Highlight was the brewery for sure. The Instagram photos are just amazing. Perhaps the best meal I have ever had.
However, climbing 1600 after that to Little Dale was nothing but brutal. I realized I’m still carrying way to much weight and I still have to work on the bike weight balancing. I had to pay attention to the handlebars constantly or they would start to wobble uncontrollably.
The 113 weather and multiple, different deaths from the heat in the desert between SLC and San Diego really hit home when after my Emmigration Canyon trip I just could not stay cool and hydrated while pushing that huge bike around with all that weight. Even if the bike just had minimal bikepacking gear it would have been the same. I drank three liters of water in under three hours. That’s all I carry in the bottles on the bike. I have reserves for another seven, but that’s an additional 16 pounds or so of weight. I’m in the exact demographic for “people at risk”: elderly people doing active stuff outdoors.
Originally I planned on 10-13 mph. But yesterday I realized that my average speed on this bike trailer setup was 8 mph at most. That’s about 60 days at three hours per day, 46 at four hours a day (with no days off). I have about 58 days to make it, but with that desert heat there is very little room for error.
I came out here because of family. I saw my daughter and her boyfriend and it remains the highlight of the trip. Everything else is a far second. I had put off visiting my other son because of the bike trip. Not anymore. I want to see him. It also just so happens that he is very far north and this is the perfect time of year to visit him.
People are successfully running the mini off a battery bank with 65w 20V output and a USB-C to barrel adapter. (More about this in another zet.) So I will be ditching the trailer for most things on the bike.