We were all dreading the 5000 ft of climbing that we were supposed to get today, but that never really did seem too bad. We started with the long climb up the 6 switchbacks to the tunnel entrance. It was a very mellow grade and seemed to go by very quickly. The bad part here was that the scenery in the canyon was hard to see as it would show up best in the afternoon, but in the morning you end up looking towards the sun.

On the tunnel shuttle, I think we managed to be at the tail end of the tour, as it was mostly the staff people that were in the shuttle with us. We had never been one to hurry-up on this tour, so this being last was not anything new for us, as we were used to it. We would usually catch alot of the others during the day.

We had told each other that we would not go to any gift shops today, as we had seen all that could be seen. But back at Mt.Carmel Junction, while Kim and I waited for Debbie to go use the restroom, Kim decided to slip off to this other gift shop while I took a nice nap on the grass. Kim forgot to bring her purse with her so she was saved from actually buying anything.

Some of our riding buddies for the tour (cw from right) - Eric, Bob, Teresa, Susan, Steve, Katrina.

Now riding north towards Bryce, we were getting a stiff sidewind, so it often took some concentrating to stay steady on the road. I knew from the route sheet that we would turn east sometime and that then we should get some nice tailwind, but for the time being it was just having to persevere. We were all pretty beat up by the time that we made that turn. It was now a long gradual uphill, but with the now-good tailwind we moved along.

We stopped to remove jackets and could see our next turn just ahead. We were to get on a bike trail for the next 5 miles, and this trail turned out to be most excellent. It wandered around with easy grades and nice sweeping curves, and was just like a little road all of the way up to the summit. At the summit, we got back on the road. The road stayed high and flat now, with a long straightaway in front of us and a very solid tailwind behind us. We now cruised at 30 mph.

We pulled into Ruby's Inn at 4:00 PM. We would be camping here near Bryce for the next two nights. From even before the tour, Kim and I had decided that tomorrow night, Thursday, we would need to get a motel room so that we could watch the first episode of the new Survivor. So Kim went inside Ruby's Inn and asked for a room for tomorrow night. I had called before from Las Vegas and they were all full, but we were now hoping that someone had cancelled. This time we were in luck, as Kim got us a room with two beds. That would work.

We now rode on over to next door to the campground to set up tents for tonight. It was still very, very windy and so our main concern was in finding a spot out of the wind as much as possible. We set up under some trees but it really wasn't much help, as it was still windy. And we were up at about 8500 ft elevation so it was also a bit cold. I finally had to put on my long pants and sweatshirt.

Except for the wind, the campground was very nice. It actually had a pool and hot tub right near to where we were camping, so we went in the hot tub for a bit before dinner.

Dinner was up at Ruby's Inn, and was a very good buffet. After dinner we roamed around the Inn and it's gift shop, as it was just too cold to try going back outside. If we went back to camp it would be to just crawl inside our tents and call it a day. In walking around the gift shop, I found that I was feeling incredably tired, almost one of the walking dead. I felt like I could just lay down and go to sleep anywhere. I think that it must have been a combination of the hard ride today, plus the hiking yesterday, plus the general lack of sleep. Anyway, at maybe 8:30 PM I was finished for the day and so Debbie and I went back to camp while Kim was still going strong and wanted to stay longer at the Inn.

The next morning Kim told us that after she came back to camp, she hung out at the campfire until about 11:30 PM before she finally went to bed. I was glad that I didn't try to stay up with her, as I would have died. I really needed my sleep that night.

Totals for the day were 85 miles.

Go to the next day.