Day 11 we started at dawn in an effort to beat the heat, stopped in Hanksville which has a cool gas station with a store that has been blasted out a the rock formation. Then a long slightly uphill haul along the east side of the Henry Mountain to the Hite turnoff, which was an amazing 30km descent through and endless succession of cathedral-like rock formations, eventually ending at the Colorado river crossing at Hite. We had each left in the morning with 12 litres of water, but it was 43C at the crossing with a vicious headwind and you could feel yourself being mummified. (Consider this fun fact: in each of the last three days I have drunk more than 30 pounds of water!!). We got to Hite and the campground and ranger station were closed because no one goes there anymore: it used to be on the shores of Lake Powell; the lake is now 70 MILES away!!! As we sat in the shade of the ranger station scratching our heads, the ranger just happened to stop by for his weekly visit. He was AWESOME: gave us all the ice and Gatorade he had on hand in the staton, informed us that we ABSOLUTELY could not camp there, and also informed us that he was driving away and wouldn’t be back for a week, nudge nudge wink wink. Between 2pm and 6am the next morning, only three cars came by. This is a desolate, isolated places. We pitched out tents around the ranger building and tried to sleep but the temperature didn’t drop below 100F until probably 4am. Next morning we set off at dawn with the goal of 100km distance up to Elk Ridge almost 7,000ft up from Hite. It started well and the first 35km went by quickly. But the heat was building and building and all of the cattle stock ponds along our route were either dry or so full of cow manure that they were beyond filtration. We didn’t see a soul on the road for 10 hours. Finally, we met some folks in a pickup truck and they gave us the intel on a water pump at an abandoned burned out ranger station. We found the pump with some searching and we were back alive!!! At this elevation we were in a lovely pine forest and had a superb campsite. We all slept well and this morning rose early again to tackle the last day of this segment which we thought would be pretty easy and we were pretty cocky about finishing shortly after lunch. Ah, hubris…. Today was even harder than yesterday with so much deep sand - it makes the climbs exponentially harder and the descents incredibly treacherous. Andrew was feverish and struggling - likely from dehydration. By lunchtime we had only done 55km and the heat was scorching, even at 9,000ft. Lots of deer around - where do they find water?? Eventually we reached the high point of the day and were looking forward to a screaming descent to Monticello…. No such luck. It was a barely rideable and unfun ATV track. Several miles of “babyhead” rocks which on 100lb bikes with no suspension is a CHALLENGE! But, we made it to Monticello, we had dinner in very strange local restaurant (with excellent food!) and tomorrow we have our second and last rest day before we tackle the last for days of our planned rogue. In the first 13 days we have climbed nearly 18,000 meters, and we have had to fight for nearly every one of those. We are all looking gaunt and bearded. What could be better! So much fun.