Starting to get comfortable
     Day Four June 28, 2014
     Day Five
     Day Six

Day Four 28 June, 2014 St George, Utah to East Entrance Zion National Park 66 miles

I was really ready to the ride this morning.  I awoke realizing that I had only planned for a very short ride and one that would take me though some of the most spectacular landscape in the world.

Day Four Zion National Park

I think in some ways Zion National Park might be the most picturesque scenery I have ever seen.  Different landscapes evoke different emotions and it is difficult to compare ocean, alpine and desert scenes but Zion is awesome by any measure.  Here is a Bing calendar page showing Zion.

Bing Wallpaper shot of Zion National Park Trail

I really enjoyed sharing in Eugene's initial reaction of disbelief when we visited the Park a couple of years earlier.  That visit was made even better by our choice of a spectacular hotel with an amazing view.

This time I would not be staying in the Park but just riding though.  I never stop enjoying the majesty of the rough canyon walls and their startling red color.  A tunnel drilled though the eastern side of the canyon, separates the east and west sides of the Park.  The tunnel was built in the 1920's but vehicles have become so much larger since then that in 1989 the tunnel was converted into a one-way traffic only so you normally get to enjoy the scenery while you wait your turn for travel in your direction.

The ride through the Park was spectacular, if uneventful.  I was feeling pretty good about the bike and  my health and really enjoying the day.  The weather was perfect and not quite as day as the day before.  No matter how many times you see this place the scenery never stops being arresting.  One think I saw was a first for me in the US and that was a desert sheep standing right beside the road munching on a bush and seemingly without a care in the world about the constant traffic streaming by.  This is very unusual and wild sheep are normally only seen at a great distance.  The only other time I can remember seeing any this close was when I had to stop the car and wait for a flock of them to cross the road in Banff Springs National Park in Canada.

Big Horn Desert Sheep from the web

It was only a short ride today so I reached the East Entrance to the Park and the hotel where I planned t spend the night early in the afternoon.  The temperature had now climbed quite high and I was happy to spend some time in the room with the air conditioner on full.  As I was pulling into the small congregation of building that is strung along this section of Utah Highway 89, I realized that I had ridden though here several years ago on the old BMW R1200 during a ride to Taos, New Mexico.    I recalled that on that ride it was just a bit chilly and I had bought a long-sleeve tee shirt that had a logo of Brice Canyon National Park of the front.  It was one of my favorite shirts and I had nearly worn it out so I looked to see if I could find another but, alas, no luck.  I guess I will still have to keep darning the old one instead.  Or Nancy will throw it out when I am not looking.

Thunderbird Lodge Zion Park Entrance
Home of the "Home Made Pies"

I tried the pie but think mine are actually better so I don't think they are quite worth the billing.  The clean room and functioning air conditioner were well appreciated however.

I did a diary entry in my room that night

Day Five 29 June, 2014 Carmel Valley Junction, UT to Green River, Utah 250 Miles

I had a very nice and leisurely breakfast at the hotel coffee shop and got off to a mid-morning start.  I was feeling fairly good after a short day yesterday but still had some trepidation about being able to have enough stamina for a trip all the way to Quebec and back.  I took Highway 89 north which was a section of road I had been on numerous times in the last few years, the last time being on the ride in 2012 with Eugene Murray.  On previous trips, I have taken the turnoff to Utah Highway 12 which is a wonderful road that twists through the mountains and leads to Bryce Canyon and then into the small town of Escalante which is surrounded by Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.  If you stay on the road past the mountain village of Boulder, you will reach a turning for Green River in the north or Natural Bridges National Monument in the south.  It has been several years since I was on the part of 89 that runs north of the turnoff and ultimately all the way to the Idaho border but I think I remember it fairly well as a gently twisting two-lane blacktop that runs along the bottom of a number of shallow tree-lined canyons and a though a series of leafy little hamlets that may not be quite "quaint" but certainly picturesque.  Wrong!  Instead of my remembered landscape the highway climbs up to a high, treeless plateau where even higher mountain ridges run parallel off to both sides.  So much for my vaunted memory.

At the same time as I am wondering about the quality of my memory I am still going through the internal debate about continuing the trip or heading back to Reno.  This is the last section of road which is not taking me directly East which means that if I don't head back now, the ride back is going to be quite long.  I figure that I am now about 500 miles from Reno but once I hit Interstate 70 and head toward Colorado, every mile will add to the return distance.  I am actually doing OK with the breathing but still having to huff and puff a bit to get enough oxygen to not constantly feel that nagging sensation of shortness of breath.  In any case, weather from suborned or from conviction, when I reach the Interstate I turn away from Reno instead of the other direction.  However as I am filling up with gas at the first station along the freeway I realize that I will be facing another challenge as well and that is the intense heat.  The temperature has been building most of the day but as long as I have been up at a bit higher elevations or in the mountains themselves, I have been fairly comfortable.  This next section of road however is going to drop out the lightly pine forested hills and into the real desert.  I am expecting temperatures to be above 100F or 40C.  I will not be able to spend a lot of time out in the direct sun at those temps without risking some real difficulties.  However, there is not much of an alternative since there are really no towns anywhere along this stretch of highway.  It is at least 100 miles of road without available help if some difficulty arises.  I was able to handle the heat much better when I was younger and before my COPD had developed.  I can remember making a lot of rides in the summer at temps above 100 with some discomfort but no sense of danger.  But that was then and now is now.  The only way for me to deal with the very high temps now is to stay well hydrated and keep my clothes as wet as possible.  Pouring a little water on your shirt will mean that as it evaporates at highway speed, you will be an fairly intense cooling.  The problem is that the shirt will completely dry in only a few minutes at desert humidity levels that are close to 10% or less.
One way to handle this is to use a tightly rolled bandana that you thoroughly soak and then tie around your neck.  Even the cooling from this small area is generally enough to make things bearable.  And the tightness of the wrapping means that the evaporation is slowed enough that one wetting will generally last about 20 minutes even at highway speeds.  I carry a couple of quarts of water (about 2 liters) in the bag on the back of the bike so I will stop several times along this lonely section and wet down.  I am pretty confident this will get me thought to Green River and I continue heading down out of the mountains and into the inferno like desert of Eastern Utah.
I am hoping that I can get a room at the Green River Inn which I have stay at several times previously.  The place is run by the owners and is clean and has a small, well-shaded pool that sits on the bluff beside the Green River.  This is a great place to relax and cool off.  Eugene and I stayed there on our trip the previous year.  This time however I am don't think I am going to be able to get a room.  I normally do not try to get reservations in advance since I like to keep my options for where to stop as flexible as possible.  But here with so few towns around i have checked the Internet for availability and it showed that the Inn was full.  Joseph and I are sharing a fate.  However in this case I am surprised when I stop at the hotel to check in person and find that cancellations have opened a room up and I quickly sign the register and head for the pool.

This is the breakfast deck of the Green River Inn

Humming Birds all around.

A most pleasant break from the road.

Day 5 Commentary

Day Six 30 June, 2014 Green River, UT to Alamosa, Colo 347 Miles

The road out of Green River heading East is particularly uninteresting with almost nothing to see.  It is quite shocking when you realize that only a few miles in any direction from the Interstate lies some of the most interesting and arresting terrain in the world and both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks are only a stones throw away, however along this stretch of tarmac there is almost nothing to distract the eye from the unending and unchanging high desert plains until you are well into Colorado and almost to Grand Junction.  Eugene and I were hit by a cold hailstorm along this stretch in 2012.  I stopped at the same spot and shot another panorama of 'not much'.

 At least this time the weather was much warmer if not a bit too hot!

Big Ride Day 6 Map

Day Six.  To get the interactive map click on link above

A view of Grand Mesa from Grand Junction

Once you finally get into Grand Junction, Colorado the landscape is dominated by the huge mesa that hovers over the town.  It is the only thing that is interesting.  It is propertied to be the largest flat-top mountain in the world, encompasses hundreds of square miles and is at an altitude above 10,000 feet, 3.050 Meters. It is a bit early for lunch and I decide to push on to Gunnison, CO.  This will take me though the

Grand Canyon of the Gunnison River which has some really spectacular scenery and a deep canyon that has been cut by the river though the dark rock.  It is hard to get a good shot of the canyon from the road but following is a picture from the National Park Service.

By the time I get to the town of Gunnison, it is getting late and I am quite hungry.  I pull over to the side of the road and check my Nexus 7 map for a Mexican Restaurant.  The data base shows one just up ahead and I quickly park the bike and scurry inside to make a quick order.  There are a group of three Harleys with Quebec plates also parked out front and after I have sat down I notice the three young men speaking French at the next table.  I speculate if they are from anywhere close to where I am heading but decide to let them enjoy their food and peace and only say a quick hello and wish them good luck and safe riding as they leave.  I tell them I am headed for their homeland but they don't express much interest and I let it go at that.  As is often the case when you are hungry, the food tastes great.  However, I cannot help but think that Eugene would be unhappy with the menu choices which are exclusively dishes from South of the border.

After lunch I turn off onto a road that I had not travelled before.  I try to avoid taking the same routes multiple times and like to explore new places however the main road such as Highway 50 from Canyon City to Gunnison and then to Grand Junction follow the main mountain valleys and there really are few alternative routes so the roads do become familiar.  There is nothing wrong with that of course but there is always a bit of a kick up in the adrenaline when you are heading into a bit of the unknown and I like that.  Exploring has always been a favorite activity for me since my boyhood days.  

As I leave Highway 50 with a full stomach and an anticipation for what this new route will reveal, I again think of how much I wish I knew more about almost everything.  Throughout my life, the more I have learned about things, the less I realize I actually understand.  One of those things is natural history.  I have never made a serious or formal study of geology or plant biology and that ignorance comes to awareness as I contemplate the lack of trees along the bottom of the valleys through which these mountain highways wend there way along.  

Why is that?  I speculate that it must be the lack of some nutrients in the soil since the hillsides on both sides of the valley are covered with fairly dense forests.  These are nearly all pine trees of some sort or another and the few trees you do encounter along the valley roads are nearly all deciduous.  Some right along the river and creek-sides are Cottonwoods but I simply do not know the other species.  Since you only find Cottonwoods right at the sides of waterways, I guess they need more water than other types of trees that can survive in less wet conditions, but again, I just don't know.  Whatever the reasons, I soon leave the brush covered fields and climb into the pine forests that line both sides of the road and climb the ridge lines to the tops of the valleys.  Shortly however I come across a disturbing sight.  This is a hillside covered with dead and dying trees.  You can tell by the sickly brown color that is so clearly evident against the otherwise dark green of the pines.  The same scenes are repeated thoughout the American West and I have been told are the result of a combination of continuing drought conditions in most Western States and an infestation of beetles.

Apparently the lack of normal moisture from rain and snow stresses the trees somehow and results in weaknesses in their ouster bark.  This in turn allows the beetles to burrow into the pulp of the tree where they lay their eggs and breed unimmaginable number of larvae which suck even more moisture out of the plants, ultimately causing their death.  But before they die, they turn this sickly, dull brown that is a blight upon our wilderness.  As far as I know there is really nothing that can be done to counteract this plague and all we can hope for is that the weather will return naturally to a wetter normality and provide some protection for the remaining trees.  It breaks your heart to see the scale of the destruction but I guess it is a natural process and one which we simply have to accept.

We are headed for the small mountain town of Saguache, Colorado.  I have never been there before although I have been close by when driving down US 285 which runs from Northern Colorada The Saguache Crescent Newspaper

through the San Luis Valley and then on into New Mexico.  Saguache caught my imagination when it was featured on a 60 Minutes segment a couple of years ago.  The story was about a family in town that had been continuously publishing the local newspaper for nearly 100 years using the same printing press.  It seems to be the last one in operation anywhere in the US and perhaps anywhere in the world.  Here is a link to the story.

I never did find the offices of the Crescent or the small diner that is mentioned in the video but I did stop at the town square and took a few shots just to get a sense of the place

Saguache sits at about 7,800 feet and while this is a good deal lower than the pass I just came through my breathing is still a bit labored.  It is also a small enough place that if there are any motels available, I did not see them and I decide to push on down the road to the much larger town of Alamosa.  I have to ride though a late afternoon rain shower to get there and the elevation is only a couple on hundred feet lower. This has been to longest ride of the trip so far and I pull into the first motel that looks decent and with a dinner consisting of a few candy bars from the lobby machine, do not leave the motel.

A pretty tired video diary tonight

Day Six Commentary