Jeremy's Bike Blog

After waking up in my ice-encrusted bivvy, the sun was rising but quickly being obscured by cloud cover.  I melted/dried what I could, but then resigned to packing away a lot of my gear still wet.  Riding on about 7 miles, I got to a Chevron which had internet, decent coffee, and Bob and Ray, mentioned in my previous post, from where I typed up and uploaded said post.

Continuing on, I got to the town of Orderville and stocked up on supplies at the local market and then immediately ate most of it in a feast of a lunch of PB&J&Banana, Cheese, Crackers, and Cookies.  As I was finishing, the sky darkened, and before I got out of town, I stopped and took shelter under the awning of a Family Dollar (the small-town, effective equivalent to WalMart, for it’s local business destroying potential) to wait out a flash hail storm.

From there, it was a largely uneventful ride.  One long climb and one long descent.  A car buzzed me by driving onto the shoulder while I was stopped for a clothes change on the ascent.  These sorts of encounters make me angry until I remind myself that the perpetrators are the ones that have to live with their hateful selves, and that there’s no possible reason to take them at all personally.

The skies cleared as I rolled into Kanab, and I stopped to talk to a guy named Gary sitting on a bench, thinking that he might be a local, to find out where he might suggest I get some food.  He was also a tourist, and recommended a Mexican place down the road, and we chatted for about 10 minutes.  I pedaled on through town and found an information center which was open for another 15 minutes.  Inside I met Rich, one of the founding organizers of “Amazing Earthfest” which was due to commence the next day, and would include a 32 mile group bicycle ride and a free showing of a film about environmental issues.  I also scoped out a hostel called “Cowboy Bunkhouse” down the road for $25/night (if you forego the $5 breakfast) as advertised on AirBnB, and was pretty much decided that I would spend two nights in town so that I could rest, regroup, and enjoy some of the activities.

When I got to the bunkhouse, Jeff, the father of the family of owner residents gave me a 40 minute orientation on the history of the town, why it was known during the spaghetti western days as “little hollywood”, and of the history of the rather large structure that is the hostel, which was once a hospital, then a school, then an office complex, before it became what it is today.

I settled in, showered up, did laundry (free!), and made some dinner.  Then I went to the recently re-opened (following a divorce of its owners) Crescent Theater to see “10 Cloverfield Lane”, a sorta stupid, overly twisty-turny, but also fairly entertaining flick.

Sleep came instantly, and I was delighted to be warm and dry.

The next morning I was awoken by the alarm I’d set to get up in time for the group ride.  I managed to, but only just.  The group of about a dozen riders met at a local cycle shop, and then caravaned to the start of the ride about 10 miles down highway 84.  I caught a ride with Mark in his Jeep, and discussed nuances of bike pedals and my ongoing, but improving issue with Achilles tendonitis which I didn’t have at all on my last tour.

On the first 1/3 of the ride, I rode side by side and chatted with Kirsten who worked at the nursery in Zion NP.  Two people in our trailing group turned around early and headed back, leaving me with Kirsten and Kat, a German woman who relocated to Kanab a year earlier and who worked at Best Friends, a massive, no-kill animal sanctuary just outside of town.  Mark had raced ahead, gotten to the end and was on his way back when we crossed paths.  I told him that I’d be fine finding my own way back into town, but he was happy to rejoin the group and go back to the turnaround point of the ride with us.  He and Kirsten gradually pulled away, being faster riders and with faster bikes, leaving me and Kat free to chat at a more leisurely pace.  I was delighted by this, learning that we shared a lot of somewhat common experiences.  She had worked for some time for Expedia, but decided that she was tired of making rich people richer and wanted something more fulfilling.  About a year earlier, she had been just passing through Kanab, doing a little volunteering for Best Friends when someone there suggested that she could make a full-time job of it, and she made the leap.

We talked about all kinds of things, and then we were back at the start/end point of the group ride.  She was really popular among the other participants that had waited for us to return, and I didn’t want to impose on Mark any more than I already had (he must have been waiting on me for at least 20 minutes), so I wished her farewell and was on my way, hoping that I might run into her again at a yoga class she mentioned was happening later that day when I had mentioned having to decide between the group ride and a free yoga session (by the same instructor) that morning.

Back at the hostel, I read for a bit in the library, and quickly fell into a delicious sleep on the couch.  About 90 minutes later I was woken up by patches, the hyper-affectionate but somewhat demanding cat that lets the humans think they own the place, when he pounced on me and demanded scratchifaction.

This worked out well as it gave me time to wake up and make it to 4pm yoga.  I was happy to see Kat in attendance, and even happier to hear Ote, the rail-thin, older, spitfire of an instructor say “Oh, is this the crazy guy that went on that long ride on his day off from riding his bike?!”  The group of 6 women made me feel incredibly welcome in their class, and I appreciated Ote calling out particular poses as ‘good if you’ve been doing a lot of running or cycling lately’.  I also appreciated that she went over to the weight room next door to politely ask the meatheads to stop so noisily dropping and slamming weights, even if it only resulted in them doing so temporarily.

Afterwards, Kat and I hung back and she showed me some stuff on a aerialist hoop of hers.  She could do a number of cool moves on it that I was unable to replicate, but it was fun trying.  I said that I was going to the 6pm free showing (for Earthfest) of “We Know Not What We Do” at the Crescent just across the street and asked if she’d like to join.  She did.  Ote and one of the class attendees also showed up and sat by and chatted with us.

The film was kinda depressing, but good.  Afterwards, on our way to dinner, I pointed out that she and I were the only people in attendance that were not baby-boomers or older, to which she pointed out this was in itself a little depressing, as there’s no shortage of younger people in town.

Dinner at Escobar’s Mexican restaurant was tasty and lovely, and after we walked back to her car and my bike parked at the gym, she gave me a mylar emergency blanket bag thing in response to my recounting my cold nights of late, and her e-mail address.  I thanked her and said that I hoped our paths would cross again soon as we hugged goodbye.

I went back to the bunkhouse and enjoyed another night warn and indoors.