Day 20

84 miles (furthest yet) through some amazing scenery.

Today started with a BIG climb. We cycled out of Boulder and uP to 9600 feet. It was cold on the bike first thing but this was quite welcome. As we started the serious ascent about 0715 hrs the sun started to peep through the trees and warm us up. We climbed for about 3.5 hours stopping off to admire some extraordinary views of the valley below. 
Once we hit the summit the cool air we found at nearly 10000 ft gave way to warm and then hot as we decended towards Torrey. Rolling terrain rather than a single steep decent saw us into Torrey about 1330. Here we met two very nice girls who are cycling from Michigan to California. To cut a long story short, I asked one of them if she was practiced in the art of wheel truing (?spelling) and she was! We borrowed a spoke key and I now have a totally non wobbling wheel. I’ll still need a bike shop asap as I need a new rear tyre as mine is balding. 

We pressed on, turning of road 12 onto the 24 Into the Reef National Park. Here we cycled through some of the most incredible scenery I have ever seen. A lot of the route was downhill but we were stopping every few minutes to take photos anyway so it was a leisurely ride. 

Huge red sandstone mountains rose up in front of us as we crested hills. Structures worn and shaped by the wind over the millennia amazed us with their beauty. 

We left the park but not the scenery, the astounding vistas continued right through to Hanksville. 

Tracey, Mike and I are very proud of ourselves today. 84 miles – our furthest yet and it was remarkable.