• Date: October 26, 2024

• 49.4 Miles

• 2,269 Feet of Gain

• Bedrock Point to AZ/UT Stateline

I sweated for hours during the night before sinking hard into a sleep that washed the heat away in a chill of autumn.  By the time morning rolled around, I was just laying in my quilt waiting for sunlight to finally hit the horizon.  And when it did, I got out and started stretching and eating breakfast on the cusp of day while relaying some satellite texts to Janna.  I wanted to get going early because I needed to cover about 50 miles today, avoid the heat, and drive back to the South Rim to do some school work.  I jumped on the bike and headed down doubletrack to Bedrock Point.  It's an unbelievable location with doubletrack that careens down into a shelf of rock hanging out below the upper rim of Marble Canyon.  Today was no different, and I had the place entirely to myself.  Backlit dawn made the rust and yellows of tumbling rock gush and split into a jumble of colorful views as Bedrock Canyon meandered in multiple directions from the viewpoint. 

But time was moving, so I needed to too.  I had drank a ton of water in the night and was low, so I looked forward to the water at Buffalo Tank I was to hit in a couple of miles.  The doubletrack was pattered dust all orange and velvet just cutting through the grasslands.  I rounded a corner and there spewed Buffalo Tank - both a metal trough and flow-pool fed by spring water gushing from a pipe.  The surface was caked with algae, but I could stretch out enough to get some clearer water from near the outflow pipe.  I drank deep and felt refreshed, even in the morning temperatures that were once again unseasonably searing for October.  Two-track carried me over a slight rise affording an expansive view of the savannah-sagelands of House Rock Valley before I dipped and started a gradual but constant climb towards Kane Ranch near the foothills of the Kaibab Plateau. 

At the climb's zenith, I turned right on the main wide dirt road that bisects Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni to start a ride northwards to my car.  The miles came easy on a long gradual downhill that inversely related the distance to Highway 89A to the size of the Vermilion Cliffs cut red on the horizon in front of me.  I eventually turned left on some remote doubletrack that avoided the highway and crossed near Shotgun Joe's property at the intersection with the Great Western Trail before I made down to the pavement for a crossing.  Some water on the other side was flowing strongly into a series of connected troughs where I filled up a bit more.  House Rock Wrap then joined the highway shoulder for a couple of miles before turning towards Coyote Valley and House Rock Valley Road where it parallels the Paria Plateau.

Smooth dirt, packed hard.  The stuff of speed and joy on a bikepacking trip.  I sped upwards past the same Condor Viewing Site from yesterday on a climb that transitions from benchlands to juniper-pinyon grasslands.  I flew down the opposite side just as the sun started to move towards the horizon shedding gold hue on everything.  I gaped at the burnt reds and oranges of rockscapes cut from the Paria Plateau as light draped on them alone amid a foreground of shaded vegetation.  It was a magical sinking of the Sun that made me stop again and again.  And then I pressed ahead with the urgency to finish and drive home.  Stateline Campground came into view and I swung down to where my car was parked.  It turns out I had arrived just in time to meet and greet several Arizona Trail Race bikepackers, include 2nd place overall and first place SS.  Everyone was hollering praise and cheers as people arrived, myself clapping all the same.  It was inspirational and made me love the land of Arizona even more.