Day 18: The Night Riders (Hite, UT to Blanding, UT - 80 miles)

Since we were planning to wake up at 1am to avoid the heat, we attempted to get to sleep early.  We found a bush the provided a little shade and pitched our tent below it.  It is amazing how rare shade is. Some days there will literally be no shade for 50 miles. 

The bush ended up blocking the very little wind there was, so after an hour of just sweating a lot, we moved up to the sidewalk outside the park rangers office with the MIT students. 

Although it doesn't look it, this set up was more comfortable.  Once the sun went down at 9, the temperature dropped from the hundreds to the high 80s. This finally made sleeping somewhat possible. I slept in just my bike shorts on the mat, and woke up very frequently drenched in sweat.  At one point I woke up and was so thirsty I drank 1.8 liters of water. In total I slept for about two hours, and Dan got an hour. 

Our new MIT friend Claire woke me up at 1am and gave me a mocha ice coffee.  It really was instant coffee made the night before mixed with hot chocolate mix that had been sitting out overnight.  At the time it tasted amazing. 

We packed up our things and launched off into the night at 2am. Eight of us rode in a tight pack, each bike with a front light and blinking red tail light.  Surprisingly night riding on hardly any sleep wasn't miserable. The MIT riders let Dan and I ditch some of our gear in their support van which was awesome. 

We climbed 3000 feet over 50 miles in the darkness.  Everyone seemed to really enjoy it. 

After three hours of darkness, we could see some light peeking over the horizon.  Watching the sunrise was amazing. The pictures do a terrible job showing how beautiful this trip is. 

After a huge 10 mile descent, we made a nice shaded climb through a rocky mountain.

It is nice when the roads go through blasted out mountains so we don't have to ride over them. I was singing the Indiana Jones theme song through this pass. 

Riding with the MIT students has been really nice. Since it was Sunday morning, all the Mormons were at church and literally no one was on the road. I rode side by side with a few of our new friends and had some great conversations.  It doesn't take long to realize how intelligent these people are. 

Here is Dan, Claire, and I. Thanks to Titiaan for the awesome picture. I didn't even know he was taking it. 

For the last hour or so of the day the temperature reached 98 degrees.  Overall, the night riding was nice, but we were exhausted after 80 miles. Dan and I got a cheap motel and passed out right when we walked in the door for 4 hours.  It felt great to have a bed in an air conditioned room after three nights of camping in the very hot weather.  

Tomorrow we are planning to head into Dolores, Colorado.  We are very excited to get into another state. We plan to wake up at 3am and be on the road for 4.