Day 4 - June 1, 2010

We inadvertently slept in but that was fine. We were in no hurry and only 150 miles from Deb's Uncle Brent's. I sat down and pulled out the map to try and find a sweet little route so we could pull the horses out of the stable. The first route was a 250 mile loop and took us down Scenic Bi-way 12 through Escalante. The next route was around 120 miles. We opted for the shorter one but it looked way more technical and would snake us through the mountain. We unloaded the bikes, dawned our gear and were off. The road started out pretty straight but I knew it would be well worth it once we hit the mountain road. The communicators were not working so we pulled over to figure out what the problem was. Evidently you have to keep them charged, something I failed to do. I guess Deb wasn't going to have to listen to me sing on this ride. With the exception of the straight road and no comms, everything was going good till we got to Monroe Mountain Road, that was supposed to be the highlight of the route. What the map should have read was "Monroe Mountain foot path single file only. Caution loose gravel, craters, and falling rocks". All I could do was laugh. We pulled over and reevaluated the situation. We figured we would head for Bryce Canyon and Escalante and play it by ear.

We grabbed a quick bite to eat at Foy's Country Corner in Panguitch, UT





Deb called her Uncle to let him know we were in the area and he insisted we come out no matter how late. We jumped on scenic by-way 12 and were back in business. We passed up Bryce Canyon and continued down 12. Deb pulled over and told me she was having problems with her eyes burning and tears streaming down her face. She said maybe we should turn around since the wind would be to our back, hit up Bryce and head back. Sounded good to me.





We got into the canyon and debated on the $24 fee for the pair of us since we were only going to be there for a short time. The lady assured us it was worth it and told us to make sure we check out 4 of the overlooks if we didn't see anything else. We headed in and boy was she right. It was truly amazing.








After checking out a few of the drive up Look out spots, we took a short hike to upper Inspiration Point. I knew I was out of shape when the pregnant lady in flip-flops past me on the trail as I leaned against the tree gasping for air and wondering exactly what muscles wouldn't be hurting tomorrow. I told Deb that the hike to Inspiration Point inspired me to do one of two things: start working out or stop hiking up mountains, I've never been one to lift heavy things for no reason. Deb said her bike needed to be inspired because it kept stalling due to the 8100 Ft elevation. Evidently here in UTAH that's about ground level.



We made it back to the truck and trailer around 7PM. 250 miles on the bike in 9 hours! The only record we set was the number of times we pulled over to look at the aw inspiring scenery and the number of photos taken. While I started to load the bikes Deb touched base with her Uncle again and let him know that if we came out it would be around 10:30PM , he assured us it was OK. We rolled into Pleasant Grove, UT around 10:45 and her Uncle came out and invited us in. He immediately informed us that anything in the fridge was free game and to act like we were at home, He showed us our room and we visited for a little while before we all agreed it was bed time.