77.34 mi / 7:10:14 time / 10.7 mph avg / 37.0 mph max / 6386(!) ft climbing
Staying in Kaibab National Forest

After a couple easy days on the bike, it was time again for a big one, so I made sure to get an early start. Since the beginning, my plan had been to continue west from Zion, then south into Arizona, before heading back east. But after talking with Fred and Regina at Zion Cycles, they helped convince me that backtracking east out of Zion made the most sense. Only after talking with them did I realize that it had been my apprehension about making it through the tunnel that had prevented me from even considering that route, which meant I’d have to make it through twice. But since the first time was so easy, what harm would there be in trying again? It would cut some 50 miles, and maybe even a whole day off the trip, and I don’t think I’d be missing much.

After crawling back up the switchbacks and making it to the tunnel ranger station, I got a stern “I’ll need you to stop right there and turn around” from the ranger. Haha, I don’t think so! When I made it clear I was going through as soon as I could find some help, she softened a bit, even saying she’d take me through at 11:30 when her shift was over, if nothing came sooner. I hoped it wouldn’t take that long, but the problem was, I was so early in the morning that there wasn’t much traffic yet. Still, when the first RV showed up after 10 minutes, I gave it a shot, and asked if there was any chance if they room inside for me and the bike. The older gentleman said they had a couple of dogs in there, so I said, no worries, I’ll wait for the next one. But they had to wait for the tunnel to clear, and in the meantime I think his wife worked on him, and eventually they offered a look inside to see if I thought I could fit. Sure could, so I quickly grabbed my stack of bags (even getting help from the ranger!) and loaded them, me, and the bike inside along with their two friendly golden retrievers. So twice through the tunnel with almost no wait at all, yay people!

Some miles later I ran into a couple of bike tourists going the other way, and we shared info about what was coming ahead for each other, with them being paticularly concerned with the upcoming tunnel. I hope they had as much luck as I did, but since one of them was a pretty girl, I bet they did even better!

I had another big hill to climb on US 89 before making it to Kanab, which is a rather large town (two movie theaters!) I had my first McDonald’s of the whole trip there. Then I crossed into Arizona into Kanab’s sister-city of Fredonia. There I stopped at the National Forest ranger station to get advice on camping options, did a final stock-up (including an extra 3L of water) and headed out to climb the big hill leading to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

As expected, the hill was long, hard, and slow, but traffic was minimal, and the weather was pretty nice, despite turning some of my chocolate bars into pure liquid. The state had markers along the road indicating 5000, 6000, and 7000 ft. The only problem was that they were horribly wrong! They were too low by at least 300 ft, making me think that I had a lot more climbing left to do. Only when I passed a viewpoint shelter that said 6700 ft. just after passing the 6000 ft. road sign did I know that my altimeter was correct and the signs were wrong. Idiots!

Somewhere above 6000 ft. the sagebush turned to pine forest, and just before I reached the crossroads of Jacob Lake, I headed down a recommended Forest Service road to do my first dispersed / free / wild / crap-in-a-hole camping of the trip. Found a nice spot with logs for a chair and even a fire ring, though after 6000+ ft of climbing (a new record) I didn’t quite have the energy to build a fire, and instead remembered Dennis by having a dinner of his chili and ramen noodles.

I also hit some sort of magical cyclist’s Golden Number, when I reached 7436 ft. at exactly 74.36 miles into the ride. I guess my winnings will be awarded at the end of the trip.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 2:51 pm and is filed under 2009 Bike Tour, bike. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.