I had been dreading this section for months. When I saw this section when examining the route I was very concerned. It didn't help that we are currently having record temperatures in Utah right now.
I studied the route and came up with a plan. Based on previous days I had a pretty good sense of how much water I'd need if all went well. I froze my 2 liter bladder and 1 liter bottle. I purchased 1 gallon and asked the store guy to try to send a second gallon with someone going east. I also had my two water bottle ... they are great for getting hot water for coffee. I started with 3 liters of ice and a gallon of water on my back. For food I went to Stan's Burger Shack and got a burger and nuggets for 4am breakfast; and 3 double cheeseburgers for every 3 hours throughout the day.
I figured that if I could start at 4am and make the first 100km by 9am I would be in gret shape and it would just be a long slog in the heat for the rest of the day.
Long story short ... it pretty much went to plan. I had too many burgers ... two were enough. I finished with about half a liter of hot water and two untouched burgers. I hit the 100km mark at 9:05am. Got to the gas station before Blanding at 3pm. It was a grind after 11am though.
The highlights of the day were starting at 4:30am in the dark following the white line with my little light. At the 10 mile mark I saw some blinking lights ahead and soon caught up to Kaitlan and shortly after that Steve and Karen. Brief chats while riding and I pressed on. They were only going to Hite at about the 80km mark.
The first car came about after the sun was up at the 30km mark. I was surprised this section was so pretty. A couple of places looked like the place where Forest Gump decides he is done running and goes home.
I stopped for pictures less and less frequently the hotter it got. I think I got some good video in the first 100km.
Here is just a bunch of pictures ...
