The Loops
Our first day’s ride would be an experiment. Yes, in true adventure fashion, we had tossed the preplanned rides in favor of something more appropriate for a brand new rider to roads and long days. We managed a nice long day, 300 plus miles with about two hours of gravel.
Our original plan for the first ride was over the mountain pass to Moab and lunch. But, with temperatures in Moab reaching past 100°, we tossed those plans. This would be Daniel’s first real riding. We wanted to escape the heat and crowds. What we needed was elevation and lightly traveled roads. With that in mind we headed back up Lisbon Valley Road to Utah highway 46, east through La Sal and on toward Colorado. This became Colorado highway 90 to south on Colorado highway 141 and thanks to my fat fingered way point selection was Nucla rather than the fuel station in Naturita. Once we got back to Naturita and fueled we headed back to Nucla and the Delta-Nucla road over to Montrose. The last time I’d been out. this way, I’d taken a much less traveled road off County road 30.50 this became a two track through an aspen forest with a meadow full of columbine. I couldn’t find that route thanks to a hard drive dying along with an old Garmin.
Daniel found some adventure anyway. On the slightly off camber but firm gravel where we took a rest and a turn, he tipped the bike over.
From this point Daniel did great. Even the deep gravel freshly dumped and leveled by the maintainer didn’t faze him. Nor the long section. of grease mud from the watering trucks ahead of the gravel dumpers.
Then the long two lane highway ride all the way back. That was a long day. on a stock padded 2×4 saddle. His mic blew out of his helmet on Dallas Divide so we lost his voice comm. I would later have. nearly the same happen to me when I knocked my own mic off the velcro while doing 80mph on I-70 through Utah. I felt it hit my lip as it blew up along my cheek and out the bottom of the chin bar of my Arai. I was lucky to be nearly to a rest stop and able to catch it with one free hand and slow. I stuffed it back inside the helmet and held it there with my mouth while I parked. the bike.
Anyway we got back to 3 Step Hideaway and a big dinner, showers and sleep. We decided to take the next day off and drive the 4Runner to Ouray and soak in the hot springs pool.
After a long soak and tempting the high altitude sun to fry our fish belly white skin long enough we went uptown for pizza.
Cold beers, salads and pizzas. Lots of ice water too. We had soaked our way into the late afternoon so we skipped dinner back at camp and lightened up our calorie intake with a sunset and chat.
The next day would be our last riding. We decided to take it easy, partly due to heat and partly because we were tired. So, the original intent was to ride a piece of the UTBDR southwest of Monticello. Scott had counseled this section was only recently opened from all the snow melt. When we found the trail, we found it damp to mushy and wisely decided to pass. We stopped at the turn for 3 Step Hideaway and worked on grabbing photos. The sky was amazing.
We headed for more elevation on the pavement into Bears Ears and Needles Park on the main road. We stopped at Newpaper Rock for the facilities and to try and figure out what was going on with my navigation on DMD2-Beta. The app kept losing the route and finish waypoint I’d picked. It would count down the distance to the turn, then at about 10 miles out reset the distance. The turn I was expecting was not showing on my dashboard but, I slowed to try and read the sign off the side of the road. That was the turn, but not what we were expecting. I switched to my Guru Maps Pro app and as we neared the overlook we got to a pay gate. For $25 per person, we decided to turn around and head back up the hill and get out of the now suffocating heat. We had traversed from mid-70’s to low 60’s and back up into the low 100’s. Heading back up the hill we pulled off for a rest at a campground. Here at around 8,700 feet I was nearly gasping for breath after walking a short distance across the gravel drive to the restroom. I could sit in the shade and be OK, but even standing was tough.
Daniel taking a break in the shade.
Dry and hot in the sun, but cool enough in the shade. Paul figuring out lunch.
I look like I feel. Barely able to breath.
We headed to Monticello for some lunch at the High Desert Cafe. Way too much barbecue, but wow was it good. I set up my navigation for back to 3 Step Hideaway and we headed out. My app was still trying to route me into turns where there weren’t even roads. It was very odd. We knew where the turn was so simply ignored the prompts. In our path was a storm, but it didn’t look too bad. It was certainly cooling things off. Soon we were being pelted by fat raindrops, then a pretty good downpour. Short, cool and wet.
The short dirt/gravel track back to camp was firm but there were some soft spots and plenty of standing water off the track with the drainage running. Scott said the valley. had rain coming down in sheets. the. plan for the day had been to get back early enough to get all packed up with the bikes loaded into the trailer. That all went easy enough thanks to the storm cooling things a bit.
All loaded up we hung out resting up before supper. The skies cleared with the only traces of the storm in a few puddles here and there.
These views are from the dining area and kitchen. You can see the chickens pen there beyond the picnic tables. There is a greenhouse attached as well.
With the trailer loaded and most of the gear packed into the 4Runner we had dinner and got to bed early.
We were up at about our usual time, got the bedding packed and a quick breakfast thanks to Scott and Julie for a wonderful time. Today we would trailer back to Paul’s house, unload and return the trailer, then kick back and relax with laundry.
The drive back to outside Denver was uneventful even with the construction. We had eaten very well for the week so skipped lunch in favor of beating the usual afternoon storm back to unload.
All that rain had the rivers running full and the mountains green.
This would end our riding together. I still had to figure how to get home. If I were going to continue with my original plan and head north to about I90 then turn west and wander over to near Seattle for a while then hug the coast for cooler weather, but more traffic on my way home. I had forgotten my passport so Canada was out. I’ll get this figured out in the next chapter.
Along The Way 