DAY 70

Bryce Canyon to Escalante

Another below freezing night, before making our way though the quiet, pleasant scenery of Dixie National Forest and the expansive Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument.  Then we hit a bit of a hill, 1 mile of 12%, up.  This was a serious test- and we both smashed it, feeling extremely fit! 

On the road we meet Laurant who has ridden 15,000kms in 6 months WOWZ!

DAY 65

Rest Day - Grand Canyon N.P

Smoke from the nearby controlled fires has settled in the Canyon by morning, making for a misty but masked view. We spend the day hiking into the Canyon itself. We do about 5 hours (yes this is how we spend our 'rest' days) of the North Kaibab Trail. While the views are unfortunately obscured by the smoke, it's still wonderful, the canyon floor appears bottomless, rock faces a mile deep silhouette each other, the autumn colours are vibrant. What's really interesting is the blatant geological history of the Canyon, 100's of millions of years of it is visible in the changing nature and colour of the rock. Back at camp (which is located right on the rim, gobsmacking!) we spot two Kaibab Squirrels, go for more short walks around the rim as the smoke lifts and views improve, and meet practically all of the handful or so people staying here (it's amazingly quiet in every sense), including a fellow cycle tourist, a Swiss, who on his day off ran 40km's from the North to South Rim's. Life's good.

DAY 64

Jacob's Lake, AZ to North Rim, Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

We both wake up to slowly deflated flat tyres, caused by staples that apparently come from trucks wheels or something but all that matters is that they are a major pain in a cyclists butt. On closer inspection, Luke's rear tyre is also getting very very worn, it's actually shredding in parts, and we're days from any sort of bike shop, but we'll cross that bridge if we ever come to it. We head out on the one-way road to the Grand Canyon North Rim, unsure if the road, let alone the Park, is open. We've had a lot on conflicting evidence as to whether it is or not, it closes every year at the first snowfall, which is right about now, plus there's controlled burning in the forest just outside the Park and there are rumours this may close the road too. We push on though, confident luck will be on our side. As we near the Park entrance we're both overcome with dread; dread that it won't be open, dread that we've ridden 3 days to get here and will have to pointlessly re-trace our steps back. The thick smoke doesn't look great. To cut a long story short, it's open! We're overjoyed. Fist pumping and yelling our way until we're forced to be escorted through the 'dangerous' smoke in the back of a fireman's pick-up truck to the end of the road: the Grand Canyon. The first glimpse knocks our bloody socks off. But it's late and we'll check it out tomorrow.

Sidenote: we meet Jerry, a tourist from Alabama, a total cliche southerner who is one of the biggest legends we've ever met, who, among other things, takes our picture while getting his own taken by his wife at another lookout.

DAY 63

Kanab, Utah to Jacob's Lake, Arizona

Again we made the absolute most of a buffet breakfast by eating about 4 servings each, our appetites are through the roof and we're still losing weight! The day is short in kilometres but long due to the overall ascent of around 3500ft. Not too much to report really. We're in Arizona. We ride through a lot of National Forest land. We get a few tyre and minor mechanical issues which we overcome. We pitch a tent at a closed campground. We play cards all night by the fireplace at the only dig in town so we don't have to sit and freeze in our tent.

DAY 62

Zion N.P, UT to Kanab, UT

There is a tunnel bored right into the mountain exiting Zion in which bicycles are banned. It also happens to be at the end of a series of steep switchbacks. So, being forced to hitchhike through it, we do so at the bottom of the hill to kill both birds. It's actually very fun, a pick-up truck gives us a lift and we sit in the back with the bikes, watching as we rise up and up, it's a lot like being on that Las Vegas rollercoaster again. On the other side of the tunnel, we ride though stunning Zion country, topping off a wonderful experience here. The rest of the day is spent over two manageable climbs before a long smooth descent into Kanab, a town with a fair bit of character and a big history in the American Western film making business.

Sidenote: We meet a dutch cycling duo in their 60's who've cycle toured over 85,000km's in their lives!
Sidenote: Ada found a very useful and very cool hi-vis thingy to put on her rear pannier. Yes, she found it on the side of the road.

DAY 61

Rest Day - Zion National Park

Zion is renowned for it's world-class hikes so we do another, The Narrows, which is a hike through a slot canyon, in the Virgin River, walking in the ice-cold water (sometimes knee-deep) as the canyon 'narrows' to only about 5 metres apart overhead in some places. The walls of the canyon have been made smooth and sculpted over millions of years of waterflow, the water almost a perfect aqua in places, sunlight makes its way to the bottom only infrequently. It's needless to say it's a very unique walk, it's also very fun and very very cold. 

Most of the other hikers are decked out in booties and wetsuit/waterproof materials. Us? Nah. Try runners and shorts. Although we both finish 4 hours of it completely numb after "playing with hypothermia, man", as one decked out hiker put it, it's one of the coolest things we've ever done, pardon the pun.

DAY 60

Rest Day - Zion National Park

We ride up Zion canyon free as a bird - there's a shuttle bus system in the park, so no cars. Today we do a big hike, to Angel's Landing, which is pretty well-known and for good reason, it's awesome. First there are a series of steep switchbacks carved into the rockface, then an almost vertical rock scramble to the top, some of it chained, all of it very precarious with sheer dropoffs pretty much all the way to the bottom. At the top there are magnificent views over the canyon in all directions, a couple of over-fed squirrels and a bloke who sounded and acted exactly like Chris Farley.

From this vantage point it's clear what a powerful, beautiful place Zion is, it's full of huge red and white rock formations seemingly rising vertically skyward. A great day's hike.