Day 17: Rise and shine! It's butt-whippin time!

72.1 miles. Averaged 11.6 mph. Great day. We are both starting to feel the rhythm and the rhyme. Woke up this morning in the Wal-Mart parking lot with all limbs safely attached and nothing stolen. We both had a great nights rest and were ready to conquer the mountain. The first few miles up the mountain we saw signs telling semis to turn around and we were thinking the same thing. We pushed on and made it up some of our steepest inclines yet (6-8% grades). About half-way up the mountain Michael broke a spoke. Luckily, Tim came prepared and had a spare on him. So after about a hour of bicycle maintenance we finished our climb and made it to the closed road. At that elevation (~9000 ft) there was no snow on the road and we were faced with a dilemma. Do we risk trudging through snow part-way up (near ~10,000 ft) or do we take the long way around? We discussed the positives and negatives for about 15 mins. During that time, some motorcyclists were there pondering the same decision. We told them,"We'll go if you go!" But they passed on the short-cut and eventually we did too. It was a gorgeous day for a ride. We made it into Panguitch, UT around dinner time and found another Subway/Gas station. After talking with some of the workers it sounded like camping at a nearby park was a possibility. Then we found an RV place for 15 bucks that had showers and laundry, so we went there. It feels great to have clean clothes again, at least for a little while. We are hoping to make it to Boulder tomorrow but we'll see how the legs feel after this butt-whoopin.

A scenic overlook of Zion National Park

Pictures don't do this incline justice, but there's snow!

We pickled the beast