Green River, UT to Coral Reef National Park, UT

On Sunday I had my last sweep day with my friend Yudi. I knew it was going to be a long day because it was a 106 miler, and we woke up at 5 to get a head start. In the morning one of the riders got 3 flats in the first 20 miles. We ended up having to flag someone down to give him a ride to the van which was parked at lunch. That set us back a bit so we didn't see anyone for most of the day. 

Ride in the morning. 

Lots of desert. 

At the second lunch stop we felt we were making good time and the day had been pretty flat and easy. We only had about 30 miles left and figured it wouldn't be too hard. When we entered Coral Reef National Park it was very pretty but we finally had caught up to a group in front of us which was moving much slower. We waited around and took picture of the scenery. 

It was starting to get late, we were moving pretty slowly and it looked like a storm was in front of us. I started to get in a bad mood but my sweep partner helped by staying positive. It was about 7:30pm when the van came by and told us we have to make it in by 8 or we were getting vaned in. I got really upset thinking that this would be my third time being vaned so my sweep partner and I biked as fast as we could. Three people in front of us ended up getting picked up by the van but my partner and I were able to successfully make it in. When we arrived at the host it felt great and my friend had DM'd my partner and I subway  sandwiches for dinner. We also ended up camping out that night and it was a very good end to a long day of riding. These next 9 days our team has referred to as #best9 because we have 4 rides that are at least a century, 3 nights without towns, 4 nights without hosts, and 7 days without a host dinner or breakfast. It is going to be tough but everyone is looking optimistic.