Enterprise

May 20, 2017

During breakfast today, a fellow guest overheard that we were planning on biking to Zion next, and from there on to Bryce. He dropped a bombshell on our plans - the road east of Zion is indefinitely closed, due to a massive landslide that occurred the day before yesterday. This pretty much destroyed our plan for the next four days, and posed a difficult dilemma for us to work through - there aren't many roads down here, and few conceivable Plan B's to invent. We have our work cut out for us.

First things first though - we have to finish off this amazing strata that waits under our noses.

Starting the day out right, with an amazing strada. I was glad for the excuse to take a picture of the beautiful dining tables too.

After breakfast we hauled out the map and got to work. Unfortunately in this instance, we're the type that plan ahead extensively and book all of our lodging, so we had some last minute cancellations to deal with as well as to invent a new plan. There are only two options - one north to Cedar City and east over Cedar Breaks, and one south into northern Arizona through Colorado City and Kanab. The southern route is too long and empty for us, so we're going the northern route. We explored a lot of options over the next two hours, talking to the Zion lodge to learn more about the slide (closed to bikes as well as cars, with no timeline for opening it), whether we could ride a bus or van partway around (all require boxes, even for folders like ours), whether we can take the direct route to Cedar City and bike partway on the freeway where there's no alternative.

We finally settle on this route, which looks attractive but challenging - it's a 5000' climb up to Cedar Breaks (as I still well remember from my first tour here 30 years ago). Also, we have to go further north still, through Parowan, because Highway 148 is still closed due to snow. We're staying in tiny Enterprise tonight, which we were happy to discover has a motel and restaurant.

It was pretty stressful working this all out on short notice. We reminded ourselves all day though how lucky we were - if it hadn't been for this chance breakfast encounter, we might not have known bout our predicament until two days later when we arrived at the Zion lodge.

We don't leave the inn until about noon. With a fairly challenging ride ahead, we need to watch our time. We start by retracing our ride to Snow Canyon and then bike through it again, this time south to north (and uphill). We're naturally sad to miss the chance to see Zion, but getting to pass through Snow Canyon is pretty fair compensation. Spectacular both directions, we're happy to report.

The bikepath along Snow Canyon Parkway makes the best approach to Snow Canyon. The vegetation - blossoming cactus, mesquite, other beautiful small trees I don't recognize) are nearly as spectacular as the landscape. We're lucky to be here in such a colorful season.

Red Mountain (not the most subtle name) towers west of the entrance to Snow Canyon.j

The bike path through Snow Canyon. Hard to beat.

In Snow Canyon, a Gambel's quail demonstrates his fine one-legged stand technique.

One of the prominent features in Snow Canyon is 'petrified sand dunes', like the one we're looking at here.

From the entrance to Snow Canyon, it's a pretty steady uphill climb for most of the next thirty miles. It's never too steep, and conditions were tolerable - not too hot, and with only a mild headwind to confront us for the last twenty miles. I had a pretty awful time of it though, because I had another SVT episode - the second day straight. Very worrisome, and surprising. I'm not sure what's going on here, but a few things come to mind. One, I'm not in as good a shape as I should be, and am paying for it a bit. I wonder though if the main issue is elevation, and our abrupt transition from cycling at sea level to climbing at 6000'. Or, maybe it's that damn aging thing.

In any case, I made it, but with several stops along the way to recover a bit. I feel very grateful to Rachael's patience and tact in waiting for me without making me feel any feebler than I already did. Hopefully tomorrow will go better - it's a long day (68 miles), but quite a bit easier but for one notable climb. Hope for the best.

Elevation gain: today, 4,200'; for the tour, 7,200'.

North of Snow Canyon, beginning one of the few descents of the day - the short drop to Veyo.

We're in volcano country! This is one of several cinder cones north of Snow Canyon. Volcanic activity and lava flows had a heavy hand in sculpting the spectacular canyon.

Dropping into Veyo from the south. We enjoyed a nice gradual descent for a mile or so before resuming our long climb.

North of Central, and just before the summit, Rachael patiently waits out another brief but necessary break.

At the summit at last, and relieved that the last few miles are downhill. Looks like I'm gripping it for support, doesn't it?

Today's ride: 42 miles (68 km)
Total: 93 miles (150 km)

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