Next winter I am going to make you sit down and produce that digital coffee table album. With a little bit of effort I think you could sell a pile of these to the riding faithful. Include the pics, narrative, some associated vids and way maps in the back. Getterdone.
The next day would be a real Play Day...no camping gear! Just a leisurely day ride through Cathedral Valley with an expected return before dark. Heh... The terrain looked a bit different at first... Then it started reminding me of H.R. Pufnstuf... I dig the multi-colored rock lasagne... This photo does absolutely no justice whatsoever to the brilliantly-colored peak behind the bikes... Mmm...sticky rock good! This trail was giggly-good fun! It was taking us away from our ultimate destination but who cares? Klaaanngg! Gotta love that ground clearance... Have I mentioned lately how much Eric is enjoying his TE610? The solution to the klaaanngg Like sand? Come to Utah; you'll be in heaven... Wait...weren't we headed to Cathedral Valley? Yes we were... More on the way...
Who would buy them, though, when they could see them here for free? I'm for sure going to do one of those calendar things through iPhoto, though... Thank you very much, Planepower! I'm glad someone besides myself is getting enjoyment out of them But wait! It gets better! Honest!
I'd always had these grand visions in my head of Cathedral Valley. The real thing did not disappoint. Lots of sandy roads...or more accurately put: lots of sand with some road sprinkled in. Even some creek crossings. I think the images speak for themselves, pretty much... Glass Mountain, a little mound of 100% gypsum. It looked like tons of tiny little panes of glass stacked on top of each other in haphazard jumbles... It was beautiful... Hmm...looks like rain. We'd already felt a few drops... Flowers everywhere... Nobody else there except us, though... I once had a photographer tell me, "It's all about the sky. Clouds will make or break you." I think he was onto something... The higher we climbed out of the valley the darker the skies got... Ahh...the beginning of a totally hellacious downpour. Nobody does rain like the desert... We kept going, knowing we'd have to ford the river towards the end of our ride. We were riding right into the head of the storm and we were completely soaked within minutes. This was ok and all, but we were kind of bombing and it was starting to get cold. We stopped and assessed the situation. Funny thing about rivers in the desert...they change dramatically in very short periods of time. Same with washes...one minute they're bone dry and the next you've got a wall of water bearing down on your sorry soul. We reversed course and proceeded to have one of the best rides we've ever had. I mean a ride ...no sightseeing, no stopping for photos, no slowing to look at maps or road signs...we just frikkin' flattracked that road for miles on end, side by side most of the time, sliding and roosting and laughing to ourselves in our helmets. We are both very competitive by nature...especially with each other. I had the edge in equipment this time, though, what with the deep sand everywhere, and I rode my ass off trying to keep him honest. It's a wonder we didn't take each other out during a few of our more creative maneuvers but we've been riding together for over 20 years now and we trust each other and we both know what we can and cannot do. By the time we slid to a stop in a cloud of sand, bypassing our road in a fit of excessive speed and joyful exuberance, the only trace of moisture left in our gear was hard-earned sweat Damn, that was a fun ride... More in a few...
I'd think the 21/18" wheels on Eric's bike would have the advantage in the dirt, but I guess the wider wheels on your SM floated on the sand better? You really need to get a GoPro so we can SEE the action!
After our romp on the sandy road, we turned north and made our way towards the Muddy River and the San Rafael Swell. The rain figured out where we'd gone and had chased us down... This section looked like the moon... I took the one less traveled by And that has made all the difference... This was the end of the line for my OEM clutch cable. Apparently the clutch cables breaking prematurely is a "known issue" on the 610's. Someone forget to tell mine, as I got 15,430 miles out of it... Eric whipped the spare cable out of his bag and we were out of there in no time... Factory Butte... This was a crazy trail...super loose and fluffy... The San Rafael Swell in the distance... The Muddy isn't very muddy, is it? That's right, folks...more water in the desert! I totally dig all the embedded rock in the roads... Good thing sand makes me happy... Closing the gate on the park boundary... Never seen a gate out here with strike plates before... More on the way tomorrow. G'night!
After slipping through the Goblin Valley State Park gate, we trundled up the sandy 2-track until we reached a plateau. The views up there were OK, I guess... Most favorite bike ever... More Husky love... Hmm...lookin' kinda like a lowrider, eh? Guess that's what happens when you shear off both your lower subframe bolts. He didn't have any spare 8mm bolts but it was resting on the chain roller and the pipe was kinda holding it up, too, so it wasn't going anywhere. He took his backpack off the rack and wore it, and I took his doggy bags and put them on my rear rack... Mmm... Eric spent the next 50 miles standing on the pegs. That 50 miles included about 10 more miles of really deep whooped-out sand. In fact, our map clearly had the words "sand dunes" printed neatly between where we were and where we needed to be. Great... You have no idea how hard it was to not stop and take photos. I was afraid that if I stopped in the sand I wouldn't get going again. Eric was having an adventurous ride, too, swapping all over while on the pegs. It was pretty intense. We were pretty psyched when we got to the end of the 4WD road... We hopped on the highway and rode through gale-force winds and blowing sand for the next 20 miles or so. I was kinda wondering earlier why the skies weren't clear. It slowly dawned on me that things were kind of fuzzy due to all the sand blowing around. I could hear it hitting my helmet, sandblasting my pretty red and black paint, and I found sand everywhere when we got back to camp. The roads looked like they were squirming around in front of us...almost like they were alive. Never experienced anything quite like it before. We pulled into Hanksville, had a tasty dinner with wi-fi for desert, and limped back to base camp in the dark... It had been a long day...We wanted to get an early start the next day after fixing the subframe and changing out the air filters. We had an overnighter planned that would take us over the mountains, through the canyon, across the river and up the switchbacks. I guess you could say we saved the best for last More later...of course
Yep, the picture taking takes alot of effort and distracts you from the riding to some degree... As the day goes on, I usually take less and less pics ...
I really envy you that trip! I passed the link to your photos on to my skiing friends. One of them commented: "Wow, they are having a great time. Thanks for that link. You should let them know that the word for the smell of the desert after a rain is petrichor.
Cant wait for the "Best till Last" installment Woodsie. I have really enjoyed this trip, almost feels like being there with you.
I woke up slightly bummed, knowing this day would hold our last ride. At least it would be an overnighter. I knew it was going to be a good day, too, when the sun started to come up. I took this while still in bed... Every tree within 20 miles of us had these gauzy-looking nests...or webs, or whatever...and they were filled with these beautiful little caterpillars... Eric replaced his subframe bolts and changed out our air filters while I loaded our camping gear on the bikes. We headed out across the desert and up into the cool mountains... These flowering cacti were stunning, especially since they were blooming really nicely at about 7000'... Now this is a trail marker, folks! 2 different kinds of GPS data and elevation in addition to clearly marked trail names... This little critter was not having a nice day... The aspens were not yet leafed out at this elevation... 9000' and the winds were howling like mad... The winds didn't bother the bumblebees all over these tiny flowers. Always blows me away when I see flowers thriving in such harsh environments... Nice terrain to ride... Does this count as water in the desert? It was 40ยบ up here not counting the wind chill factor... I wanted to keep going, Eric thought it was time to implement Plan B... Okey-dokey...Plan B it is... Guess we'll go around the other side of this mountain... Wow...they'e almost invisible, aren't they? More coming soon...
Excellent stuff, Bev! Well, don't get too excited, ghte. It was my favorite ride of the trip...I guess that's what I meant
We dropped down out of the mountains and the temperature rose dramatically...it was cold up there! There are landing strips everywhere in the desert, but this was the first official "FAA" strip we'd seen. It looked just as primitive as the rest... We found this cozy little place in a wide sandy wash... The neighbor's place... We had our sights set on a canyon that had caught my eye a few days before while perusing the map. It looked long and deep on the map, and the trail crossed the river before continuing on to the east. i couldn't get it out of my mind so we decided to ride it and hope that we'd be able to successfully ford the river when we came to it. It was mostly rocks... And sand... The sand was kind of deep in a lot of places, but it was huge fun riding in it... We tempered our enthusiasm a bit, since it would be really difficult to tow a disabled bike out of there, and even more difficult to walk out of there with an injury or whatever. Still, we managed to enjoy the riding and the fantastic scenery...and the sand... if you don't like deep sand...and lots of it...you have no business riding in Utah... Ahh...a bit of shade to cool off in. The bikes were pretty toasty, too, from plowing through the sand for miles on end... The trail exited the canyon for a brief period before dropping back down... After 16 miles of brutal sand and rocks, we arrived at the river, spent and and happy... We set up camp... And walked the river crossing so we'd know what we were up against in the morning... More in a little while...I gotta go make dinner
