Total mileage: 2866.4 miles
Well it rained all night and we had to pack everything up sopping wet this morning. While we were sad to leave the Grand Canyon, there were definitely some people who were ready to head back to civilization and cry out. Things were pretty desperate at breakfast as we have lost a few bowls along the way.
Wen we headed out it was a little chilly and the sky was threatening rain, but we had to back track our way to Jacob Lake to get to our next host. My train was deemed the sandwich train because we were hoping to stop at the same care and get sandwiches before heading finishing our ride. As we were leaving the camp site Ben and I were joking that the Northern route would be laughing about how badly we were taking the cold, wet weather. Similarly if one of theNorthern riders was on our hot route they would probably be melting. It is funny how you acclimate to your weather conditions.
Well dear readers this is where the story takes a turn for the desperate, sad and depressing...if only I could include music to help settle mood. We were preparing for an uphill battle this morning because our ride in had been so nice. During the second hill the rain started coming down and I noticed I had a flat. Jack, Ben and Jay were too far out to hear me call and thankfully holly also noticed she had a flat too. We both pulled over to change our tires and the skies opened up. We only had on our kits and arm warmers which did nothing against the rain and wind. Groups started passing and finally we got on the road again.
As we were passing through the front gates to the park we had to go over some cattle grates and unfortunately Holly got another flat. By this point the rain had stopped and there was a little bit of sun so changing this one was not as terrible. Please note that we have no spare tubes at this point and would have to wait for sweep to roll through if something else happened.
We get about another two miles, all the while keeping an eye on the huge storm which is coming our way, and Holly gets another flat. At this point the rain has started spitting, we have no tubes and are FREEZING. Holly had a patch kit with her so we tried to patch a tube, but due to the rain the patches were not sticking. Next option was to call the van and/or sweep to see how far back they were and we realized that neither of us had any service (please keep this in mind as you continue reading). We are now desperate; I cannot remember a time when I have been so cold/wet. With sweep no where in sight we decide to try duct tape which seemed to work until we went to pump the tire and the whole thing blew up.
Plan C was to start flagging people down who would either have cell phone reception and/or could take us to our lunch location where we could dig out extra tubes. Sadly there was no one on the road - the early hour was not working in our favor. Finally i was able to get someone going in the direction of the park and they had no reception. From there I started to try and wave people down, but instead of people stopping, they were giving me the thumbs up or waving back ... Sooooo not helpful. I was able to get another car to stop, but they had no reception either.
At the same moment holly had gotten a car and an RV to pull over; things were starting to look up or so we thought. The first car had no cell phone reception, but the truck pulling over the trailer had bikes on his rack and he thought that he might have some extra tubes somewhere we could have. Now please remember that it is still raining and Holly and I are shivering so badly that we can barely work a phone. The man and his wife invite us to sit in their trailer, turn up the heat and give us towels while they try to find tubes. Sadly they were for mountain bikes, but he did have a patch kit handy and offers to patch all of the flats we had.
Once everything had been patched and the tires pumped we headed back out. Both Holly and shook their hands and when the woman felt how cold we were she made us come back inside, wash our hands in warm water and hang for a few more minutes before she would let us out on the road.
By this point, several hours had passed and we had not even gone 15 miles. As we crested the next hill we saw the van coming towards us and immediately flagged them down. I guess the two of us were quite a sight and looked completely out of it. Chika who was driving the van said she was getting worried about us. Someone had also told them the they had seen two bikes outside and RV and thought that we might need help. Turnout that the rest of the team was holed up in a lodge a half mile down the road so once we had a few new tubes we headed there immediately.
Sure enough the team was standing around a fire place and one of those space heaters you see in outdoor restaurants. Holly and I stripped down as best we could and warmed up with some hot chocolate.
Once the rain had stopped and the sun started to peak out Holly and I decided to make a break for Jacob Lake where sandwiches and hot chocolate awaited us; Jack decided to hop on the bandwagon too. As we were bikingr along we came across a deer sign that had a red sticker over the nose i.e. Rudolph. Jack always travels with Googlie eyes so we decided to add it to the sign.
Once we got to Jacob Lake we devoured sandwiches and then banged out the last thirty miles to the host. There were two great descents that made up for all the bad weather we had that morning. We were also rewarded that evening with an amazing, full rainbow and sunset.
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