Day 14: Panguitch to Cannonville

Bike Stats:
Distance - 33 mi
Avg Speed - 10.1 mph
Climbed - 1325 ft
Calories Burned - 1120 kcal
Temps - 70 to 90 F

After two very challenging days, it was nice to have a short easy one. I slept in, and then went to a restaurant and had a real sit-down breakfast, with coffee, and a newspaper. It felt really good not to be in a hurry. I biked thru the middle of the day, and still got to the next motel pretty early. That gave me time to clean and thoroughly inspect the bike before the next series of challenging days.
Temperature was much more pleasant, perhaps because of the altitude. There were storms in the area, but none over me. The wind was adverse, but gentle. The terrain included one big uphill for exactly the first half, and then downhill the rest of the way.
Cannonville is so small that it only has one motel and a grocery store. No restaurant. So I'm foraging on snack foods.

I did have a really good dinner last night in Panguitch though, at this classic old western restaurant. The brisket was mesquite smoked and tasty, but not as tender as we're used to in Kansas City.

The road over the mountain led up Red Canyon, where there were lots of great scenes like this.

There was also a nicely paved bike trail for 9 miles of the climb, which was much appreciated. It was nice not to have to be watching traffic, so I could soak in the surroundings.

There were alot of interesting rock formations.

There were a few places where the highway builders chose to tunnel thru the rock formations instead of blasting them away.

From the top of the mountain I was going over, I could see this neighboring monolith, and was glad to have avoided it.

Ten or twenty miles away they were having a rainstorm.

I came close enough to Bryce Canyon to get a photo of their unique white and red rock formations.

This is the valley that Cannonville is in: irrigated fertile fields surrounded by dry canyon walls.