Salt Lake City – Mona – Salina – Torrey – Capitol Reef NP – Boulder
496 kilometers
Well rested we leave Salt Lake City. Sandi joins us to the post office since we are sending some clothes home. It makes us 2.5 kilograms lighter. Sandi, 73 years old, on her road bike, afraid of nothing and beats us in every descent. What a woman. The next 50 kilometers we meander through the city on nice bike lanes next to the Jordan river.
After that we are next to Utah lake for a bit before we hit the town of Mona. Again it is very hot, so we are really dependent on the gas stations that we encounter and their ice cube and water machines. Just south of Mona we see some fishing ponds on the map and it turns out to be a perfect camp spot. The kids and families swimming in the water really make it a cozy place to overnight.



We are exactly a month in the US now. Everything is yellow here in Utah, except for the corn fields that are exorbitantly irrigated with water. Lakes that show on Google Maps turn out to be dried up when we pass them. It is extremely hot again and we make our way from gas station to gas station to fill up on water. We make the mistake to not eat enough and the last 5km before we reach Gunnison I have to drag myself forward squeezing all energy that’s still left in my body to reach our supermarket/lunch spot. We make it to Salina that day which marks our second 100+km day.
We’re pushing forward hard. In Salina we find a city park to sleep for the night. The grass is green which means there must be a sprinkler system here, so we put up our tents between the benches of a covered shelter. When the sprinkler system starts running in the evening we decide to take our bar of soap, take off all our clothes and have a shower in the rain of sprinklers. Naked, clean and filled with adrenaline we let the wet grass tickle between our toes. Sometimes it just really feels like I’m living a movie.




For the first time we fill up our 10L water bag that we bought in Salt Lake. We’ve been having issues with water already a few times and it was time to fix that. We ascend and descend two mountain passes where in the last descend the roads are just steep and straight with good tarmac and no cars. I’m shocked to see a maximum speed of 98km/h on my bike computer later on.
Sorry mam. We end the day cycling next to an amazing backdrop of beautiful, steep red rocks. We’ve entered Torrey, the gateway to Capitol Reef National Park. We decide to treat ourselves to burgers and even dessert. We sleep in the city park and again it’s a perfect (but illegal) place to stay.


We wake up with people walking their dogs in the park in the background. Nobody makes a deal of the pitched tents in the park. We feel low on energy today. Is it the raging pace we’ve been embracing the last days? The heat? We don’t know, but it takes us some time to pack up and get going. We begin the day with a lovely descent along steep red rocks into Capitol Reef NP. We plan to go off the beaten track for two days with possibly very little water resupplies. So once again we fill up our 10L bag with water and hope for the best. We do a little hike to one of the natural bridges carved out of the red rocks in the park. Again all the energy seems to seep out of our body. We drive out of the park and turn into a side road. We still want to refill our water somewhere because it will be tight the next 1.5 days and I am so terribly thirsty that all my water bottles are already almost empty. We see two houses and drive up the steep path. We are greeted by a friendly man that already sees us coming from his balcony. He provides us with water, 7up and beef jerky. When we want to drive away, Jacko’s front tire appears to be flat. He pulls about 10 thorns out of his tire and he has to patch up 4 or 5 little holes.
Most probably we got the thorns in our tires when cycling up the driveway to the house. To avoid more flats, the owner brings us and the bikes down in his buggy. Back on the road with considerable delay and crankiness Jacko still appears to have a small hole in his tube so he just has to pump now and then. It really doesn’t help with our peace-of-mind: we are worried about water (the air is so dry and the temperature so hot that we just have to drink a lot), the sun is setting and now these flat tires too. Also, we’re really in the desert now. The paved road becomes gravel first and then turns into sand. Loose Sahara sand. We have to walk here and there. Although we have concerns, in the meantime the landscapes surrounding us become beautiful with red sand, white rocks and the setting sun shining its golden hour. We push on to the campground and it is dark when we arrive. Because of the scarcity of water we don’t boil pasta but make burritos. No dishes, no shower. The sky is beautifully clear and we sleep without our outer tent so we see the milky way looking up from our sleeping pad. I hear a pack of wolves howling in the distance and when going for a midnight pee I hope I won’t get stung by a scorpion.












Today will be a tough day. A lot of gravel, hot temperatures, steep hills to climb. We are cycling the beautiful but ruthless Burr Trail. A beautiful set of switchbacks takes us on top of the first plateau. The terrain is beautiful, everything is yellow and red, with small dots of green desert plants. It is immensely hot. Our water bag is almost empty.
When reaching the end of the beautiful Burr trail we still have to ask cars to stop to provide us with water. Luckily everybody is very helpful. When we reach tarmac and civilization in Boulder me and Jacko give each other a hug. We are relieved. The lack-of-water stress in combination with the brutal climbs today has made this into another challenge that we faced and have overcome.









Still we don’t have a place to sleep in Boulder that night. We have no energy left to check out city parks, find free camp spots or whatsoever. When we get some food at a gas station Jacko sees a house that has a very welcoming aura.
He decides to drive up the lane to the house, find the people to be home and just to bluntly ask if we can pitch our tent in their garden. And you know what? It is no surprise to us anymore that they let us.
RESPECT,,
Heel vet weer om te lezen! Geniet er van!
Thanks Petey 🙂
Een diepe buiging , wat een soms helse maar fantastische trip weer
Water is een onontbeerlijk goed , dat hebben jullie aan den lijve ondervonden
Fijn dat ik nu pas lees dat je bijna 100km/u afgedaald bent maar ja ‘ voor de duvel niet bang ‘
PAS GOED OP JEZELF !!! 😉
Gvd Marijn, dit is fietsen! Maar die droogte en gebrek aan water; écht afzien. Als ik het lees voel ik het bijna in mijn benen. Hou vol het is nog maar een eindje naar Patagonië 😜
Haha ja nog maar een klein stukje Theo!:) Aan de Amerikaanse kust geen watergebrek meer gelukkig:)
i thought a midnight pee is a thing for 40+ years old men only 😉
i have cheated and checked on Jacko’s strava, and see that you guys survived the utah/calif deserts.
Or, well ,at least he did. 😀
Haha yes we survived SPOILER ALERT
Hi Marijn,
Ik zag al op Insta de foto’s van SF, alles lijkt jullie goed af te gaan (ahum….).
Succes met deze geweldige reis en de onverwachte uitdagingen. Ik ben jaloers op jullie (en met mij vele anderen).
Geniet en “stay safe”.