Telluride - What a Ride

Unplanned stops - they're always the best. On the suggestion of my host in Moab, I took the less travelled route toward Mesa Verde (one that was in the opposite direction). A beautiful mountain drive got me to Telluride, CO in about 3 hours. Angelo, my preplanned couch host suggested I meet him at a friend's place as he was providing some last minute assistance for Halloween costumes. Apparently he's a jack of all trades - a restaurant waiter by night, a tailor by day. The results were quite spectacular. A sexy Little Red Riding Hood / Wench Bodice for one, a cute princessy looking getup for a little girl, a glamorous gloved outfit for another. I don't know if he was getting paid but he certainly did a professional job. I joined him at the restaurant for a few hours, enjoying tapas and wine during happy hour. I then adjourned to the pad - a lovely 3 bed townhouse a few miles from town. My bed for the night was the loft above his bed. Lovely and warm being near the roof. Unfortunately, he neglected to inform one of his roommates I was visiting and that provided some friction this morning.

After a great motorcycle ride up a very rough road to the old Tomboy Mine 3500' above Telluride where it was snowing gently, I headed back to town and decided to leave. My next stop along the way to Durango was Trout Lake to visit Alan, an octogenarian I met at the restaurant last night. He lost his wife 3 years ago and seemed like he would like some company. He lives in an amazing home, at the 10500' foot of some 13500' mountains, overlooking Trout Lake, a town so small it doesn't actually appear on any maps, making it just a little difficult to find - but eventually I did. Apparently he's been house sitting for a couple of Brain Surgeons in California for the last 10 years. I have a private bed and bath with a spectacular mountain view (pictures may be forthcoming). We had a great chat about anything and everything. What better way to spend Halloween. I think I'll invite him to Georgia for Christmas.

Saturday morning will be an early crossing of the Ophir Pass (13000') which will take me just south of Chattanooga (CO, not TN) and into Durango to apparently assist with moving a fridge. The things I do for a bed......

Moab - Truly a mecca for trails

Arriving in Moab was a relief. Little did I know it was Jeep Jamboree weekend. Town was packed with people. Thankfully my arrival Saturday evening meant most of the crowd would be heading home Sunday sometime. Darrin, my couch host had another friend over so we all went on a 4x4 tour of the area Sunday morning, finishing with a visit to Dead Horse Point State Park, a great location overlooking the LaSal Mountains and the Colorado River.

Monday was time to go and play on the slickrock. Grateful for the new rear tire, the world famous Slickrock Bike Trail was a good introduction. Not technically difficult but ledges, cracks and long drops into canyons all take some getting used to. About 10 miles of some great scenery and wild up and down hills.

Tuesday was the real challenge for the bike and its rider. Poison Spider Mesa, Golden Spike and Gold Bar Rim, all trails connected to each other totalling about 16 miles of some of the most hard core riding I've ever experienced. These trails take a toll on your stamina and I couldn't imagine doing them in the middle of summer. This is definately a better time of year, afternoon temp around 75F. These trails include such known obstacles as Launch Pad and Golden Crack, a giant slice across the earth that will swallow a vehicle. It required either a 4' jump across the ravine or a delicate step up over some knarly boulders. Given it was toward the end of the day and I was already drained of energy, the step up seemed safer. Missing the jump would have just meant too much damage to the bike and probably me. At the end of it all was another 15 miles of dirt up to Gemini Bridges. All in all a great day that left me wanting nothing more than to sleep. As it turns out it was 15c wing day at the local pub so they dragged me down there for a few hours. Needless to say I slept well, with only mild lingering pains.

Wednesday was supposed to be departure day but after deciding to take the rack off the truck for some repairs it seemed a pity to not test it on the Hells Revenge Trail. Many ledges, steep ascents and descents plus other exciting and tough spots but there's one particular obstacle called the Dragon's Tail for which you're supposed to have a spotter. You're on a large slickrock plateau and drive toward the edge of this giant cliff, wondering when you get to turn away. At the very edge there's a small ridge (called a fin), near vertical, that goes down the side, barely wide enough for your tires. I was thinking a spotter would be nice but alas travelling alone has its occasional drawbacks. All's well that ends well and 5 hours later I was back on pavement. A challenge to be sure. Skid plates scratched but no damage and some great photos, very thankful for the tough stock equipment on my Tacoma.

With repairs made to my carrier, anti-freeze flushed and replenished in the bike and dust generally removed from the truck I was ready to go early Thursday afternoon. After a brief false start, realising I still had maps belonging to my hosts, I was on my way to Telluride, via the beautiful mountain towns of Paradox and Naturita. Many thanks to Darrin, Eric and Kate - my roommates for a few days in Moab.

The Road to Canyonlands !!!

It's about 5pm Friday and I've made camp just outside Canyonlands National Park, having experienced a great hike in Natural Bridges from Sipapu to Kachina and a chat with a Kiwi couple who have been driving around in an RV for the last 5 weeks.

So far I've come about 40 miles of the 70 I will have to do on dirt roads to get to the Canyonlands Visitor's Center. The truck is already incredibly dusty inside and out.

With the exception of the occasional fly, the cooling metal of the truck and a gentle breeze on my face, it is ABSOLUTELY silent. A small bird just flying by sounds loud. It's so silent it seems as though I've gone temporarily deaf. I've descended about 3000' in the last hour coming over the mountain range but my ears have already adjusted. It's amazing and truly rare in the wilderness to hear nothing. I sit intensely still for a few minutes just feeling nature until the distinctive souind of dirt bikes breaks the peace. They go by, up the hill, and once again silence. Maybe it's something about the shape of this particular mesa because the sound of those dirt bikes disappeared very quickly. I feel the warmth of the sun on my back and a chill on my sandalled feet as the 58F weather dictates. It will be much colder as soon as the sun goes down, in about an hour. I'll eat before then and rug up in the back to read until bedtime.

It's pretty much a dawn to dusk lifestyle, repleat with all the experiences that provides - gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, much activity during the day and long sleeps as winter encroaches on the sun. I'm running out of time before snow season arrives in this part of the country. After New Mexico, it'll probably be a quicker trip home, although I'm still hopeful for that ski bunny who wants to take me in the for the winter :-)

The time here has flown by. Michigan back in June seems like eons ago and Kentucky with Frank & Deanna my first night seems dreamlike. Today has been full of spleandor, not the least of which was the drive from Natural Bridges to here, through Bear Ears and Gooseneck - great names. Thank God I have the ability to make this trip and appreciate the beauty and serenity it has offered.

Wow, Saturday has been a long day. Expecting the last 30 miles to the Visitors Center to be relatively quick, per my map program, I was somewhat surprised to find the road getting progressively worse as I arrived at Canyonlands South entrance. No ranger station, no gate, just a sign saying, "High Clearance 4x4 Only - Drive at own risk". Normally that would signal some fun but right now I have a motorcycle and carrier that makes the back of my truck 400lbs heavier and 3' longer than normal - not a good combination for hard core offroading. The road which I came to discover is rated as one of the most difficult in the Moab area, is know as Elephant Hill. It is incredibly steep, narrow, rocky and has multiple switchbacks that require 4 or 5 point turns. Needless to say I dragged my carrier many times, to the point where I snapped one ratchet strap, bent another badly and mangled or broke many of the bolts holding the carrier together. I also discovered later that somewhere along the trail I squished my exhaust pipe flat at the end. All that was just going UP the hill, I still had to come down.

Not prepared to destroy anything more, the small plateau at the top of Elephant Hill provided the opportunity to remove the bike and carrier and with some concerted effort get the 80lb carrier and all the cans - water and 2 fuel - into the back of the truck. The drive down the other side then became uneventful. A short hike back to the top to get the bike and it also made it down the hill without issue. Another hour or so and it was all back together at the bottom, ready to head on into Moab, still 100 miles away. Thankfully I had a couch host, Darrin, already lined up in Moab and the rest of the evening was comparatively simple.

The moral of the story - don't believe your GPS when it tells you the quickest way from A to B is via a dirt road.

Navajo Nation

After my chores at the previous campsite, it was late in the day and Page, AZ arrived at just the right time. After restocking with groceries, ice and gas it was time to find another campsite. The timezones around here get screwed up pretty well, with Utah, Arizona and the Navajo Nation all different and right next to each other. After a quick visit to the Lake Powell visitors center I was told there was no camping except in designated sites, which meant an area called Lone Rock, a few miles down the road. My attention was drawn to a dirt road off to the left before I got there. 2 miles later I was perched on a mesa overlooking the entire area, Lake Powell, The Navajo Nation and GSENM, apparently there was other camping. That night it was cold enough to keep some ice I left out frozen all night long. I was in bed by dark - which as time zones go was somewhere between 6pm and 9pm, I'll never know.

Up before dawn this lovely Thursday morning, I got some great shots of sunrise over the surrounding valley. White fellas are not actually allowed to stay in Navajo Nation without permission so I want to get an early start to see all the sights in this area and out the other side before about 5pm. On my way by 7am it's off to the Navajo National Monument - Betatakin cliff dwellings and then Monument Valley.

The Navajo Monument was amazing. Two separate cliff areas, occupied from 1270 to around 1300. Because the cliff is so protective they're still in excellent shape - see photos. These Ancestral Puebloens (as I'm told is the politically correct term) lived for centuries in this area, mostly on the mesa tops. I'll see more at Mesa Verde in Colorado. From there, the drive through Monument Valley is surprising. There are Native American homes all around the monoliths, some right next to these giants. Unfortunately most of them these days are trailers, likely without running water. The plight of these peoples has not been a positive one since the arrival of white man.

Last place in the Valley was Moki Dugway. Imagine all those movies where they're driving incredibly close to a 1000' drop along a dirt road. It was just like that but even more incredible. The road twists and turns for about 10 miles straight up the side of a cliff face, turning out at the top of the giant plateau. I found a place to camp right on top, at the edge of the cliff, facing out over Monument Valley, just like all those car commercials.

It's about 7500', incredibly windy and so cold my pen doesn't want to write the notes for this blog. I'm in bed by 6.30pm and warmly rugged up inside my sleeping bag. My new LED headlamp works so well I'll read for a while. Tomorrow I head toward Natural Bridges and Canyonlands National Park.

Getting Used to Sand

Having been to this area earlier in the year, I figured I'd head toward the Southern part of GSENM rather than up to Bryce and Escalante. Heading through Kanab (originally given this is Utah I thought the town may be a shortening of Kane and Able, however I found out it's an Indian name, meaning Land of Willows) I played on a few trails looking for more hiking but came across nothing of interest. A little further down the road I found a 4x4 trail that was supposed to lead me to Middle Canyon, a spectacular narrows area. It gave me a great completely primitive camping spot but after 3 days of searching I never did find that particular hiking trail. I did find a bunch of other very cool locations, including Cottonwood Canyon and RT430 and 431.

My campsite overlooked the Grand Staircase of GSENM and was right in the middle of a giant sand field. No issue in the truck but quite a challenge on the bike. I got the hang of it after a day or two of realising you actually have to go faster to make it easier.

Today, Wednesday the 22nd, became chores day. I did some much needed maintenance on the bike after riding in sand for 3 days, cleaned up my camp and dusted the truck, also very much needed after the red Australian bull-dust like dirt roads. It's about 1pm and I'm just leaving the area. I'll head toward Page, AZ and Lake Powell.

Kicked out of Zion

Friday night, my first night in the Zion National Park area I learned from my last trip here back in April and I camped in a small sandy spot about 5 miles from the entrrance. The National Park is right next to a town that gets very busy with tourists so I was just the right distance away.

Suprising for this time of year, but not so considering the gorgeous weather and a 3 day weekend for Utah schools, the Park was VERY busy. So much so I had to park in the overflow lot. You can't drive to any of the hiking trails in Zion. You have to park and catch a shuttle bus. A great idea to minimise the traffic and pollution. Catching the bus to "The Grotto" to hike Angel's Landing trail was fun, like one of those Japanese trains where they have to push people in. It was standing room only. I chatted to a nice young couple - McKenzie and Harrison - who were taking the weekend away from Brigham Young University (BYU, not likely to be confused with BYO in that particular location) in Provo to come hiking with some of their friends. We had some great discussions after the hike too.

Hiking those trails on a busy weekend involves quite a lot of waiting at the bottle neck places. Angel's Landing is steep but fairly simple until the last 1/2 mile which goes straight up a vertical ridge, only about 6' wide at times and a 1500' drop off both sides. It's quite the scramble (there are of course chains for the non-climbing types) especially when there's a line of 30 people coming down and just as many queued up to go up. An older guy (Bob from Salt Lake) in front of me was clearly not so comfortable with the heights so I offered to stay with him and talk him up and down. His young granddaughter of about 7 or 8 was having far less trouble and I enjoyed all their company for the duration.

After the hike I decided to cook dinner at a picnic table just beside the parking lot because it's tough doing it on the ground with my grill and no tables at the campsite I'd had the previous night. By the time I was done it was dark. Normally I'd go back to my previous place but I was planning on coming back to the Park the next morning. Unfortunately the campground was already full. The overflow lot for the campground had a few cars in it so I figured I'd just crawl into the back of my truck and nobody would know I was in there - WRONG ! Around 11:30pm I saw bright headlights and figured it was the Ranger checking the cars. I stayed quite still but I guess the officious little Nazi saw me in the back. He banged on the side and made me get up. He would listen to no amount of reasoning and wrote me a warning ticket and told me to leave the park until the morning. Being that late, I drove just outside the gates and parked on the side of the road with no more disturbances the rest of the night.

Saturday morning I went and parked in the same spot to have breakfast with a plan to hike the narrows, a cool slot canyon where you walk through waist deep water. However, the wind and general chilly weather dissuaded me and I headed off toward Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.