it's always a headwind

The winds had died down a little overnight, and the temperature dropped around 20 F, making Wednesday morning a good bet for a return to 7-Up, which we had done for the first time last August.  We drove north of town and up Route 313, parking at the Monitor and Merrimac overlook.  You're probably not supposed to park there for more than scenic overlook views, but it was mid-week and there still wasn't much tourist traffic out and about, so we figured we wouldn't be keeping anyone else from parking there.

 Rather different vista from the day before

We rode up 7-Up as we did before, a combination of sandy double-track and dirt/ledge/rock singletrack, until we got to the Horsethief area, not quite as far up towards the Gemini Bridges area.  From there, we looped back around on Hidalgo, Whirlwind and Wildcat (we especially liked Whirlwind and Wildcat), which returned us to 7-Up for the return trip.

If I'm smiling, there must be a tailwind

There was a headwind for the outbound/uphill leg, which meant there was a glorious tailwind for the return/downhill - and I couldn't believe how fast we made it back to the truck.  I also hadn't remembered it being as sandy as it was: with the sand and the headwind (which psyches me out every time), I really struggled with this ride.  H rode really well, although he later confessed to a couple of squirrelly, sandy corners that he may have taken too fast.

Utah desert, 7-Up style

Ride stats:  17.13 miles; 2:37 hours; average speed 7.0 m.p.h. (I was soooooo slooooow) / H's max speed 27.2 m.p.h.