Today was my last day of riding. My arms hurt, I have a few blisters, and some bits are bent on the bike. My wrists are sunburnt in a narrow strip, as the only bare skin showing when riding is the space between my gloves and my shirt. It looks like I have spent some time in hand cuffs. I left Moab this morning, and made my way to the San Raphael Swell. There is a lot of riding here, but I was just going to spend a few hours riding some easy scenic trails. I headed down a trail called Behind the Reef, which is a quad/ bike trail. Last spring Todd and I hiked through the reef, around the back, and back through again through some slot canyons, and we walked a few miles of this trail to pick up the canyon that would take us back through. It was easy for the most part, but being Utah, there are always rocks and ledges to deal with. The worst part was a downhill, but I made it through clean. The scenery is truly amazing here, and the only way to experience it is to see it for yourself. Cameras never show the real beauty.
Since I didn’t have a map, and my GPS had dying batteries, I took a picture of a map, which later saved my skin.
This area has many old miner’s cabins and there are 40’s and 50’s vehicles strewn around, most of which are cars. I can’t imagine how people got cars back here, but they did. Utah is just plain hostile!
Eventually, the trail came out to a sandy wash that later turned into a road, but I had already gone 70 km, so I was pretty turned around, I had to pull out the camera to figure out how to get back, and how to get back on the next trail I figured I had time to do. At around 100 km, I found the trailhead for the Waterfall Trail. It said it was a moderate single track trail, and judging from my altitude, it would primarily be downhill. Seemed safe enough. It headed right down to a ridge about half way down the slope, and wound its way all over the place. It was a fantastic trail, and for a time, I was thinking I would have described it as easy. Maybe if it was called an easy trail, people would be tempted to take an unsuitable bike down it. Fair enough. I stopped for a bite to eat here. . .
Then carried on.
I didn’t stop for any more pictures until I came out of a wash and came across a pretty tough climb. It was loose and rocky, with a big obsatcle right at the top. I figured I had shaken all the rust of, but then again, I’ve only been doing this for a few years, so I’ve never been particularly good at it. I nailed it the best I could, but with loose rocks and by now, a pretty worn rear tire, and only 60% commitment to succeeding, I failed. Almost.
I slid back down and tried again, but now, with my past history of hurting myself on ‘last days’, I again failed to make it over the top. At least the bike did! I can walk the rest of the way, but lugging 250 lbs of bike up didn’t appeal to me.
While I was fine, the clutch lever was bent, but not unusable, fortunately, and the hand guard was bent. I would say that it could have been worse had they not been there, but it was the fact that it bent that it failed to protect what it was in place to do. After this, the trail got easy again, with the last several kms being a very loose gravely wash. This stuff can be hard to ride in, but if you get on the gas, it’s a piece of cake, and very fun. There were some rock ledges, but going downstream, they were all just two foot drops that I just hopped off of. At the end of the trail was a little box with a book to sign, and it’s basically to thank the club that creates and maintains these trails. I guess the party from Washington didn’t enjoy it so much.
Seeing the past comments, it enforces why riding alone isn’t a great idea. It’s so remote here, and according to the sheet, I’m only the fourth person through this trail this month! This is also the best time of year to ride here, with numbers dropping off in the wicked heat of the summer. I’m done.
I made it back to Green River, and checked to see if the better motel is open yet, but it doesn’t open until may, so it was back down the road to Robbers Roost. Todd and I stayed here for several nights last spring, and while the rooms are fine, and the place looks okay from the front, the back looks like it could be a motel in Beirut. Coincidently, because I have a trailer, they stuck me in the corner room, which is the exact room we stayed in. I’m sleeping in Todd’s bed tonight, in hopes I can still smell him on the sheets. There are better motels in town, but I’m just not a Motel 6 kind of guy. Supper at Veracruzana, a Mexican restaurant. The owners know me by now, as this is the fourth time I’ve stayed in GR. Todd and I went almost every night and every morning on two trips, plus Rox and I ate here on our way back from New Mexico last summer. I wished I wold have specified a soft corn flour tortilla for the taco, and that is half an avacado stuffed into the top of it BTW.
