Day 1: First day of Spring! On the road

The only map I have for southern UT is AAA's Nevada/Utah...not exactly ideal scale-wise. I figured I'd use my compass to navigate across the towns, but St. George is a bit hillier than I expected and I didn't want to gain any more elevation than I absolutely had to (especially not at the beginning of my first day). I stopped at an RV park not too far from the greyhound/McDonald's and got some convoluted verbal directions to get back to the highway...I then found a paper map posted for park visitors and navigated myself out of town.

Biking along Hwy 9 was beautiful (once I crossed the mire of St. George's mini-mall comercialism). Admiring UT's red bedrock rising above the sage covered plains, dusted white on top with snow. I played tag with the rain clouds--cycling ahead of the rain for a while, having it blow up behind me, rain a while, then blow over and let up for a bit...fortunately the winds were at my back the whole way, so cycling through was a pleasure. I made several stops to adjust my clothing. Layering took some finesse to stay warm and dry in the rain, but not get so hot that I started to perspire from the effort of pedaling. On the way into Hurricane I saw a real road runner cross the road! For sure the highlight of my day.

I spent about an hour and a half on bike maintenance in Hurricane--my breaks were dragging and I wasn't about to climb into Zion fighting unnecessary resistance. Rockville is a super cute little town with a ton of bed and breakfasts; horse and cattle property was everywhere. I thought about stopping at one of the B&B's and asking to pitch my tarp in their back-yard, or maybe do a work-exchange for a room to sleep in, but I was too shy and decided to cycle on into Zion. Springdale was also a pretty cool town--they had an organic orchard and produce market, but it was getting dark as I was biking through, so I couldn't see much else. Rolled into Zion about 7:30PM after the gate rangers stopped taking entrance fees (hehehe), snagged a campsite, paid the iron ranger $16, cooked some soup, and went to bed. Some sprinkles over night, but nothing major. I slept well after the 47 mile ride and 1150' elevation gain.