The last week of March, 2021, I drove a couple of hours to The Natural Bridges Monument outside of Blanding, Utah, for a sub-200 mile solo bikepacking trip.
My day started with lovely weather and a Happy Eeyore in the cockpit to navigate.
We had a glorious 40-mile descent on Snow Flat road towards the mighty Comb Wash Ridge.
Eeyore navigated and I pedaled.
Comb Wash Ridge as far as the eye can see.
What goes down will inevitably go back up again- after a sandy finish at the base of Comb Wash I climbed up and out of the valley for 20 miles and into the Valley of the Gods. This was the last of my sunny Utah weather!
My bikepacking rig “Chan Chan”, a 2017 Salsa Cutthroat.
Comb Wash Ridge sprawls ahead.
Eeyore smells rain.
Despite the infringing weather, 17 miles through Valley of the Gods did not disappoint. We caught a few glimpses of evening sunshine as it fought through the clouds until we made camp in the red rocks of the valley.
Eeyore double checks his maps before we pedal deeper into the valley.
Nooks and crannies of brilliant red Earth.
Valley of the Gods/ Earth’s sandstone art
The next morning a friendly traveler stopped and shared an updated weather forecast, which called for a storm to blow in two days early. This led me to a re-route of my ride to try and beat the rain, and most importantly the scary Utah mud and flooding that occurs.
I turned around and rode back out of Valley of the Gods, back up the road and into Comb Ridge. My route to beat the storm included about 70 miles of pedaling like hell through sand, rain, mud, and snow.
But the views were great along the way!
20 miles into Sand Wash road, the rains were not far behind.
A homey lunch-shack nestled beneath the ridge.
Confirmed- very sticky. Sorry Chan Chan.
Eeyore and I did not quite pedal fast enough to escape the dreaded Utah baby-shit mud. We hiked-a-bike the last 5 miles in the rain.
After walking the last handful of miles, we still had a 17 mile road climb of doom back to the van. I cleaned my chain while it started to snow and tucked Eeyore into my rain jacket- he had forgotten his.
The last photo of good weather!
When the weather started to change…
Pedaling and snuggling for our lives.
Utah chucked bad weather at me, but also chucked a good Samaritan my way and I caught a hitch the rest of the way back to the van.
Snowy road climb of doom successfully avoided.
Grand adventure doesn’t always include grand weather!
