Day 15: Utah

I woke just in time to call Jennifer before she went to class, 7 am her time (6am my time). Jennifer's Verizon cellphone has been roaming since I left home (it barely has a signal at home), so if there's a payphone handy I'll use that instead.

More coffee and oatmeal, pack up camp, gear up for riding in the 40's, and I'm on the road. Ten short miles later I'm in Dolores and the temps are in the 70's. Doh! I pull behind a closed BBQ joint and peel off layers.

Riding up to the Mesa Verde national park the temps drop again, and I pass a cafeteria claiming "all you can eat pancakes" until 10am. As it's 8:30am and I'm still digesting oatmeal, I head into the park. It's 15 miles to the visitor's center where one can purchase tickets for guided tours into the cliff dwellings. I don't want to stay that long, so I take the short loop. The cliff dwellings are pretty neat - there are a couple large ones (100+ rooms) and even a few small ones (1-10 rooms) that can be seen from the road, and others that can be hiked to. The self-guided and guided hikes aren't long, but I have neither time nor good hiking boots with, so after sightseeing like an AARP member I leave the park. Where did the time go? It's already 10:30am and I missed the pancakes. Getting hungry, I find a local restaurant called Homesteaders that served up a good medium-rare steak sandwich with fresh fruit. Usually I avoid steak on bread, as low-quality meat it used, but this was a tender 6oz. top sirloin. And for less than $6 OTD I am a happy camper.

Heading west on US-191, the GPS shows the name of the highway changing to UT-666 but I see no signs to take photos of. I suspect someone got frightened and had them taken down. Silly. Nothing bad happened to me, other than having to ride in more of the arid high desert. Something good happened though - I found a gas station with Big Hunk nougat bars! These are big chewey lowfat bars that will give your jaws a workout. Chuck introduced them to me when he found the little bite-sized ones.

Eventually the road steers north, the temps climb into the 90's, and the scenery improves significantly. The sage desert changes to red slickrock and some arches appear every so often. It looks like the sand-laden wind has worn smooth the rocks. There was a huge rock feature, maybe 750-1000 feet tall, standing in the middle of nowhere with a manmade hole at the base. I think it looks like something out of the Fifth Element.

When I return my eyes to the road, I find two semi's approaching me, side by side, on the other side of the valley (about a mile away). We're on a two-lane road - one lane for me, going north, the other for vehicles going south. And there's a semi approaching me in both lanes, and they don't seem to be making much progress, so instead of continuing at 85mph I make an emergency near-stop and squeeze over onto four-inch strip of asphalt that passes for a shoulder. The semi's wooosh by. Whew, close call. Need to pay more attention.

Back on the road, going up the opposite side of the valley, when Idiot-Man in a pickup pulls out from the traffic approaching me, using my lane. Here we go again, onto the shoulder. I see he's wearing a baseball cap - he must be wearing it too tight. I have theory that baseball caps tend to trap heat in the hotter states like Utah, cooking the wearer's brain. Furthermore, the brim obstructs the wearer's view, causing them to bang their foreheads on low-hanging obstructions. All of this causes the wearer's brain to become severely damaged, resulting in veiwing ESPN excessively and making poor driving decisions.

Obviously my yellow bike and bright yellow jacket aren't visible enough (maybe too many bugs from Colorado?) so I flick on my high beams. Take that Idiot-Men, two 60w halogens right at you! If you can't see these you shouldn't be driving.

This whole time the elevation continues to drop and the temperature increases to 95F. At the next rest stop I take my shirt off and hold it under the water spigot to soak it. It takes a while; it's one of those fancy wicking polyester fabrics, Hydroduct by Duofold. Water sort of runs off it, so I have to knead the water into it to get it to 'stay'. Back on the road, the 95F feels like 35F for about five minutes, then I'm dry again. At least it cooled me off. A man asks me how fast my bike is, I answer I've had it to 140 but it's supposed to be good for 160. Do I do that often? No. Ten over the limit has kept me ticket-free since 1993.

A few miles down the road signs for the Canyonlands National Park try to lure me to go there. No deal. No time. It's south of me and I'm going north, to Arches NP. Once there the temperature is soaring at 100F. Ick. At the visitor's center I re-soak my shirt and fill up on water.

While in the park I check the coolant temp often and am satisfied everything is working as it should, even at slow speeds in hot temps. This winter I discovered that the thermostat was stuck open so it wouldn't warm up, and thus replaced it. Never having done that before nor tested the bike in hot weather since, I now feel confident I got all the air out of the coolant and hoses attached correctly.

I have many theories, most of which I think are accurate. A couple of them relate to heat. For instance, I think that 'dry heat' is easier to handle than 'wet heat' not only because evaporation is much more effective, but also because you're not trying to inhale what feels like air 'thick' with moisture. However, it's different for vehicles (I think). When moist air flows over a radiator, the moisture in it can absorb more energy (heat) than dry air. Along those same lines, thinner air at higher altitudes is less dense, i.e. has fewer molecules, thus can't cool a radiator as effectively either.

Arches NP is a red slickrock/sandstone area with many interesting formations. Just check out the photos! Temperatures continued to soar around 100F. I wish I had more time to explore the area - there are several descriptions of interesting hiking trails.

Back at the visitor center I ran into two Seattle riders, one on a Road Star and the other a VTX 1800. I noticed that the VTX had tire-fly's screwed onto the valve-stem (it lights up and looks neat) and the additional weight was bending the stem, just like mine did. When I pointed this out to the owner and told him my story he promptly removed it. We talked a little about riding, road, etc. They asked if I came in on Hwy 70, I said No, Hwy 666. They rode off into the park enjoying their choice to not wear protective gear (other than sunscreen lotion).

At the Visitor’s Center I asked about which route to the interstate is better – 129 or 191? With no hesitation the ranger answered “128” so down 128 I went. A great road, it had little traffic and wound it’s way along the Colorado river though about 30 miles of canyon. It was very similar to the Yakima River Canyon in Washington, but tighter turns, more greenery, and darker cliffs. At the end of the canyon I passed by Castle Valley – which had more of the interesting rock formations I’ve been seeing all day.

Coming out of the canyon was like waking to a harsh reality after a pleasant dream. On the plateau the wind was merciless and the temperatures rose from low 90’s into the 100’s again. Nothing to do but grin and bear it. I got on I-70 and continued west. It was about 6:30pm with the sun still high in the sky when, at the intersection of I-70 ad Hwy 70, I stopped for gas as signs indicated this was the last gas for 110 miles. I also stopped at the local Holiday Inn Express to find out where the next one is, in case I don’t find a campground before dark. Also, if it remains significantly hot after dark I’m not camping in that heat. Turns out the next Holiday Inn is in Provo, UT and another in Heber City, close to Salt Lake City. Heber city sounds good – my GPS indicates 140 miles, and the desk clerk asked if I’m taking hwy 6 or hwy 70 there … GPS says Hwy 6, and doesn’t even show Hwy 70 [after getting home none of the online or paper maps I have shows Hwy 70 out of Green River], and he said that once you get into the mountains on hwy 6, about 25 miles, there are campgrounds. So I’m off!

Highway 6 is quite boring until Price. It passed through the desert, straight as an arrow, with the tan mountains on both sides. Looking to the east I wondered if I should have taken Hwy 70. No matter, eventually Hwy 6 passes Price and gets into the mountains. I pass a couple RV parks (where the ‘mobile’ homes have no wheels) and eventually see a sign for BLM land campground. Ok .. it’s getting dark, so I set off on that road. It quickly leaves the roads and winds its way up the mountainside in tight turns and blind, unmarked corners. There are no signs indicating how far it is to the campground, but it is paved. I remember a time Ron Ray Ken Don and I were in the woods near Detroit, OR, looking for a BLM campground at around midnight, but when we got there the gate was closed. Knowing that BLM camps close up at 10pm (as most do) and it’s getting close to 8:30 I need to decide to continue to look for this one or cut my losses and find another. Every minute I spent up in this wilderness looking for this campground was time lost finding another, if this was full. After several miles I reached a ‘T’ intersection and a sign pointed left to the campground – still no distance indicator. The pavement had run out too, so I decided to return to Hwy 6.

It was getting darker and colder and I streaked through the mountains. Once the sun had nearly set I realized that I had missed a turn. Huh? The GPS said “turn around” so I did, and three miles later, where there was supposed to be a Tie Fork road from here to Heber City (forty miles away), there was a shut down gas station and a narrow dirt road snaking it’s way up the mountainside. Tie Fork Road. Great. Screw that. I’ll take the long way around instead of riding 40 miles in the dark on unknown mountain roads. Adding more layers as it was getting down to the 60’s (and cleaning off the ever-increasing bugs on my helmet) I continued west on Hwy 6. Holiday Inn, here I come!

Sometime after dark I arrived in Provo, UT and guided myself to the closest Holiday Inn. Instead I get to Western Inn. Huh? GPS must be using old information. No matter, Western Inn would have been fine but don’t have the $55 military/Government rate like Holiday Inn so I’d be paying $90/night. No way, down the road, north on I-15, I go. Knowing that Holiday Inn Express has peanut butter, jelly and bread available all day, I know I won’t have to stop for dinner. They also have a decent continental breakfast, so that’s not a bad thing either. Holiday Inn has a full hot breakfast though, but Holiday Inn is $10-$15 more expensive than the Express and that can get a big breakfast anywhere else.

I did eventually find the next Holiday Inn, right next to a National 9 motel which advertised their rates as $43/night. But the HI looked a lot cleaner so I go in there. Unfortunately they only have smoker rooms available, at $70. I’ll sleep in a smoke HI room with full hot breakfast but not for $70 – maybe $45. But the manager wouldn’t deal with me so we called a couple locations further north to find out I’d have to travel another one hour to find a Holiday inn Express with a gov’t rate room available. I go across the street instead, and get a military discount so the cost with all taxes is $44. Plus they have continental breakfast with make-your-own-waffles! Woohoo! I get a room (more like a small apartment) on the second floor. The stairs near the room are broken so I have to lug my stuff the long way around. At least the room was clean and quiet, and the stove allowed me to whip up some oatmeal for dinner. Ah. Sleep.