The cycle tourists of southern Utah Nick, Zack and Daniel

On Monday I stayed in camp for a conference call with Joe Pinnelli and the design team back home. It worked fairly well when the facetime was working but when it wasn't, it was hard to understand what was being said. Still we accomplished a good bit and I can see the need for more involvement at this stage of the process. The day was a bit melancholy with thoughts of the comforts of home as well as the responsibilities. The meeting had run long and it was getting late but I packed up my stuff and decided to move on with some driving exploration of Capital Reef itself on the way out but first I had to contact Big Agnes about the blown and worn out zippers on my tent from the big blow and significant use. I couldn't get on the road and leave my precious cell signal until I had addressed that issue so I was sitting at the road near my camp site. Once again Big Agnes's response to what can I do about this gear problem was, "We'll need an address and will send a replacement right out" Really? Hmmm. Big Agnes rocks but where to send it? I had wanted to meet Kent Wallace face to face after working with him for 10 years on Koi pond stuff and since he lives in Las Vegas this seemed like a good excuse so I got him on the call with Big Agnes and he immediately agreed to receive the package and put me up for a few days in Vegas. Cool! Just then the magic returned. As I'm completing the call, in rides Nick Rodriguez. Two minutes later and I'd have missed him but when he pulled in I greeted him and he rode right over to chat. We instantly hit it off and I told him where he could camp and turned around and went back to spend the evening with him and share a dinner.

Nick is a builder in LA and we really hit it off. He has great values and a strong desire to produce high quality work. He takes off every three years and does a months long bike tour to explore the world. We quickly became friends and talked late into the night. The next morning we shared breakfast and parted ways after swapping contact info. I drove through Capital Reef and then took the back roads to the east of the park. I had considered doing the tour as a bike ride but became grateful I drove it after seeing the condition of the road. The recent rains have made the desert beautiful but has been rough on the roads and this road had 28 miles of rough dirt road.

In the north end of the park, there are old homesteads from the turn of the century that included lots of fruit orchards that are still maintained by the park service with the historic methods. They allow and encourage park visitors to pick the fruit when ripe.
 

When I got into Boulder Utah, I stopped and had a coffee and when I headed out I stumbled on the boys, Nick, Zach and Daniel. I had met Zach and Daniel before but not camped with them. I told them I would drive ahead and find a camp site and went back to the coffee shop to ask around and the magic held. The man buying cookies was the local BLM man and had some great suggestions for free sites not far from town and one of them was hidden and just perfect so the four of us headed over and set up camp and shared a dinner prepared by chef Ray. This is Looda the pitbull that Daniel has hauled all around the country. When climbing Boulder Mountain, Looda had to get out and walk which she seemed to enjoy.
 

 The morning dawned bright and calm but the forecast was for the wind to blow 25 mph and it soon proved to be true. The boys were headed to Escalante. I ended up there as well and we hunkered down in a motel to avoid the 35 mph winds. The winds stayed up and the next morning they headed out into it and I headed to Bryce Canyon. I am so happy to not be headed into this wind. These guys are due for some serious weather in the next few days.

The cross wind is blowing around 25 mph. I'm thinking about the boys on this descent. Once again I'm happy to be in the car.
 

This was a cool building on the way to Bryce Canyon. It was built by an 80 year old man and he died 6 years after it was completed. It serves as a restaurant and coffee shop run by his daughter.

The wind took it's toll and Nick and Daniel stopped short of Bryce Canyon by 25 miles. This would be significant as the next morning the temps were in the low 30s and the crosswind became a straight headwind at 15-25 mph. This would continue all day and the following night was forecast to dip into the mid 20s with continued high wind. The letup would not happen for a few days or until they covered 80 miles to get to lower elevations. Zack got to Bryce and we shared a camp site and the next morning we shared a hike in the morning while he waited for the temps to get up into the mid 40s. Sometimes fully loaded touring leaves you with few options for comfort. The next blog post will cover our experience in Bryce Canyon.