Day 52

Panguich (Red Canyon), UT to Cedar City, UT, about 68 miles.  Cycling is not always a safe sport, and there are very high risks involved.  Please always wear a helmet, and when riding on highways with trucks, always have a rearview mirror.  These are the safety precautions that I take.

Today I woke up to a freezing cold morning.  The desert is a cold place at night.  Got started early and spent most of the morning going up Cedar Mountain, the last time I'll reach an elevation over 10,000 feet.  The 4,000 foot climb with strong gusting headwinds was long and slow and took most of the morning and afternoon.  The top had some great views of Cedar Breaks Canyon, although I was running late so I didn't go into the park area where I could get the best view.  The descent through huge canyons was beautiful, but also incredibly scary.  There was heavy traffic, lots of sharp curves, steep grades, a narrow road with no shoulder, and of course that headwind which required rebalancing at every gust and turn, which is tricky at high speeds.  I held onto the breaks for most of the descent.  I got to my destination in Cedar City around 5pm, where I'm staying with a Warm Showers host named Joe for two nights.  Jacob was already there.

I started this post with safety tips, and the reason is because I learned that Jacob wrecked on the descent from the mountain, and his bike was totalled so he will have to end his trip.  He was going at high speeds down the mountain when a truck coming around a corner passed too close.  It didn't hit him, but Jacob got caught in the draft and lost control.  He luckily was not badly injured, but he had some bad scratches to his elbow and knee.  The front wheel and fork of the bike took much of the impact.  A pickup truck stopped to check on him so he was able to hitchhike to Joe's in Cedar City.

Joe is an awesome host.  I learned about him from my friend James who came here on his cross country bike trip last year.  Joe took us out for pizza at an awesome pizzeria which had the best pizza I've had on this trip (and better than most if not all that I've had in my life).  After dinner, Joe took us to the less touristy northern edge of Zion National Park, where we saw the awesome cliffs of Zion Canyon.  It's a sight that really needs to be experienced.

I'll be staying in Cedar City for two nights, then I'll begin my planned 12 day ride to San Francisco on Friday.