Brigham Young... Good Call On the Settlement, Not So Much On the Other Stuff...

Brevity has never been a strong suit of mine, but I'll attempt to keep it short for today. Also, I have been getting everyone's comments and I really appreciate the support. I can't figure out how to reply to them via the iPhone app, but I have been reading and enjoying the feedback.



The honeymoon is over and it's about to start getting real. So far, I've been able to rely to some extent on the availability of convenience stores, restaurants, and people when it was time to take care of business. I've eaten a few really great meals, drank an incalculable volume of Gatorade and been fortunate enough to come across some nice people who have allowed me to fill my water bottles in their home. This will all be but a memory starting tomorrow.

I made it to Utah, and already I have noticed a growing scarcity of people and services. Tomorrow there is a 74 mile stretch with absolutely no civilization. That's not too bad, but it will be the first time I won't have the option to pull into the kwik-shop for a refill or a cold drink. It will be a trial run, because soon enough, the stretches will increase to the hundreds of miles.

As usual, each state continues to show up with it's own bag of tricks. I wouldn't have expected that an imaginary line drawn by rich guys in the nineteenth century would make much difference for my purposes, but each time I cross a state line, the game changes in many ways.

Crossing into Utah was an interesting experience. I even tried to ignore the political distinction between what's known as Colorado and Utah and focus only on the surroundings. Still I could sense a difference, the most obvious being the roads. Different committees decide differently how to pave the roads, so naturally that is the first aspect of a new state to enter my consciousness. This could easily be lost by travelling in a car, but I am far more connected to the pavement. We share an intimate relationship that in all honesty is often too intimate.

Anyway, imagine Kansas as a silk tablecloth draped over a chess board mid-game and you may have some approximation of the appearance of southeast Utah. The agricultural industry is back, but with strange bumps and peaks all over the place. Farms and livestock were abound once again as I rode through the first thirty miles of Utah, but at a certain point, the geology wins out and farming just becomes impossible. By the time I got past Monticello, it was back to natural and grand landscapes.

It was cold and rainy all day. I went through every combination of my rain cape, jacket, arm warmers and gloves in an attempt to find a balance of warmth without stifling constriction. Everything just got wet and I spent most of the day shivering and damp. When it's not raining, things dry out incredibly fast out here, but in 99-100% humidity, everything just stays wet. Hopefully I'll get a dry day tomorrow so I can lay everything out in the sun on my lunch break.

And apparently the only things which provide shade out here are rocks. I haven't needed shade in quite some time, as the weather through Colorado has been mostly damp and cool too, but I have a feeling I may be in need of some soon. I suppose I can always set up my tent and take a nap during the day if it gets too bad.

My mileage will be very interesting in the coming days because of the total lack of resources out here. I may be putting in some extra-long days as well as some extra-short simply to put myself near a water source for the evening. Today was only 83, but tomorrow will either be 74 or 126 depending on how much ground I can cover. There is more downhill than uphill tomorrow, but the uphill may be pretty intense, so I just have to wait and see how I handle it physically.

Thanks again for the feedback. This whole thing still feels fresh to me, but I can only imagine how old it must seem back home. I'm just surprised people haven't simply forgotten about this in the midst of leading a normal life, so thanks again for those who have been enjoying my rants.

If you enjoy reading my weak attempts at being descriptive, let me know. Sometimes I get to a place and consider abstaining from writing for a day, and it helps a lot to see that other people are taking something away from it too. I know that I will be glad to have this chronicle for myself in the future, but I also know that I could easily just drop it all after one missed day. It helps to have some external motivation.

Time for bed and time to get serious tomorrow. I'm off to the wilderness. Stay tuned because I will still be posting on here and on TrackMyTour.com/2220 whenever I get a chance, but there may be some delays due to me being in the middle of the desert/being eaten by vultures.

Location:Blanding, UT