Day 12: Baker to Milford, UT

Ride Stats:
Distance - 83 mi
Avg Speed - 9.8 mph
Climbed - 3600 ft
Calories Burned - 4350 kcal
Temps - 60 to 125 F

I knew the distance alone would make this a challenging day, so I got started at 5:45, and pulled into Milford 10 hours later. It was a long hot day with lots of adverse wind, and a few passes to climb over.
Like many of the days recently, the thermometer hits 100 F at exactly 10:30 am and continues to climb from there. A cloud can make a 20 degree improvement, but that only happened for a short stretch. I went thru my water a little faster than I'd hoped and had only a liter left with 17 miles to go; and I was climbing at the time, with no idea where the summit was. So the next time I heard a car approaching from behind, I waved my water bottle over my head; and the car actually stopped. It was a nice young couple from Portland, OR who are avid bicyclists and are camping in the area. They had plenty of water and gave me another liter, or so. That allowed me to rehydrate and take a much needed rest break, since now I didn't have to worry about running out of water before Milford. It's good to know that people do look out for each other in the desert.

Not only a new state, but a new time zone; so I lost an hour today. The "Life Elevated" part scares me.

But, not as scary as this sign. It's really hard to carry 75 miles worth of food and water on a bike.

Every valley looks a little different. This one had great looking grasslands, but no animals grazing. I think it needs a herd of Buffalo. Someone alert Ted Turner or Neil Young.

The first climb was about 1000 ft.

The second was a little harder at about 1200 ft.

Then the last one, in the hottest part of the day, was the worst with about 1400 ft. I couldn't even enjoy the ride down the other side to Milford because the wind was trying to blow me back up the pass. Oh well, tomorrow's another day, and these things do have a way of evening out.