The Salt Lake Loop - Part 3: One day of hell, two days of bea

My route this time at the beginning, the program putted it always to the top everytime I tried, I don't know why...

The following three days I intended to make it to the other side of the Colorado River again and to complete with these three stages the Salt Lake Loop which would have taken me about 11 days then, one day faster than I expected. But I wasn't finished yet and like I experienced the days before you never know how far you could get, especially with the wind which is totally unpredictable!

Campsite before the big pass

For this day I was ready now to face the big pass up to the Colorado plateau before the road would descent again until I would have crossed the Colorado River. With lots of optimism I got on the road again, climbing up the first 600m/2000ft and was totally happy how fast it went until I got to the top of the first, lower pass and "BAMM"!! (Noise the wind made when it punched me in the face!) Just that moment when I passed the first summit to cross a small valley (north-south straightened) for the final ascent I got suddenly and out of nowhere the strongest headwinds I had on my whole trip so far. And I'm not exaggerating at all! The winds must have been there that day before, I think that the valley in which I climbed up the pass, just gave me shelter along the way so it hit me with full strength when I came out of the valley!

Between the passes, you can see the steep climb in the background

Nice little lake in the same valley

Slooooooowly and with painful cramps in my calves I fought myself against the wind/storm across the valley to the other side. The wind was even that strong that you could see white crestwaves on the small lake I passed and I could see them for a long time as I was not going faster than 10km/h (6mph) in a flat part! That was so demoralizing and even more when I saw the steep grades on the other side, still in the direction of the wind!
And as I feared the winds even blew during climbing up the final grades which was definitely the hardest climb on a pass I had so far in my life! I was sometimes not even going 5km/h (3mph) and I really thought about just walking my bike uphill as that would have beon maybe faster.

What made this climb even perfect have been all the dead animals again on the street! Must have been some kind of wilderness area or something I was riding through cause in this part it was just horrible! Literally every 500m/1600ft I passed a dead deer or moose lying on the shoulder of the street. For that many animals I passed I could call myself an expert meanwhile, telling you the exact phase of the rotting-process this animal would be going trough in the moment. The best thing about that was that the wind was blowing the smell directly in my direction and as I was just going like 5km/h I could smell it for minutes!

Dead deer on the street

Alright, enough about this first part of the ride this day. At 3pm and just 40km later I reached the summit of the second pass!! Well it was actually just called "Summit" so the pass who almost made me cry didn't even have a name! So here would be my suggestions: Hells Pass, Devils Pass, Desolation Pass, Stairway to Hell, Pass-away Pass and "Impassible" Pass are just a couple of them:)

When I looked back I saw that the landscape around here has been actually pretty nice but I just wasn't really in the mood to give it a look.
Just 20km later (Downhill Ride:) I passed two small towns on the high/plateau where I got myself some food and a new flag as the one I bought before, was way to big for my bike! Just 15km later I lost this flag again during strong winds (not from ahead but still strong enough).

Cool rock formations near Torrey

Cycling in into the evening

Every store just sells these kind of gas containers which don't fit to my stove!

Once I passed Torrey another small town I suddenly got into the Capitol Reef National Park. I totally missed that one on my map so I didn't know much about what to see, what saved me probably lots of time cause this Park still slowed me down enough to get through before nightfall. I simply had to take pictures every couple hundred meters, it was just so beautiful to watch all these red and white-mixed rock formations all around! No further information on that, just enjoy the pictures:)

After the first couple of stunning views the road let into a small valley which crossed the Reef along this little creek with another couple of cool views. I was glad that it started getting dark at some point otherwise I wouldn't probably made it out of the park in time!

Cycling into the little valley

"swiss-cheese" - rockwalls:)

Right after leaving the park there was a campsite marked on my map somewhere close to the river and as it seemed to be in the middle of nowhere I decided to give it a look and cycled half a mile away from the street to the spot where the campsite should have been. "Should have been" because there actually hasn't been any kind of a campsite, just dirtroads leading into the river. There we just one place, big enough for a couple of tents where surprisingly a car was parking already and a group of three people sitting next to it, playing cards. Cause there was no other place around I asked them if it would be alright pitching my tent next to their car and so I soon ended up playing cards with them:) The two boys and the girl, all from different places in the US were on some kind of volunteering-thing what is about maintaining and building hiking-trails in the south of Utah during the summer. A work that I can just appreciate as a passioned hiker!:) They now had a couple of days off and just found this place surprisingly as I did. It became a fun evening, with some talks and drinking games with the beer they offered me (first beer experience in the US cause I'm still not 21!). Well it's hard to get drunk with the Utah-beer which is not allowed to contain more than 3% alcohol but it was a fun anyway even without getting drunk:) They told me lots of interesting, funny and weird stories about their work and the way they live there and I gave them the link of my blog so they can read what I wrote about them now almost three weeks afterwards:)

The campsite next to the river

They actually gave me a tip for a restaurant-chain called "Denny's" where you apparently can get Pancakes all you can eat for 4$!! If that is true I think I found my place to eat breakfast for the rest of my trip:) But to be honest I never saw a Denny's before, hopefully I'll find one soon:)

The next day was actually the total opposite to the day before. It was pretty casual riding, little hills, no steep grades, not to hot, not too windy and the landscape, except of the last part, nothing special, desert like all the time.

Does that mean your car will break into pieces?:)

This day was the first day since Denver that I met some other cross-country bikers and even five (two separate groups) this time. The first has been a couple, she, riding the whole way from Boston to San Francisco:) and he (living in SanFran) joined her near Moab. We had some nice talks while sitting in front of a small farm shop enjoying the super delicious self made bread and cheese the old man sold there:)

Probably a place for dirt-races:)

The second cyclists I met have been a group of three young men riding from somewhere in Virginia the whole way to L.A. They also experienced very strong headwinds the last couple of days and as someone told them it's apparently really unusual to get that strong winds in this area and it has been probably beacause of some weather front up north in Idaho. However the winds almost stopped now and so I didn't care anymore at all:)

More desert impressions

In Hanksville, the only village I passed that day I refilled my waterbag with almost 10liters (2 1/2 gallons) cause if I read my map right there would be no water supply on the next 230km/143mi till Mexican Hat which included a 1000m/3300ft climb up from the Colorado River.

Dinosaur in Hanksville

About 30km before I reached the Colorado then the road lead into a small canyon and as I was cycling further this canyon got deeper and deeper and the red rockwalls looked that much impressive that it was hard paying enough attention on the street:) When I finally reached the Colorado River then I passed by a small landing point for rafts, the perfect spot for a short swim! It was soooo refreshing aafter a couple of hot days in a row without a shower or anything!

Looking back to Capitol Reef

Approaching Colorado River:)

Water, finally!

And an amazing spot as well:)

Little later after crossing the Colorado River I found a nice spot right next to the street and although the sun didn't set yet I decided to camp here and start the big climb out of the canyon the next day after a good sleep:)

Crossing the Colorado River

Beautiful wilderness campsite close to the Colorado

Well, overestimated the size of my pot a little bit :) (but j ate it all!)

The climb the next day was then way less exhausting than I expected. Although the road was going uphill almost 1000m/3300ft the whole climb stretched on a distance of almost 70km what meant an average steepness of just 1%. Still it slowed me down a lot but I could at least enjoy all the nice views on the way until I reached the summit around 3pm.

Beautiful landscape in the Colorado Canyonlands

Crazy, the colors!

On the summit I chose the shorter and way more interesting route via the Moky Dugway to Mexican Hat. A narrow and steep gravel road which goes down a almost vertical 1000ft/300m high cliff. The quite hilly road with some very steep grades in it is totally worth it to take considering the stunning views I got when I reached the top of the Moky Dugway:) but you should definitely go from the top to the bottom otherwise it would be probably a horrible exprerience!

Smoking for free:)

I'm definitely going the right way:D

Let's go!

It was a positive and negative experience then at once: It had lot of cool views from where you could look in the distance (I could even see Monument Valley already) and the narrow road in front of me. But actually it was a wasted descent. As a bicycle you can't speed up at all because of the rough gravel (I don't understand why it's gravel actually, it would be totally easy to pave and would make it way more save to ride as well) and so I had to break the whole way down what gave me some bad cramps in my fingers once I got down.
But anyway, it's still a great experience and definitely worth it to see - at least one time- even with a bicycle:)

Stunning views from the top of Moki Dugway!

Once I got down it was causally downhill the whole way to Mexican Hat. Mexican Hat is a small town named by a rock formation next to the road which looks "kinda" like a Mexican hat and is basically a balanced rock on the top of a small hill. Even more impressive were the other rock formations around the city, which seemed like waves in the rock or like some zick-zack rock walls. Must be some geological fault or something but however it developed, it's super impressive to look at.

Beautiful rock formations near Mexican Hat

The actual "Hat"

When I got into town then I could crave for a super-fresh honeydew melon, I actually didn't know why, but as like someone above heard my wishes the gas-station seriously offered some fresh fruits and exactly one honeydew-melon!! Together with some fresh-cooked noodles, a muffin and an ice-cold drink it was the perfect dinner after a long day:)

A honeydew melon, I can't believe it!:D

The perfect dinner!:)

The Salt Lake Loop - Part 2 The wind - friend and enemy

My goal for the day after the crossing was to get as close to Ely as possible (160km/100mi) for two reasons: first my next radio call was that evening so I needed reception and secondly the semi final of the Euro, France vs Germany was the next day and within more than 200km/125mi, Ely was the only place possible to watch that!

Pass along the way

I even had called a bar already which assured me they would show it so I just had to be there by noon (Pacific Time now for a few days).
When I started then I first had to do two little passes (both not more than 400m uphill) before I would cycle almost 80km straight through a valley at whichs end Ely is located. Seemed like a pretty easy ride as I could do the passes in the cool morning and the flat part afterwards.
Well...at the end of the day I should know better!

The day actually started as good as I expected. Due to the cool morning air the passes haven't been really exhausting. What is way more a challenge is that the landscape becomes pretty monotone here. The Great Basin (almost whole Nevada and parts of the other western states), a big area where no water flows from to the sea, is actually just dry grass lands in big flat valles surrounded by 2000ft (600m) tall, north-south mountain ridges which are about 30km/19mi apart from each other. It's like that all the time, so that usually means going north or south is totally easy compared to going east or west over all these passes. When you're crossing one of these valleys east or west direction like I did this day between the two passes you can see the climb on the other side all the time pretty well cause nothing blocks the view, what makes it really hard to estimate the distance to the other side. Usually it seems like 5km/3mi and turns out to be more than 15km or sometimes 20 later, no kidding! (you can see it very good on the photos)

It's actually 12km to the turn in the background!

But although the other end doesn't seem to get closer for a long time, you can still make quite good distance and  shortly past noon a already did half of the distance and expected to be in Ely maybe around 5pm or something.

These expectations got immediately destroyed when I entered the valley to Ely then. Suddenly and completely without any warning a wind was blowing from the south-west, almost exactly that direction I was going to with at least 30-40km/h (19-25mph)!
The best word to describe the following 6 hours is probably "demoralizing"! The only thing I can think about when I get headwinds like this is just how fast I could go if it would be blowing the other direction or if there would be even no wind! That's what makes it so demoralizing when you can't get faster than 14km/h (9mph) although its going completely flat. Sure it is exhausting as well but it definitely affects your mind harder than your knees! The wind was also the reason why there're no photos of this part cause I simply didn't want to be slower as I already was!

Almost three hours later than I expected, I arrived in the neighbour town of Ely (still 20km to go!) and couldn't be happier when I spotted a gas station with a cool softdrink!:D With perfect reception as well I could do the radio call with SWR3, just in time, before 8pm (5am in Germany) when the show ends. Cause it was really late this time I couldn't get anybody of my family listening, again! Hope that'll work out before the last call:)
This evening I could have made it still close to Ely but I just didn't want to go any further (cause for some reasons:) and decided to camp right next to the small village called McGill. I even found myself a place with tables and toilets next to a public pool. Although camping was prohibited in this area or at least on the well maintained lawn I just pitched my tent behind some trees on the other side of the road. I didn't know if it would be allowed there but nobody was around so it seemed kinda alright.

My campsite next to the pool

Convenient sitting area next to it:)

At least one good thing happened that day: I've done 5000km/3100mi now!:)

Cause I feared some winds again the next day I got up earlier than usual and have been in Ely aready by 10am. Enough time to take a look in the local Subway (and a look on a Meatball Sub of course:) and using the Wi-Fi at McDonald's.
The bar I went to afterwards for the game was called Racks. Apparently a bar for hunters and most people also looked like that but definitely a nice place with a big TV I could sit directly in front of. Ordering my usual match-food, several plates of fries, the game could start.
Well...no cheering this time unfortunately... Although I think Germany was the better team in the first half they simply couldn't score a goal and shortly to half time it happened again: like in the last match a German player touched the ball in the 16m-box...penalty kick for France. Sure they didn't miss that chance and it was 1:0. Such a dumb mistake and so bad for the German play cause after that they simply lost their concentration and after another dumb mistake it was 2:0. Although Germany had some really good chances at the end the score stayed like this and Germany was out:/ The only good thing about this is that I won't have to look for another bar again to watch the Final although I would have loved to for sure:)

Where I watched the match:)

Luckily this day the headwinds haven't been that bad like the day before so I could go a little bit faster on the last 30km/19mi south before the road would finally turn east towards Utah again which would hopefully give me some slightly back- or at least no headwinds considering that they've been blowing from the southwest the day before. On the way I suddenly passed a small lake right in the middle of nowhere and although I just had left Ely I decided to go for a short swim as I actually never had the chance on the whole trip before! It felt so refreshing and definitely my highlight for the day! I just took the chance to wash all my clothes as I did it the last time 9 days ago in Grand Junction and dried them afterwards while I was cycling.

Cause I won't do the detour via Baker it's apparently 153mi/250km to the next services!

Time for a swim:)

Cause the road turned east then it meant better winds but couple more passes ahead as well. It wasn't to late yet to do the first one before sunset and made it even to the foot of the second mountain afterwards.
Soon before I pulled over I felt to be slower like on the Salt Lake before. Cause the last time I pumped it up it lost 3bar/45psi in just two days something with my tube could be probably wrong but because I was almost about to finish that stage I decided to check my pressure the next day.

Last pass for the day:)

:)

Well, the pressure check went pretty fast in the morning: There was no pressure at all!
The worst thing I was afraid of happened: I had a flat tire in the desert! At least that was the first "accident" I could do something myself so I removed the wheel and pulled the tube out of the tire. To find a hole in a tube you usually pump it up and put it into water to look for bubbles but that was apparently no option with my precious drinking water I had to carry for the next 200km without services! So I had to feel where it was coming out and after feeling twice or even three times I finally found a little tiny hole and one almost-hole right next to it. When I looked then at the inside of the tire it immediately became clear what caused my flat tire.
I don't know if I mentioned it already but since I started my trip I passed (except of lots of dead animals and bits of broken glass) a lot of tire-pieces mainly from exploded truck tires mostly on highways and Interstates, which they most times just leave on the side of the street after putting a new one on. Cause I actually expected rubber not doing much harm to my tires I never passed these pieces which that much care as I would probably pass glass or something. That was, as I can tell now, a big mistake!

The day couldn't start better:)

Alright, it could...

That's one of these pieces like they're laying all around!

And that's what it does to the tube

That's the beast!!

What I totally forgot was, that when these tires burst the metal-wires which stabilize it from the inside burst as well and their sharp ends stick out the rubber in every direction. Although they're very thin the ends are apparently sharp enough to go through my bicycle-tires and into the tube.
What made the air out going so slowly was simply the fact that it sticked so perfectly into my tire that it pretty much sealed itself and wasn't visible from the outside as all.
Cause I had just one extra tube with me I had to make sure now that really non of these wires is sticking out anywhere otherwise I would have been stuck in the middle of the desert for real and as I had a closer look I found two more of them that would have probably caused another flat tire at some point.

After actually "just" an hour delay I continued on the road and I tell you it was so much more easier to cycle now than before, I really don't wanna know how much that slowed me down since Salt Lake City as I never really chacked it.

And another pass:)

The next bike shop and supply I would find earliest in Delta the next town, still 180km/112mi away so I had to really watch out not to ride over tire pieces or anything what could do damage to my tires as I had no extra tube anymore to exchange.
I guess that the following 180km through the Great Basin Desert will have been the probably the most abandoned ones I ever cycled through on my whole trip at the end. Except of the fuel station at the border to Utah, which I somehow missed on my map (but really aprecciated the cold drink:), there was nothing, absolutely nothing in between Ely and Delta, 250km/155mi of nothingness! All the houses I passed (and that haven't been many) were wether private property and nobody there or mostly abandoned. So there's not much story to tell about this part except of a couple of pass-pictures I took along the way:)

At least the second time entering Utah it welcomes me:)

But now for real: Nothing on the next 83mi/134km!

I still wonder what this beeyard should mean:D

More exciting it got then on the last 60km to Delta. After crossing the last small pass of the day, the road turned from east to north-east direction to lead the final part across another big plain area (almost the size of the Salt Plains) pretty much straight to Delta. After the northeast-turn the wind was speeding up (probably because of the flat environment) and cause it still was a southwest wind it blew me over the plains like hell! Like it was a nightmare two days ago it was the cyclists-dream now riding with almost no effort constantly 30km/h (19mph) across a distance of 60km/37mi! I didn't expect it to make it to Delta at all but now I got there, 180km after I started with even an hour delay, before sunset! I simply had to celebrate this with (of course) a cold drink and an ice-cream at the first fuel station I spotted.
To get me new food and new tubes the next day I went a little bit out of town again and found myself a place just a kilometer away from Delta (it still wasn't dark!:)

And again:)

Nothing but my bike...

Nothing but not even my bike:)

When you enter one of these side-gravel roads you'll get into the absolute nothingness!

Another Salt Lake?

My place for the night next to Delta

Shoe-tree:)

Finally in Delta!:D

The last day, before I reached the Colorado plateau again, lead me via a zick-zack route, first south, then north and then south again, cause there was no straight way over the mountains. Unfortunately the first 25km went to the south first and cause I had to buy two new tubes before (cause I wanted a second chance next time I would have a flet tire again) I got the winds I got yesterday in my back now from ahead. These winds have been even that strong that they created lots of dust-devils (something like a mini-tornado just without a cloud above) like you can see them quite often in the desert when it is windy. Luckily non of them hit me and I could continue my exhausting ride against the wind and finished the first 25km after more than two hours. 

After that a 30km north-ride on I 15 followed, the only road leading to the other side, but at least I got the winds in my back now and that made the Interstate ride quite a convenient one and in no time I reached the next valley.

Endless ranch

Little guy next to the road:)

Another summit:D

When I looked then on my speedometer I saw that I have been apparently 68km/h (40mph) fast so I broke my speed record with one try by more than 10km/h). Must have happen on the steep downhill part of I15 when I got even tailwinds during the downride.
When I turned then south again, I had to climb another small pass to the valley where I70 crosses. Somehow this one has been sheltered from the wind so I could make it over the pass before sunset. Cause the day after would start with a 1200m/4000ft pass-climb I decided not to start that today and camped right at the foot of the pass near Sigurd.

Sunset near Sigurd

What I usually have for Dinner: Cheesenoodles:D

PS: As you might have noticed especially on all the pass pictures I look way more bearded now than a couple of weeks ago:) This has two reasons: first I decided that your look doesn't really matter on a trip like this and secondly it would take me just too much time to shave every day and so I could get rid of my razor with some other useless stuff in Kansas City to save more weight.

And the route:)