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Stage 4: Out of the Canyon

I woke up quite sore from the day before. I took quite awhile to get my bike strapped back onto my bag.  I decided today warranted 2 pouches of oatmeal.  I quickly crossed the bridge across the Colorado River and through the tunnel. I ran into a group familiar with the race and they got some great photos of me and gave great words of encouragement.  The day was a blur but here's some of the things people said:



Canyon Views











"I've seen plenty of men ride bicycles, but I've never seen a bicycle ride a man" -Mule train cowboy(w/Pit Vipers)
"Oh is there good trails at the bottom, no? And you found out the hard way"
"You must have really wanted a bicycle at the bottom"
"I bet you had a blast riding that thing down"
"So will you bring your bike to a shop to be reassembled when you get out?"

In the end hiking out was just as difficult as down & across. Huge props to the bikepacking lunatics who do the whole thing in a day! I'm not much of a hiker and my 35# bike might be one of the heavier to make the portage through the canyon. I did pack fairly light otherwise with only an 18# pack before adding my sleeping bag, pad, & bivvy. I only stopped and took my bag off a couple times but it still took all day!  I saw an epic goat on a plateau over the canyon I wish I got a photo of. My legs were trashed when I got out. It took me about an hour to put my bike and bags back together. I got a bloody nose right before hopping on my bike. My legs were shaking from exhaustion. I got a bit lost on some of the power line connectors to the bike path but saw some gorgeous elk right at sunset, they looked so much different from the elk we have in Colorado.  I ran into the trail steward named Forrest for the area on the bike path. He was super friendly and told me it would take about 2 hours to get where I was planning to go for the night and recommended getting tacos from Plaza Bonita if I stopped in Tusayan. 

Note: Choose something less fragile than a
helmet as the outermost item

I got tacos and realized there was a hotel in the same plaza. It was cold when I went outside and I was pretty spent so I decided the hotel was a good call to charge all my things and start earlier and warmer the next day.

The hotel hot tub helped ale my worn out legs.

Stats: 10:45 moving time 6.6 miles hiking 10 Miles riding 4,750ft gain

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