared her kombucha with me, which powered me through till Capitol Reef.
I immediately collapsed onto the ground when I arrived at our campground, 96 miles under my belt. But then, Cleo proposed finishing the ride to a century and I couldn’t resist. So, I hopped back on and we rode four miles, bringing my century count up to 5! To celebrate, we trekked down to Fremont River to swim. Unfortunately, we later learned that the river had higher than recommended E. coli levels. Oops.
We devoured a delicious taco dinner and I took a quick Bessie (our water container) shower before we drove to a stargazing spot. Unfortunately, the clouds were not on our side so we quickly returned to our campsite for much-needed sleep.
It’s kind of crazy how just two months ago, I couldn’t even fathom biking more than 50 miles and now I am willingly biking extra miles to get to 100. I know it’s just an arbitrary number, but I feel incredibly proud of my body and the team for riding every day, even if it starts out shitty.
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