Tuesday, August 21st: Mt. Carmel Junction, UT or … Is this a dream?

An apple as breakfast will have to do! Go boss – let’s move! From Hatch it’s 13 miles to the Junction with UT 14 – heading towards Cedar City. That’s the uphill part – all the rest is down. My boss is having this weird feeling: “Am I dreaming”, she asks “or is this real?” – even now she feels disconnected from this ride – “Did I do this or am I still dreaming – what did I see along the road?” 

Maybe the food in the Galaxy had something weird in it? I believe my boss is having this trouble because she was set to do this in one day – not two – so she saw herself riding it, scheduled on different times! Well, that’s a dog’s explanation! The Johnny Sheriff was still sitting in his car along the road in Glendale, but we didn’t have lunch in Orderville Soup place this year – adding to the feeling something is wrong with this ride. The ride through the canyon felt also very fast – my woman was surprised to reach Glendale and Orderville and Carmel Junction. My woman is now really wondering: “Did I cycle today?” We had to wait to get a room at the Thunderbird (love that name!). But once that was okay, my boss did her laundry job again. The afternoon was grayish – preparing for the Belgian look – but so far no drops!  I hope to have a run this evening on the golf court surrounding this hotel – maybe find some balls to play with!

Monday, August 20th: Hatch, UT or … an unexpected stop

Woman, wake up – get out of your bed! She wants an early start – hoping to get to Mt. Carmel Jct before clouds drop all what they contain. That should be a good 90 km ride… So no time to play around. It’s  rather cool outside this early – time for the leg warmers and a sweater. We need to cycle through the Red Canyon again – downhill and ON THE BIKE PATH! My woman is worrying a bit about that last part: this early there is more wildlife out and also – will the rain of the last days not have blocked the path (which would mean she will have to climb again to get of the path). The other option is a ticket for being on the road not fit for bicycles (downhill there are signs prohibiting bicycles to use the main road!). Wisely she chooses the path.

 But what do I hear – this loud, shrill noise coming from my woman??? She has this whistle in her mouth on the downhill – scaring the animals away (some ground squirrels do need to get out of her way!). And there was no obstruction on the path! Yes! Cycling out of the Red Canyon – meeting the green valley again… we’ve seen this some days ago! That was a good timing – in the time schedule she has set! Now we can follow good old US 89 again. My boss bought this leaflet about the weather – predicting the weather using the clouds. Well – I must tell – she still has to do a lot of reading. We need to cycle uphill for the first 20 somewhat miles: will she make it before the storms will come? In Hatch, she decides to call the Thunderbird and change her reservation. Hatch is also the place where we’ll sleep tonight. That’s about 30 km done from the almost 90. The rest is for tomorrow! The motel is a nice place 

and the boss sends us off to the Galaxy, a diner where we’ll get 20% off the meals. Breakfast there sounds good! 

It’s loaded with older Texan people on their ATV – and my boss sympathizes with the waitress: she hardly gets any tip money at all from them! She throws down her apron and leaves the building very angrily. Along the way back to the motel my boss visits the antique shop.

 Now she doesn’t have to hurry to get anywhere – she can play again! In the end it turns out this day seems to be the most perfect day to be cycling or being outside: there was hardly a cloud in the sky in the afternoon – something we haven’t seen for days! The days usually start out with blue sky but afternoon time -  that’s a different story. But my boss doesn’t mind – tomorrow she can do the rest of today’s ride… She can get to school one day later… No???

Sunday, August 19th: Bryce City, UT or … one more day in paradise

The body or the mind knew it was Sunday – my boss had a sleep in this morning – I guess it was around 8 am when she climbed out of the top of the bunk bed. I asked my woman if she could do something about that smell: it’s all right for her to be outside all day, but Mona and me – we have to stay here all day! She came back from the office: we can move any time today to another cabin. Great! I hoped it would be rather sooner than later – but my human wants to say goodbye to all the pinnacles in the park … What a surprise: at 2 pm she is back already – boy that was a quick hike across the bottom, doing peek-a-boo!

 No, she answers,  she started the hike, surrounded by some other hikers, but kept an eye on the sky and as soon as she heard some rumbling in the sky, she decided to return. Boy, that return out of the amphitheatre was breath taking! Hiking in high altitude (or running) is not so easy! Back at the highest point of the rim (Bryce point) she took the shuttle to Sunset point, wanting to hike there a bit and do some shopping at the lodge also. She finds it hard to go away from this place, but in her mind she knows she has to move on! Good for us here at Ruby’s stinking place that she decided to come back again. Once she opened the other cabin – far away from stinky place – it was like being in a field of flowers! The freshly cleaned cabin makes a nice refuge for us when there is a thunderstorm in the park. Time for computer business. Later that afternoon – when the storm is gone and after checking the weather radar – my woman heads back out to the park and Bryce Point. Here she wanders around and enjoys the very bright views down to the town of Tropic and the mountains in the distance.

 She’s happy she did go back in the park! 

She keeps herself busy in the evening with packing her panniers again – ready to move on – ready for the final downhill part into St. George (with some climbs in between).

Saturday, August 18th: Bryce City, UT or … What’s that smell???

Nights are often either too hot or  too cold… My boss keeps throwing the sleeping bag off or on her. At 7 am the sun was coming from behind the trees. Time to get up. A rather lazy breakfast at Ruby’s General Store, ending with sending a package to St. George – less weight to carry on the bicycle. Well, Sweet Machine is still resting at the campground. Hopefully it will still work on Monday! Yup, I get to stay at the campground while the boss gets to play in Bryce Canyon again – taking the shuttle bus. A mama deer with two babies were crossing the road – a happy feeling again! My boss takes the Sunset campground stop, which means she’ll have to walk along the rim to Sunrise point. She finds the quietness along the rim amazing. There must be so many people in the park, but once away from Sunset point, where the tourist busses unload noisy French people, the serenity of the park returns. With one exception – the Queens Garden trail. This awesome trail takes you from the rim to the bottom of the Bryce amphitheater. It is the most popular trail and there is always some people around. 

My woman gets to see Queen Victoria,

 a huge rock being held in place by a tree 

and the many holes in the rock made to get people through the rocks. 

She also finishes her quest for the special signs which is part of “stay healthy and move” – getting American kids (and adults too it said in the brochure) to move more. The goal is to find 3 different signs along hikes in the park, take a picture of them and then pick up your reward in the Visitor Center. Of course, my human was eager to find out what the reward was and she just had to find 3 of those signs. 

The Navajo loop trail connects with the Queens Garden trail. This trail is famous for “Wall street” and the narrow, steep winding path that leads from the bottom all the way to the rim again. 

The human newspaper says this is the best 3 mile hike in the world! Well, my boss does love it! The hike is always different – so many things to see. Back on the rim, my boss thinks she should still go to Inspiration point – a viewpoint she hasn’t been to this year yet. Uphill along the rim now. A lonesome tree seems to be a perfect rest stop – inhaling all of Bryce, if that’s possible. Become one. At the highest overlook she hears thunder – still far away, but the way the clouds move – on the way to Bryce. Time to call it a day and head to the Visitor center – picking up the hiking reward (a nice pin) – and then to Bryce City (or Rubyville). My boss is sooooo lucky – she has just time to get settled in her cabin when the white rocks fall down from the sky again. 

What a lot of rain. Hey boss, don’t you smell this – this ugly smell? It comes from the back of the cabin. As she looks through the window, my boss notices a narrow cage, covered with a blue tarp. But wait… there is something white and black in it – does it move… she keeps looking and suddenly she sees like teeth… it’s an animal – and what animal is white and black and smells ugly??? Yup, it’s a skunk stuck in the cage! When the storm has blown over, she goes outside to the back of the cabin – but keeps her distance. Nothing to see now. Well, she decides to go to the manager at the entrance, where she tells this weird story. They begin to laugh at the office – yes, they say, we finally trapped it! When my woman got back a car with three boys showed up. One brave guy got the closest and pulled the tarp all over it. The three of them lifted the cage and stuck it in the car. They were going to bring it to some other place – hopefully far enough from our home!

BTW – my boss says sitting on a saddle of a bicycle is like sitting in a sofa, compared to sitting on a horse saddle: she can still feel yesterday’s ride!

BTW2: So far I have seen on TV and heard on the radio a lot about the upcoming presidential elections. Those two guys are campaigning and when one says this, the other one reacts and says that. It is a fierce battle between those two and I wonder who the people will choose! 

Friday, August 17th: Bryce City, UT or … Yee haw, Bonnie, OMG!

The alarm sounds at 5.30 am. My woman – what’s up? So early? Ohh… she wants to see the sun rise! 

And we also have to leave our room here. So time to get the Sweet Machine loaded again and to go to the rim. We are a few minutes late… but the show is still good! Breakfast at the rim! We cannot stay too long since we have an appointment at the corral. Well, my woman does – I will take care of her valuables at the lodge, while Mona will keep an eye on Sweet Machine and all the rest of our belongings. I do not care much for those big 4 legged animals they call horses. But wait, my boss gets to sit on a mule. Hello, Bonnie, I’m Clyde! 

Meet Bonnie

The group is European: Germans, English girls which have a jolly good time with the cowboy guide  Rob, French (the kids do not understand what the cowboy tells them to do) and one Belgian! My boss says – doing the half day tour taking the Peek-a-boo trail is grand! Going down is sometimes scary – the animals are trained to walk at the edge. Many of times my boss had this OMG-feeling. Bonnie just did her best and took my boss wherever Bonnie wanted to go. My boss had a great time in this dream world, seeing the Naked Lady, the Totem Pole and the Wall of Windows. When she got back to the lodge, I noticed she walked a bit funny – having a sore butt and legs? We had lunch in the park and then we cycled to Ruby’s campground. Clouds were rolling in anyways. Here at the campground it felt as being back in the real world. Time to find the laundry – while it’s not too busy there. From the building we saw the lightning in the park and beyond, but here in Bryce City not one drop of rain touched the ground. With clean clothes my human is allowed to sit in the Ruby’s Inn. The turkey breast tasted deliciously! A short visit to the grocery store and the some listening to ‘Under one sky’ to round off this perfect day.

Thursday, August 16th: Bryce Canyon, UT or … 17150

Wake up, woman … we are in Bryce! You are supposed to be on the move! There are so many options for my boss – I wonder which one she will choose: a bicycle ride to the south end of the park? (No, Sweet Machine is tired!) A hike across the bottom of the amphitheatre? No, another day! We will walk along the rim to the Fairyland trailhead. Last year we started out on this trail, but returned about a quarter of the way. As soon as we leave the Sunrise viewpoint behind us, there is hardly anyone to be seen on the trail. It’s a silent walk along hoodoo’s 

and bristlecone pine trees.  

The path rolls up and down, giving us a view of the “Chinese Wall”.

 As my woman is walking she suddenly realizes she did leave a message in her room where she was walking to (you never know in case she would not return!) but she had no cell phone with her! (Who cares – there is no reception here anyways – but wait doesn’t 911 works everywhere?) Then she thinks about the whistle and the bear spray (this could be used against anyone in case of an emergency!) still hanging on her handle bar bag … up in the room. She also suddenly notices a man ahead of her – waiting and waiting and waiting. What to do… she thinks! A couple comes up from behind! Let’s hang around them! Now we can easily pass the strange man (he’s is making a phone call…) and head on with our walk. She climbs until she reaches a plateau: grass and flowers – no hoodoos here – and tracks of wildlife in the muddy earth. Time to start singing again since the German couple is somewhat slower than my boss. At a viewpoint my human notices the sign of the quest for healthy living. 

Here my boss waits for the couple and then has a talk with them: they are going to do the whole Fairyland loop. Wow! That’s a hike my boss wants to do  - but not all by herself. Now my boss chooses to return to the more populated places on the rim. She starts out on the trail to the Tower Bridge but suddenly remembers what she wrote on the note in the room and returns again. Time for lunch at Sunrise point general store: a hot dog (yeah - dogs do get hot here!) and a visit to the rest room where some good advice is hanging! 

In the afternoon she hangs out at the Sunset Point – goes down a while on the Navajo Loop. 

Sitting on a bench along the rim is also one of her activities – just absorbing it all or those days in Belgium when the weather is grey again and things do not work out the way we want it to go. Later that evening, as my boss sets out for the sunset, some raindrops sent her back to the room. Listening to Carlos Nakai is also a great way to spent the evening!