The temperature dropped to 27 degrees last night. My tent was covered in ice, as was my bike.
Hard to see, but that is ice
Since I camped a mile away from Galaxy Diner in Hatch, I rode back for breakfast and coffee. Nestled in a booth with power charging my laptop, a carafe of coffee and a plate with eggs and potatoes, I set out to do some work on this blog.
My campsite
I have a few new features that I plan to release soon!
I sat in that booth for roughly three hours - talking to the four iterations of patrons in the booth next to me.
First was two couples from the UK, driving the loop in Utah from Las Vegas - which seems to be the most typical pastime. Travelers fly in to Las Vegas (cheap fares), rent a motorhome and see the national parks in Utah & Arizona: The Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef and Escalante.
Next was a family, with two grown sons, motorcycling around the same loop. The mother, from Spain, was intrigued with bicycle touring and thinks she may give it a try in Europe.
Third was an Irish couple, and the folks I spent the most time talking to about traveling. One from the north, the other from the south, have been living in the Seattle area for quite some time. They spotted the IRL sticker on one of the water bottles on my bike, instantly recognizing it and probably looked for the most haggard person in the diner.
Since I lived in Ireland for a year, we were able to reminisce about the sites there; the most spectacular being the Giant's Causeway on the Antrim Coast in Northern Ireland. I visited the area when my parents and brother flew over for spring break.
Last was Roger, from Orlando, who recently sold his business and is traveling the country with his wife.
Running out of people to talk to and blog updates to write, I started riding to Bryce Canyon.
And that is when I started feeling ill. I'm positive it was caused by the altitude, which is a bit strange, because I've been in high altitude conditions before (mostly skiing). But I've been climbing and descending a couple thousand feet every day now for a week, and I think that is affecting me.
I just tried to stay hydrated. Once I reached the campground, I started to feel a bit better.
Daniel contacted me with his campsite location, where I setup my tent and located the showers. It had only been four days since my last shower, but the eight minutes of hot water felt particularly good.
Cooking some dinner. We have the backup spot for the campground, which means no picnic table. Not that I usually have one anyways.
Tomorrow I'll go hiking in the canyon, but for now, I walked up to the ridge, just to see what its like...
Once again, stunning.
Joe