We felt surprisingly good getting out of bed and stumbled to the complimentary breakfast without getting lost (a ridiculously tough task when one is pre-coffee).
Mike found we had a flat front tire and, after some choice words were spoken, we learned how to remove the front tire from this particular fork to change the tire. Oh, we are growing up so fast!
We decided the best starting point today would be from the hotel. If there is anything better than a good ride, it’s a good ride without using any gasoline! The cloud cover was welcome but we also had a stiff head-wind on our way up the canyon. Today’s destination was Hurrah Pass and possibly Chicken Corner if our legs were up to it. We passed by petroglyphs and hugged the Colorado river a large portion of the way. I wonder what we will leave behind for future generations to marvel at?
The route we chose is all road - dirt road. I can enjoy the scenery a bit more when I’m not planning my eulogy on every corner. I know it’s a compromise for Mike but I think he enjoyed the simple physical challenge today.
The good thing about these dirt roads is that they are easier for us to navigate on the tandem. The bad thing about these roads is that the roads exist at all in such a beautiful, natural place. Roads bring cars, cars bring jeeps, jeeps bring ATV’s and all those petroleum-powered vehicles bring dust, noise and trash. Close all these roads to everything that isn’t man-powered and all those beer bottles and cardboard boxes will go away. How many runners or cyclists carry a case of beer on their backs?
SIGH. It’s the world we live in.
Aside from the severely bruised backside that screams every time it hits the seat, the trip is a great one. Lots of climbs, lots of descents and jaw-dropping vistas everywhere you look. The rock formations are stunning, and it’s difficult not to form them into familiar objects in your imagination. As if the rock cares about looking like anything but a rock. The colors are red, beige, green, and a weird looking chemical blue that must be sagebrush as seen from afar.
We don’t see much wildlife other than crows, chipmunks and lizards. But it is entirely possible that we are just not familiar to what lives here. I’m pretty sure I saw coyote scat near a campsite where we stopped at to rest. In this dry climate (I read they get 10 inches of precipitation a year here) it’s hard to imagine what it takes to survive.
I dropped a crumb near a scouting red ant at one of our stops. It was probably 3 times the size and weight of that little soldier but it hefted it up into its pincers and took off for home. You wonder if they get special recognition for that kind of booty.
We didn’t see many motorbikes or jeeps but we usually heard them long before we saw them. I wonder if they even realize how far that sound carries. Nothing like getting out into the great outdoors - sitting on your butt, blaring music so you can’t appreciate the silence, breathing in exhaust and scaring away any wildlife you might hope to see. Stick to going to the mall, I say.
At the top of Hurrah pass we took a break to walk to the edge for a view. You could almost imagine being there alone with no roads, no cars,... An experience I cherish. We could see a road winding through the canyon floor below but weren’t sure if it continued back out to the main roads or dead-ended. We decided to investigate and agreed that if it weren’t obvious, we would simply turn around the grind back up to the pass.
I’m so glad we did! The rock along the descent looks to be carved out of stone by a sculptor. Getting a glance of the side of the road, I was impressed by the vertiginous draw and the sheer scale of the place. Rock formations stacked together like tall dinner rolls and mushrooms. Oh, and sandy road! Now I understand the runaway truck ramps - except we weren’t out of control - we were just trying to continue forward!
We finally were mired in sand and walked up one last hill to see if it offered a peak of the river below. No such luck, but we were happy we took the chance. We decided to go back the way we came as it was a KNOWN absurdity, rather than chancing one of the roads down the valley that we knew little about.
Back up and over and my tush was none too pleased. I seemed to have learned to let the bike do more of the work and to not burn out my legs on every climb. Sooooooo glad we have a granny gear as we certainly used it!
On the way home, the clouds began to gather in a much more aggressive manner and we could see lightning over the canyon walls. There were such gusts of wind that we had to hold our breath at times to avoid breathing in the great walls of dust that blasted through. Poor girl’s derm-abrasion - I look ten years younger. (I would find a wealth of rust-colored dust in my nose for the next few hours.) We pulled into a self-car-wash to rinse off the bike and the rain came. It was one of those trips where one extra hour would have made getting home a LOT more interesting.
We stopped by a local bike shop, the “Chile Pepper”, to have them check out our brakes and derailleur. Fortunately, our hotel was across the way and so all we had to do was limp across the road. I nearly fell into the shower. So hungry we were ready to eat our shoes, we walked down to the Moab Brewery. There we met a local character who first stopped us in the hotel to ask about the tandem. He introduced us to a much-younger-appearing-than-stated-age couple who run a bike tour operation in Moab called Sol Fun. They moved here from Colorado so we had a funny conversation about the differences between these approximated states. (For example, did you know the liquor laws in UTAH are so weird?)
The local character, Dave Harlan, also happens to be a HUGE Edward Abbey fan, which is a definite bonus for me. I grew up listening to the philosophy of the man (which mirrored my parents’). And here I am just a few miles from where the book Desert Solitaire was born. And, have you read the Monkey Wrench Gang? Heyduke lives!!!
Now off to sleep to dream of more seat-spankings and good, clean fun.
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