My ride with Phil, pt 2.

As promised, (only a few days late) more pictures from Cedar City...

The high school madrigal choir sent us off with a Maori war chant, and traditional "sing-away'

everybody's ready to go.

this little guy wanted to come along

heading up the canyon

Jason is 11. He rode his dad's old 80's heavy steel 10 speed with us. We stopped for a break about 5 miles up the canyon, and most everyone turned around. Jason is showing Phil how to make an origami dragon.

I know these pictures don't look that all that bad, but the majority of the road - especially heading back down was twisty with several blind corners, and cars, motorhomes, and semi's tearing down the canyon at breakneck speeds.

My plan was to ride at least 39 miles on my birthday - a mile a year. Riding up the canyon with a group of 7 cyclists, a motorcycle and an airstream trailer being pulled by a suburban felt comfortable and safe. While we were riding up, I kept on watching the traffic barrelling down the canyon in the opposite direction, and I kept on noticing the non-existent shoulder, especially around the numerous blind corners. about 5-6 miles up, we stopped and everyone else turned back. I decied to continue on with Phil. After another 5 or so miles, realizing that the farther up the canyon I go - the higher the chance of some inattentive motorhome smearing me all over the road, I stopped and turned back down. This is added to the fact that he has been training for this for a while, and I am fat and out of shape he was quickly pulling away from me, leaving me behind.

the weather in Cedar City was almost perfect, it could have been a little warmer. didn't hit weather until almost to Springville.

back in civilization, unfortunately.

So, my birthday ride ended up only being 10 miles instead of the expected 39 miles. The big benefit of the day was I made it back in time to meet my family for a impromptu birthday dinner. It was a good birthday!

Phil is posting daily videos of his ride on his website. The ride from Cedar City to Kanab is day 6. I'm in it. Go here to see all of the videos on his daily blog.