Monday 23/5/05

Rode about 65 miles to Panguitch today with the ride split over two big climbs. Rode till midday 38 miles to an awesome pizza for lunch in Tropic. I think it weighed us down somewhat for the rest of the ride, we could barely finish it. More amazing canyonlands on our way up to the top of the next hill.

We stopped at the top for refreshments and met a guy who had obviously drank himself retarded, he had the memory of a goldfish and thought the Queen, Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger visited him regularly (but not all at the same time he added). Funniest thing though was his singing dog. When asked to sing it would, kinda, apparently its favorite was Bob Dylan it could accompany him to guitar. On the way down the otherside a path had been built for cyclists through red canyon which was pretty cool, lots of hairy swithbacks etc, just glad no one was coming the other way.

We found upon arriving in Panguitch that the only campsite there cost the obscenly high price of $27/ night, the highest we have paid so far. Absolutely ridiculous. Oh well, the Germans were there again and they paid the same, its good to be followed by some fellow cyclists even if they had come through a much easier route than us which we didn't know about! We were thinking of taking a day off here as we havn't had one for over a month now and Mark was complaining his butt was sore, however with prices like that we had to push on for another day.