I guess we couldn’t expect it to be perfect cycling the whole trip.

Day 22: Hanksville to Fry Canyon Lodge
72 miles, 20-30 mph headwinds
Oh my god! Well all days can’t be perfect. And we thought this would be such a pleasant ride too, only 72 miles and mostly downhill.

I had a bad feeling when I woke up. The wind howled the night before and kept Gabi up most of the night. When I went to check the bike, I noticed that the trailer tire was low and when I went to pump it up, I find that the pump is damaged. I was able to fix it but this took some time and by the time we got everything together and on the road it was late (7:10).

Initially the ride was fine. But about an hour into it, it was like someone flipped a switch and turned on the wind. Just like that we were pedaling into a 25-30 mph headwind. We climbed through this for about an hour then started to descend into Glen Canyon. It got worse. We were going down hill but riding hard in low gears. Wind like that saps your energy.

By the time we got to the Colorado River crossing, it was already 1:30. We had been riding since 7 and still had a 28 mile climb into the headwind during the hottest part of the day. Thank god we brought extra water because we needed every drop.

There is a huge climb right after the crossing and guess what? Half way up we got our first flat. It was a quick change but on top of everything else, we were starting to suffer. But what are you going to do? We pushed on. At around 4 PM, we were starting to run out of water. Gabi was really suffering since she had barely slept. At one point she said she wanted to stop, I coached her on to climb to the top of the next rise…..

And there it was, about a mile and a half down the road we could see the Fry Canyon Lodge (insert link here)! We felt like we died and went to heaven. The Fry Canyon Lodge is very, very nice. The best lodging and food since Volcano. In California this lodge would be 150-200 dollars a night but was 90 here. They are totally off the grid. They have a satellite phone and generate their own electricity. This place is right on the highway but still very, very remote.

After guzzling great quantities of Gatorade, bathing (I took a long bath) and napping we were ready for a big tasty dinner. And it was. We woke up refreshed and ready to roll!