Grand Staircase - Escalante Loop (aka The Loop of Doom) Day 4
3:30am came quickly, and the three of us woke up and hustled to get out of camp so we could climb the morning in the dark. Patty wasn’t feeling so hot because he had been overheated and couldn’t cool down enough to sleep very well. He had doused himself in the creek several times that night in an attempt to cool down, but he still wasn’t very comfortable. I had slept alright and was excited to get this final day of riding in the books.
The stream was, of course, in a small valley that we had to climb out of, so we started climbing the morning. I found it was actually mentally motivating to ride up the hills in the dark. You can’t really see how far you have yet to ride to get to the summit of a climb, and you only just focus on what is in front of you. Plus, though we were trying to hurry and get as far as we can before the heat came, the experience of riding into the sunrise and arriving at the top of the mesa in the morning sun was worth the early morning wake up call.
Ryan seemed to be a bit more motivated than Patty and I to get to the finish line, and so he rode ahead for quite a while. I knew we had to take our time or we’d be scorched and out of energy by the end of the day, especially with Patty’s lack of sleep. I was trying to keep up with Ryan when I noticed that Patty was having a hard time keeping up, which isn’t like him. Every time he’d catch up, he’d fall right back behind. FInally, I let Ryan go ahead and waited for Patty. He had been carrying the drone in the bottom of his back pack and the pressure on his low back had been pressing on a nerve and his leg had finally gone numb and he was in a severe amount of pain. So we unloaded his pack and he laid down for a while, trying to see if he could get the feeling back in his leg and stretch out his back. Ryan eventually came back and took the drone on his pack.
A much relieved Patty was able to get back on the saddle and away we went. At some point in the day, though we were hustling, Ryan kept gaining distance on us and we lost sight of him. We knew he wasn’t having a very good time and wanted to get back to the car as soon as possible, so we figured he just went ahead. We kept motoring, eventually getting closer to town. Finally, after riding the roller coaster generally up rollers that we had been all morning, we got to the top of Kelly grade. This is the notorious steep, winding descent down from the mesa into the valley. The views were out of this world and Patty and I took a few moments here and there to stop to appreciate the scenery. As excited as I was for a descent, this descent is not to be trifled with. I live for descents! I have a history as a road cyclist and my favorite thing to do would be to bomb down the west hills of Portland, OR at 45+ MPH when I could. I love cornering, I love pushing it. But! Here I was, loaded with a 60 lbs bike, hoping that my brakes wouldn’t overheat or stop working, trying not to slide out on the tight corners, catch a tire in the huge ruts running parallel with my wheels all over the road, and keep in control on the occasional rocky-ass goat-head sections. Our short stops for a quick pick were definitely necessary to wring out my fingers and shake out my forearms and give my brain a break!
Just as the sunlight was starting to shift towards evening vibes, Patty and I motored into town. It felt like it took forever to cross the final straights, but we were incredibly thankful that we didn’t have any horrible headwinds, because this part is notorious for taking forever if there’s brutal winds. With a little energy to spare, but glad to be done, we got back to our car. Ryan had already come and gone, mentioning that he may or may not have thrown up when he got done and went directly to the closest service station to get all the electrolytes and coca-colas to try to recuperate before heading home. To this day, I haven’t seen him back on the bike and heard a rumor that he made a purchase of a motobike three weeks later. That’s how much this route sucked the lives out of each of us!
Some of these adventures that I put myself through are bike-cations. And some are definitely Type-2-Fun, where I say - “You know, that was really hard, and I suffered, but I would do it again, or I would recommend it. Then there are those adventures that are Type-3/4-Fun where I would never feel the need to experience it again, nor would I put it on my list of recommendations for folks out there. So, take it or leave it for this one! I know many other people have done it and highly recommend, so I also firmly believe that in any other given season that isn’t right after horrible monsoons and storms, it might be a little more bearable.
Signing out!