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 Despairing in Zion Park. There is a track which branches off the road here and, according to the Park map, is about 20 miles long and does circumvent the tunnel. I had thought that I might have time to walk that distance before sunset, although I wouldn't then have time to check the bike shops or cancel any hotels. However, a sign here says not just that cycling isn't allowed on the track but that no vehicles are allowed to be taken off the roads at all; something to do with damaging the lichen. In any case, the track must lose a huge amount of height so it's probably too steep and narrow in places to be negotiated with a bike and two bags. I've just checked my maps. There are only two other ways to get through to St. George. The first is something like an additional 100 miles and involves backtracking to Mount Carmel Junction then through Kanab and Fredonia into Arizona and across the open desert, which is exactly what I decided earlier that I didn't want to do with these tyres. The extra distance on its own wouldn't be a significant problem of course as the bike shop issue means that there's no point in arriving in St. George before Monday. The second option is even longer and involves backtracking all the way to the Western Express route and then going via Panguitch and Cedar City. Both of those towns probably have bike shops but I think that route would be too long for me to reach the coast in time for my flight home. A problem with both of those routes is that from here I have no way of checking the availability of hotels of of cancelling the ones which I have already booked. I don't even have Google Earth data for the Fredonia area. I suppose I could try to get somebody to give the bike and my bags a lift through the tunnel to Springdale and then walk the 30-odd miles back to here, along the track and down into the town. I've no idea where the bags could be kept safe while I'm walking though so that's probably not a sensible suggestion. In short, I think I'm going to have to admit defeat. I'll go ahead with my plan of cancelling the Nevada hotels and just trundling down to St. George tomorrow only now when I get up on Monday morning, it won't be a bike shop I'm looking for; it will be a car hire company. UTC Time: 19:11, Saturday 04 August 2007 Local Time: 13:11, Saturday 04 August 2007 Estimate of longitude: 112° 52' 39.51" W = -112.877643° Estimate of latitude: 37° 14' 3.52" N = 37.234312° Possible error on position estimate: 10 metres | |