Bluff, UT to Tuba City, AZ

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Today's Stats
Miles: 60.12
Riding Time: 4:31:05
Avg. Speed: 13.3
Max Speed: 41.1
Elevation Gain: 4210

We made it safely to Tuba City!! That's my story and I'm sticking to it! OK, what follows is the real deal.

We left Bluff, UT at 6:00 am knowing we had a long day ahead of us. Climbed out of the San Juan River gorge and through beautiful canyon and butte landscapes with far off views of Monument Valley. After some mega climbs and some screaming downhills we arrived in Mexican Hat ahead of our support vehicle. Ken got caught up in some slow traffic. Anyway, we rode on ahead and eventually Ken caught up to us.

Our next planned stop was near Monument Valley. Think old western movies and the place where Forrest Gump stopped his running; "I'm a little tired. I think I'll go home now." Long ups and downs brought us up to the final climb before the Arizona state line. At the top of that climb we had covered 40 miles and climbed about 4000ft.

We turned the corner around the huge butte that shadowed us for the climb and were met with a wicked south wind. The wind was blowing so hard that we had to peddle for all we were worth to go 10 mph downhill!

We carried on with this nonsense for 20 more miles in two hours. A quick mathematical calculation revealed that at this pace we would be riding for 7 more hours plus rest stops. UGH!! We tried riding a little further only to be sandblasted by the wind-whipped sand. We also experienced some gusts that blew us sideways by three feet. Ken had turned around and drove back to us to let us know that the wind was no better up ahead so with little convincing we loaded the bikes into the van and called it a day. A good decision as we encountered lots of blowing dust on the road to Tuba City and really cruel conditions for riding a bike.

So there you have it. The story of our day. Hope for better riding conditions tomorrow on the climb to Flagstaff.

Once again, no pictures. Will try plan B, or is it C or D to try to get pictures tomorrow.