Day 69 – 5/21/16
63.2 miles biked
172.3 total

The forecast was increasing wind over the course of the day, so we tried to beat as much of it as we could by getting on the road at 6am. The first 34 miles to Escalante were pleasant enough, with a mostly gentle 1500′ climb, though I admit I got off the bike and walked a hundred yards up a very steep grade right at the pass. Then we had a great downhill into town, where we got the eggs in a basket at the Outfitter, a treat we’d been looking forward to these ever since our first time through the town!
After an hour long breakfast break, we braved the wind again. It actually wasn’t so bad, much much better than yesterday. 

Still, by the time we got to Boulder around 2pm, we were beat. We are 1500′ in to a 4000′ climb and didn’t have much energy to go higher yet today (or desire to camp at 9600′). 
We loitered for a while at the gas station/ natural food store (yes, this is a real thing), then loitered a bit at the Anasazi State Park Museum. The dudes working at both establishments recommended a camping spot just on the edge of town, both describing it as down a dirt road just by the cattle guard after the museum. We think it must be the local joke or something, because we looked really hard and never found any road near the cattle guard. But we did find somewhere in the junipers just out of sight of the road where I don’t think we’ll be hassled. 
Also, during this whole camp search thing, I discovered one of the screws that holds my cleats onto my shoe fell off somewhere, leading to a loose cleat and my inability to remove my foot from the pedal. I had to take my foot out of the shoe to get off my bike. Of course, I didn’t pack a spare cleat screw in my repair kit, but I was able to MacGyvered a screw from a reflector attachment on my bike, though the new screw is a quarter inch longer and sticks up into the bottom of my foot. Hopefully I won’t notice??