Day 22 - 9,435 feet

Day 22 - Monday, July 21

Salt Lake City to Duchesne —90 mi, 145 km

Early this morning at 4:50 I woke up. Barbara had prepared breakfast and Don drove us over to the camp. We were at the camp at 6:30, packed lunches, and took our bikes. We started out with a big descent. I had to stop and put on a jacket, because it was cold and I didn’t want to get sick(er).

Of course after every descent comes a climb. We got into a beautiful valley with farms and a river,

...from time to time a small village. We talked with a farmer who explained that because of the elevation they only have a growing season of 3 months. Even on June 12 they had a snow storm. He asked us all about the tour, because he was a biker too. He would like to do a cross country tour himself.

After came the big climb – about 3000 feet over a distance of about 10 kilometers. Parts of the road had an 8% grade, and (for you who know Haiti well) it made me think a lot about the road to Jacmel. After hard work we ended on the top, where we were at 9435 feet.

There were fields with grass and purple flowers, and pine trees and patches of snow in the background.

After this climb we had a descent of 20 miles, where we hardly had to bike. The environment became dryer again and we saw impressive rocks at the side of the valley.

It was a hard day, because of the distance, but by the grace of God and the encouragement of other bikers we got to camp by 4:00 pm. I had to work right away, because my group was on duty. We help in serving supper and we have to clean up. That is part of our responsibility, but that makes long days even longer.