pedalpanam

After a few great weeks of weather and cycling in Utah, I thought to myself, unfortunately, the only place morale could go from there was down if something came up along the road.

While things were still looking good at Jacob Lake, just north of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, I ran into John from England, who has been on the road for about two and a half years.  He cycled from England to Australia, and is now headed east from California across the USA.  We decided to bike together for a few days, as we were both headed to the Grand Canyon.  It has been great having him as a companion!

When it comes to cold weather, I have had a bad record going through National Parks (Jasper and Banff and Yellowstone and Grand Teton being the other chilly ones).  We made it to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon two days ago, barely.  The day started with a climb to the East Entrance of the park that would have been doable had it not been for the gusts of wind blowing us off the road.  We were happy to have made it 30 miles.  That night the temperature dropped to about 20F, not too bad, as we had decided to share a tent that night as we knew it was going to be cold.

The next day we made our way along the South Rim, enjoying some spectacular sights early in the day.  Later in the afternoon, we stopped at some viewpoints and could almost not see across to the North Rim because of the clouds and snow.  We made our way south to just outside Valle, AZ last night, where the temperature got down to 10F!  All our water was frozen in the morning, so we could make breakfast or coffee.  So we are eating in a restaurant right now, hoping it has warmed up a little outside.

From here I am headed to Prescott for a few days off and some planning before headed down to Mexico.