Kindred Spirits

06/02/09 - Today we woke up in the hotel in Ruby's Inn that Nick and awesomely provided for us again. We got all our stuff together and stepped outside only to realize that it wasn't more than 40 degrees outside. We threw on every piece of clothing we had and got on our bikes and headed out into the Utah wilderness. We had a great ride in the morning with some beautiful scenery. After a short but very steep climb, we had an incredible 20 mile long descent into the small town of Escalante. The scenery was beautiful and when we got to Escalante we hit the first grocery store and feasted on cold cut sandwiches, fruit, chips, and soda. After a quick nap, we rode onwards. We hit another incredible scenery change where the land changed from open praire to rocky canyons. We had a beautiful but brutal climb up calf creek and onto the "hogs back" highway which ran along a ridge. We than descended into the small town of Boulder, Utah (not to be confused with Boulder, Colorado). We did some networking in town and discovered from Doran that there was a young "hippie" who would be willing to put us up. We rode to the house and met Josh and Jill who lived on a subsistent farm and were hoping to go "off the grid" in the near future. It turned out that Josh had quit his job as an engineer and was looking for a peaceful life in Boulder farming. He rode his bike there on almost the same route that we came and settled down with Jill. We helped in the fields that afternoon tilling 34 rows and digging deep rows for potatos. After the work, Jill cooked an incredible meal of hamburger tortillas with incredible accessories added in. We enjoyed stimulating conversation around the campfire with Josh. It was cool to here him describing all the pains of bike touring that we were experiencing. After the campfire, we crashed into the beds that they had so graciously provided for us.

73 Miles.