Monday, July 22nd, 2024
Moab, UT → Wingate Campground
33.93 mi, 2926 ft
This morning, I couldn’t decide whether or not to put on my bike jersey. It wasn’t because I wasn’t sure whether I would bike. Since we only had 34 miles to do, we pushed our biking to the evening so we could run errands in Moab before we camped for the next week.
First stop was the bike shop. After packing the van, we all took our bikes to Rim Cyclery to get them checked. Everyone but me got their chains replaced (I’d gotten mine replaced in Illinois). Since we’re now in the desert, we also bought more water bottles and water bottle cages. And finally, we stocked up on spare inner tubes. We’ve started biking a bit on the interstate (don’t worry, it’s legal on the parts we bike), which is surprisingly pretty nice because of the huge shoulder. The worst part of the interstate is the 10x increase in flat tires. Avoiding tire parts and their metal splinters on interstate shoulders is like playing Subway Surfers. You think you’ve swerved around all the bits and pieces until boom, suddenly it feels like you’ve forgotten how to bike because your tire has deflated to 0 psi. Hence the tubes.
After the bike shop, we went to the Moab library, where we had a classic van lunch outside and caught up on work. I mostly worked on this blog, but also made some routes and did some finance things. Despite being on the road, we are still wi-fi fiends. Thank you to all libraries and cafes we’ve bummed around in!
Finally, in the evening, we got ready to bike in the library bathroom and set out for the day. The beginning of the ride was beautiful as we biked along the paths that ran along Arches and stopped in the visitor center to get the obligatory national park stickers and postcards. Amulya, Varsha, and I chatted a bit as we biked, a luxury we only get when biking along paths with no cars. However, about halfway in, we realized that the sun was setting soon and we still had a lot of elevation to climb. While the road into Dead Horse State Park became more beautiful as the sky began to change color, it was a reminder that I was in a race against the sun. I’d blundered and forgotten my front light, so the adrenaline kicked in. Pedal pedal pedal… luckily I made it only a few minutes after the sun had set when there was still a bit of light in the sky.
I arrived at the campsite to the smell of freshly grilled burgers. Hank was making a burger bar with all the fix-ins, even sauteed mushrooms! It was almost 9pm and I was starving, so thought I could easily crush two burgers. I could not. I gave the last half of my second burger to JD. Burgers 1, Jess 0.
By the time we finished dinner, the sky was black and the moon was big and red, glowing just above the horizon. We gazed at the sky and talked. There’s something special about conversations under a silent night sky. How the darkness, the silence, and the brisk temperature remove distractions, leaving nothing but our voices to cut through the air.
According to Google, when the moon glows red, you set intentions. So we stared into the moon, setting intentions for the next year and reflecting on the past fifty days. We discussed how we’ve grown from Spokes and how crazy it is that we’ve spent so much time together, how we’ve never spent this much time with any other group of people before. It’s easy to get caught up in each day’s events, but moments like these remind me of how lucky I am to be here.
Beautiful picture of red moon!!!!