Ride to Arizona - Day 2

I woke up at 6:00 so I could get on the road early.  The temperature was  in the low 40s when I got on the road at 7:15.  I recently installed heated grips on my motorcycle and I turned them on to about medium and felt nice and warm within a few minutes.

I was hoping to get some nice pictures as the sun came up, but it turned out to be cloudy and bland lighting.

Eventually I'm headed to my Aunt's house to the South, but I started by riding 50 miles north to Grand Junction where I picked up highway 141.  The road turned south west following a river down into the bottom of a series of canyons.

The trees were just turning to fall colors.   I loved following the road through the twists and turns, but riding beside the river lowered the temperature another 5 degrees.  I was riding about 5 miles below the speed limit enjoying the scenery and the twists.

I stopped a few times to take pictures along the road.  There are some really interesting historical events along the road.

Half way down the road is the Gateway resort.  It used to be a small town, but now it's an expensive resort, and in the middle of a resort is an automobile museum.  The museum holds the car collection of John Hendricks who is the founder of the Discovery Channel.

The cars are all either original mint condition, or fully restored to mint condition.  It cost $15.  It was worth one visit, but probably not a second.  I liked all the muscle cars and especially the Shelby Cobra 500 mustang.

After the Museum I arrived in my home town of Naturita Colorado.  I stopped for gas and some water, then turned West toward the town of Boulder, then up onto Lasal mountain.

I reached Blanding by 2:30.  My first stop was the Patio diner for lunch, then off to my Aunt's home to visit.  We were waiting for my friends to arrive before we went to dinner, but by 6:30, they texted to say they were still 85 miles away.  We told them we were heading to get dinner without them.

For dinner we went to Blanding's only restaurant, the Homestead.  I got a Navajo taco.like I always do.  We were just about done with dinner when John and Eric called to say they were finally in town so we switched to a bigger table and sat with them as they ordered.  Eric and the waitress started joking back and forth with snide comments, then John joined in.  The waitress was a friend of my aunt's so we weren't "tooo" worried about our food being spit in.

We finally finished eating and headed back to my aunt's to chat and sleep.


Sunrise on highway 141


Bluffs and trees on 141


More 141


Unaweep divide


Bluffs without a road in the picture


More nice images


An old homestead


More fall colors


Uncompagre scenic byway


Cool old car


Cool sliding door


Indian Motorcycle


Model T


Shelby Cobra Mustang


Parked at the museum


More canyons


Twisty canyons


Dolores river


My home town, Naturita "Nature -eeta"


Welcome to Utah

Riding to Arizona for my son's wedding

When my daughters got married, the stress levels around the house began to rise at least 3 months before the weddings.

Here I was just a week or two from my son's wedding with hardly any stress at all.

Is it being the father of a groom rather than the father of a bride?  Or is it Kyle and Laura vs the other wedding couples?  It's probably both.

Kyle and Laura both live in Colorado Springs but they were also both born in Arizona.  When got engaged, they decided to get married in the LDS Mesa Arizona Temple and to get married sooner rather than later.  Late October is a great time in Arizona, the temperatures are still warm without being hot, and it will make a great break from the oncoming cold in Colorado.

When they told us the plan, my first thought was "Will the weather hold so I can ride the motorcycle down?"  I decided not to worry about weather and storms.  If a storm happened, then I'd have to drive a car down, otherwise I got ready for a motorcycle ride.

So the time has finally arrived.  There are 8 days remaining before the wedding and the weather is fantastic.  We had some very cold days last week, but by Wednesday the temperature was back up in the 60s and 70s during the day.

DAY 1

I was in no big hurry to get going today.  I'm only going about 250 miles to Montrose, so I didn't need to hustle.  I helped Nannette get her stuff ready so she could fly down to Phoenix.

By 9:30 I was packed and ready to go.  The ride started with an old friend, highway 115 down to Penrose.  I've driven this highway 2 or 3 times a month for the last 6 years.  I was a prison service missionary for the Mormon church, and I'd go down to the federal prison to hold church services.  It was just a bit cold this morning, probably 54 degrees, and I was wearing my mesh jacket and gloves.

I stopped in Canon city for a short break and to drink some water, then I started my favorite part of this ride, US highway 50 along the Arkansas River.  The river winds through a series of canyons and takes the road right along with it making for a very fun ride.  Add the white water on the river and the fall colors along the river and it was a great ride.

I was almost sad when I reached Salida and left the river.

I grabbed a quick lunch at sonic, then followed highway 50 up into the mounts to Monarch pass.  I don't know how many pictures I have on Monarch pass, but now I have one more. Normally the parking lot at the pass is filled with cars.  Lots of tourists, mountain bikers, hikers, and people riding the gondola to the top of the mountain, but not today.  There were only 2 cars at the little store so I was able to take my time getting my picture.  Usually there is a mass of people lined up by the sign to take a picture.

After Monarch I descended the mountain and road through Gunnison.  On the far side of Gunnison, the road begins to follow along the shore of Blue Mesa Reservoir.  There are some astonishing  rock formations.  I stopped for another picture.

I reached Montrose easily by 4:00 and checked into the Black Canyon Hotel.  It's an off brand hotel but it had good reviews.  I liked the room.

For dinner I decided to take a chance on Indian Food.  I got Chicken Tika Marsala and Nann bread.  It was much better than I'd hoped for and ate every last bit.

Now it's barely 9:00 and I'm done uploading photos and writing this report.  I've even spent a while planning my route for tomorrow.

Rather than just riding directly toward Blanding, I'm going to turn North toward Grand Junction, then take highway 141 back south through some rugged canyons.


Kyle and Laura


Stopped by the Arkansas river on highway 50


Fall colors along the Arkansas River


Sweeping turns along the Arkansas


I love the canyons along Hwy 50


Red Rock canyons


Just outside Coto Paxi


Heading toward Monarch Pass


Monarch Pass


Stopped along the bank of Blue Mesa Reservoir

Mountain man - Day 4

It's the last day of the camp out and I really was not ready for it to end.

Dave cooked our breakfast of eggs, hash browns, biscuits, and gravy.  It was the warmest morning of the trip, but we still had some firewood left to burn, so we lit a fire and enjoyed our last bit of leisure time before we had to pack up.

Once breakfast was over, we began the packing.  When we setup camp it took about 2 hours.  Cleanup took about the same amount of time.  Dismantling and rolling up the big tent took the longest.

I didn't have that much stuff to pack, but it always seems to take more room on the way home than it did on the way here.

Before we completely finished packing and cleaning up the site, we decided to do a little more shooting.  I pulled out my 12 gauge shotgun, some clay pigeons, and a thrower.  I couldn't swing the thrower hard enough, but Chris and Steve sure could.

We threw the entire case of pigeons, several boxes of 22's and allot of other pistol rounds before we were done.

I had brought a 1/4" steel silhouette to shoot at.  It's a fun positive feedback device to shoot and hear the plink.  But at one point, someone was shooting a 45 at it and the shrapnel coming off had enough force to actually fly back across the creek and into camp.  SteveH has a small piece land on his back.  It had no force to it, but it was so hot it burned through his shirt and stung him.

Once we finished shooting, we cleaned up all of our shells, targets, and casings and were ready to roll out.

DaveB shooting his shotgun


Blake and Chris shooting 22 semi autos


SteveB with the shotgun


Andrew shooting his pistol


Chris throwing a pigeon and Andrew shooting


My gong with moon craters all over it


A closeup of the craters


Packed and ready to roll

Mountain Man - Day 3

This morning I didn't have to cook breakfast, so I slept in till 7:30.  Once again the tent was warm and wonderful to wake up in.  I dressed in the blissful comfort of a warm tent (was I supposed to put on clean clothes?  I forget).

DaveB was cooking this morning, and like yesterday, we were nearly done eating before the sun finally climbed over the mountain and warmed the camp up.

Once again they prepped the quads for a long day of riding,  I waved goodbye and got my guns out for some more target practice.  The sun was really getting hot today, so I moved a 10 x 10 EZ-up over to shade me while I loaded.

After yesterdays long drive I had decided not to go anywhere today, so got myself really comfortable with a few snacks, cold water, my hammock, and a good chair.  My chair wasn't so great, so I stole DaveB's chair from the camp fire to sit in.

Our shooting range is actually across the creek from camp, so every time I want to change a target, I have to walk 30 yards up the creek to set of rocks to cross over, then come back through the bushes, change the targets, then reverse.  It's a bit of a pain, but shooting from this bank of the creek, across the water, and over to the hillside on the far side of the creek means it's very safe to shoot.  No one is going to accidentally walk in front of you because they'd have to be walking into the water.

I shot about 50 rounds through the muzzle loader but couldn't really tighten my groupings up much more than yesterday.  The trifocals still make it hard to line up the sights well, but it was still very therapeutic to load and fire the rifle.

For lunch I took some of the left over pulled pork from last night's dinner and fried it until it was very cripy.  I added some of the left over hashbrowns and made a crispy pork hash.

After lunch, I pulled the hammock into the shade and took short nap.

I looked at my GPS a bit more, looking at yesterday's route and decided to drive up the road a ways to see where the road went.  I only got 2 miles before I turned around.  I'd scrubbed my tires pretty bad yesterday and didn't want to get a flat tire.  So I just meandered my way slowly back to camp.

When I got back, I did a bit more shooting.  After a while I heard the rumble of thunder off in the distance.  A big storm was brewing south of me which is where all the guys had gone to ride.  It looked pretty nasty and fast moving, so I spent a while checking vehicles, tents, and making sure nothing would be ruined.

Around 4:30, SteveH and BlakeB drove up in Steve's jeep.  They had rented quads and left the Jeep at the store, so when they turned the quads in, they just got in the Jeep and drove to camp.  No one had to drop them off or pick them up.

They had seen the storm coming, so they returned the quads a bit early and avoided any downpour.

By now the thunder and clouds were right on top of us.  They liked my little nest by the shooting range, but Steve decided to expand it.  He got his 15 x 15  EZ-up and we lashed up against the other so we had a big area safe from the rains.  We parked his and my cars on the south side of the awnings to block any heavy winds if they came.

It started to rain, but it never got too heavy or windy.  I think the nasty stuff went to the west of us.  We sat in comfort for the next hour and shot pistols, rifles, and black powder.

At 6:00 we heard the rumble of quads and saw Andrew, Eric, and Chris pull in.  They were all cold and wet from the storm.  They'd ridden through some nasty rain and hail.  They parked the quads and headed for tents and trucks to get some dry clothes on.

The rain had fallen to a trickle by the time Andrew was warm, so he set about cooking dinner for us.  He was making fajitas with tri-tip.  We pulled DaveB's BBQ grate out of his truck and tried to get some charcoal lit.  The wind was blowing and made it hard to really get much heat on the meat so we kept lowering it and lowering it.

We heard another quad approaching and saw DaveW pull in.  He'd missed all of the rain and hail while he searched for semi-precious stones up in the mountains.  He took it on himself to get us a big fire going to warm everyone up.

Dinner was nearly ready by the time DaveB and SteveB pulled into camp.  DaveB had rolled his quad and lost all the coolant in his overflow bottle.  He filled it with water to get back.  They had also missed the rain by hanging out until the storms passed.

By the time dinner was done the rain had stopped entirely and the skies were darkening.   We all grabbed our fajitas and headed to the campfire to share stories and show pictures.

DaveB built the fire up so big we all had to scoot our chairs back a few feet, but no one could say they were cold any more.

As with the other nights, once the sun went down, you could start a short countdown until people started going to bed.  By 9:00 it was just DaveB, DaveW, and me.  And we didn't last long.

Eating eggs, bacon, and pancakes for breakfast


Prepping quads for another day of riding


SteveB's cool beenie. Or is that a mexican wrestling mask


The road near the top of Taylor Valley


My wife's poor abused Highlander. It was a much better 4x4 than I thought it would be


More views


Still more


More


Our bonfire


Getting roasted


DaveB and DaveW watching trail videos

Mountain Man - Day 2

I heard Andrew get up a couple of times to stoke the wood stove through the night, but it finally went out sometime in the early morning.  The temperature in the tent might have gotten down to 40, but I doubt it.

At about 7:00, he lit a big propane heater that warmed the tent up to near 70 degrees.  I was cooking breakfast this morning, so I got up quick.  I couldn't even see my breath in the air.  I could really get used to this kind of camping.

Outside the tent it was very cold.  The mountain east of our camp blocked the sun keeping the whole camp very cold.  Everything was wet from dew and my fingers quickly got numb.

My plan for breakfast was allot of bacon, omelettes, hot chocolate, and orange juice.  I diced all of the fixings before we left so I just needed to cook them before I could make the omelettes.  Don't ever put raw ingredients in an omelette and expect them to cook with the eggs, they won't.

My butane cook stove had a little bit of trouble.  It was so cold that the butane was coming out as a liquid rather than a gas, so I had to warm the canister a bit before it would work right.  I got all of my cooked while DaveB cooked the bacon strips, then I started taking orders for omelettes.

I had everyone take a bowl and fill it with whatever they wanted in their egg.  I had bacon, ham, sausage, mushroom, green onion, saute'd onion, bell pepper, and cheese.  Then I'd crack 2 or 3 eggs (depending on what they wanted) and cook the omelette.

It took me about 20 minutes to make 9 omelettes and everyone seemed to like them.

By 9:00 everyone (except me) had their quads loaded and ready to ride.  I've had one child's wedding this year and have another coming, so I decided to forgo the $400 quad rental.  I waved goodbye to everyone, then cranked up the music and cleaned up my breakfast mess.

After cleaning up, I decided to do a little target practice with my black powder rifle.  I like black powder because it's a more slow and methodical way of shooting, rather than just jamming in ammo and pulling the trigger.

For each shot I have to:

1) measure out the gunpowder (55 grains)
2) pour the gunpowder into the barrel
3) place an oiled patch of cloth over the end of the barrel
4) place a lead ball onto the patch (.54 caliber)
5) use a bullet starter to pound the ball and patch into the barrel
6) use the ramrod to push the ball all the way down to the gunpowder
7) tamp the ball tight to the gunpowder
8) put a percussion cap onto the nipple of the gun

All of this takes me about 2 minutes for each shot, plus eating a piece of beef jerky or grapes, or just sitting and enjoying the cool breeze.

Finally I can cock the rifle, aim at the target, breath slow and steady and pull the trigger gently until it fires.

The first 10 rounds were fairly wild and all over the target.  Then I started controlling my breathing better, paying attention to how I was holding the gun, and relaxing a bit.  The next 10 shots were all grouped in the upper left hand corner of the target.

After 90 minutes I was ready for something else, so I put everything way and decided I should go for a drive.  I unpacked most of the food for dinner to leave at camp.  I was sure I'd easily be back by 4:00 to cook but I thought I'd leave the food just in case.  That was a good call as you'll see.

I drove the 17 miles back to the paved road, then continued south through Taylor Park.  I wound through some canyons and small towns till I reached the main highway between Gunnison and Crested Butte where I turned left (south) toward Gunnison.  It was a short drive into town where I gassed up and bought a case of water bottles for camp.

I headed back North toward Crested Butte.  That's a small town with a ski resort.  I've only been here once before, and all I did then was drive up and take a few pictures of fall colors, then drive right back out.  This time I took my time and drove around town a bit.  The main street is much like Breckenridge, or Estes Park.  It's like with little shops and restaurants.  I thought I'd grab a quick lunch, but there was absolutely no where to park.  I wasn't really very hungry, so I decided to skip it for now and get lunch later.

At the end of the road, a sign pointed me left for the "Scenic" route.  I was hoping it was the road to kebler pass, and it was.

Just a few miles out of town the pavement ended.  But just for a couple of miles, then the pavement picked up again.  I wonder why that short stretch is dirt.  Maybe they have avalanches and it's just not worth repairing pavement every year.  Who knows?

The road climbed and the aspen trees grew more and more yellow around me with the altitude.  I stopped quite a bit to take pictures, but sometimes I just had to point the camera out the window because there was nowhere to pull over and the road was very busy.

The pavement lasted for about 12 miles.  I turned around shortly after the pavement ended because I didn't want to be late getting back to prepare dinner.  The return trip to Crested Butte was almost like a whole different road because I noticed different views and mountains.

I stopped at the top of Kebler pass, but there was no sign  commemorating the location or altitude.  I was very disappointed about that.

Back in Crested Butte I easily found a parking spot because the lunch rush was over.  I grabbed a slice of pepperoni pizza at Savage pizza (or something like that).  It was such good pizza that I even ate the rim.

By now it was after 2:00 and I needed to hurry back to get dinner ready.  I punched the longitude and latitude into my iPhone app and asked the GPS to route me back.  Just a few miles out of town, the GPS directed me to turn onto Concrete Creek road.  This wasn't the way I'd come out, but looking at the map showed the road leading almost directly to camp, much shorter than the 60 miles it would take going the long way, so I followed it.

The road turned to dirt after 3 miles, but it was a well maintained road and there were many cars driving, so I figured it was a major road and kept going.

After 6 miles the road narrowed to 1 lane but it was still a nice road.  At 9 miles the road crossed the river and began climbing up a hillside.  I stopped to look at the road, and while I looked, a group of offroad motorcycle riders came down the road and stopped by me.  I asked what the road was like and they assured me it was pretty good and I'd be fine if I knew how to drive well.

So I kept going.  The road wasn't bad, but it wasn't maintained.  There were lots of ruts and bumps but it was obviously well used and clearly defined.

After 15 miles I began to cross small streams and larger rocks began to protrude here and there.  I passed a big camp with several tents, cars, and ATVs in it, so I knew I had some fallback if I needed it.

After 23 miles the road was mostly rocks with large bushes to each side, and the road began to ascend a bald hill.  I looked at the GPS which said I was only 5 miles from camp, but I looked at that rough road and thought to myself "I have no business being on this hill".  It was very hard to turn around because I was so invested in the road by now, but I slowly backed around and headed down.

By now I was well past 4:00 and too late to cook dinner.  But I figured they were capable of feeding themselves and stopped worrying about it.  And once I stopped worrying, I could drive slower and take more care to miss rocks.  I was amazed at how high I'd climbed.  It hadn't felt nearly so steep as I came up, but it sure was tricky going back down.

It took me nearly an hour to backtrack to the highway, then another 90 minutes to reach camp.  They had cooked dinner and were getting ready to go looking for me when I pulled in.

When I told my story, Andrew told me that the road I was on couldn't possibly have connected to camp because our road dead ends only 3 miles on.  So the GPS app (made by garmin) was leading me to a dead end anyway.  The roads haven't connected for years.  I've since looked on google earth and sure enough, I can't see where the roads connect.  I'd have climbed to the top of that bald ridge and been stuck there.

But most of the guys also said they couldn't have stopped when I did.  They'd have driven to the dead end before giving up, so I guess that's something.

I ate my pulled pork sandwich, corn, and potato salad with everyone else around the camp fire.   They told me about their adventures on the quads and the views they'd seen.

I stayed up till nearly 10 looking at the stars and talking before crawling into my sleeping bag, safe and sound.


Flipping an omelette. I didn't drop a single one


Quads all lined up to go


Meditating on the forest


The meditation room


The view outside Crested Butte


More


Switchbacks descending from Kebler Pass


More fall colors


The tree lined road


More fall colors


Horses Grazing


Yet more patchword colors


Stopped on Kebler Pass


Almost back to Crested Butte


A valley surrounded by color


More


My lonely road


Nice views from the lonely road