Green River - Moab, Utah - I've never been so ill prepared or so determined to tour

June 25, 2019

Green River - Moab, Utah

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Elevation gain 1,672. Elevation loss 1,674.

I am surprised Oren didn’t leave at sunrise today. His wife and granddaughter are flying in to Grand Junction. Oren will be bicycling record speeds to Moab, loading up his bike and driving to Junction to see them. I told him he would get a longer welcoming kiss if he showered in our motel room before leaving Moab. Nothing doing! He’s ready to see Carol, stinky or not.

It will be a southern headwind today. The early cyclist will fight it the least. Jacinto is still snoring.

We have a couple of questionable roads this morning. Stand by.

It was 60 degrees when we left town with the sun hiding behind the clouds. Good. I hope it stays there all day and doesn't roast me. Oren had on his coat, as usual. Traffic was light through town. I was pedaling strong. I couldn't believe that it was our last day already. This is our ninth riding day in a row. You haven't heard me whine in a long time, have you? I want to say I'm getting stronger, but the route is getting easier. We have been able to increase the daily mileages now that the insane climbing is finished.

The first hour was wonderful. We were on another of those abandoned roads, Highway 50. The road surface was questionable, but we had the entire road to ourselves, so rode on whatever side we liked. We saw three antelope. The road was mostly level. Oren pulled away from me on the slight climbs. I stopped for a few photos and fell behind. We are talking a really abandoned road. Then, what did I spy, but a handful of change. ? ? ? What's with this? How in the world? Of course I had to stop and pick up every coin, even the pennies.

Then at 8:15 (I looked), it was like someone flipped a switch and we had a strong headwind. What the heck. All the sudden I was looking in the distance at the interstate, wishing I were riding over there so the draft from the cars could help pull me along. The memory of my enjoyable first hour was gone. I was doing the mental math on how long it would take to get to town and how much worse the wind would get.

Oren was very much in favor of taking the second dirt piece. Our instructions were to cross the interstate, travel .3 miles on Ruby Road, and then we had eight miles of dirt. The satellite feature on RWGPS didn't zoom in quite as much as I would like. But I could see greenery growing in the middle of the road. This wasn't advertised as an abandoned road, it was just a dirt road. I thought it looked sandy. I don't do sand. Hard packed dirt is fine. I was skeptical before the day started, now that the wind was blowing, I was less than interested. I could imagine the grit in my eyes . . . . plus I was thinking longingly of the interstate traffic blocking the wind.

Oren wanted to at least go look at the road. Ruby Road looped down and around. We could see our intended road in the distance. Naw, I don't want to fight eight miles of windy sand. Remember, Oren was on a mission to see Carol today. I pointed out that even though we would travel more miles taking the interstate, I bet it would be faster traveling. He agreed. Off we went. It's a laugh when I don't want the drivers to be polite and move over. Our shoulder was plenty wide. Cars in the closest travel lane weren't too close - I wanted their draft to help us out. I just mapped it out on RWGPS. It was 12.1 miles/370 feet of climbing from where we got on the interstate to where the dirt road came back in. The dirt road was 8.7 miles/290 feet of climbing. So, we rode an extra 3 miles. Jacinto took the dirt road. I'll give you the report later. I could see him on Strava.

I was happy to arrive at Crescent Junction. I told Oren I hadn't planned on any services for the day and didn't need any. But I would have a little break. He is always stingy with breaks and today I know he has a mission. I tried to keep it short. I mentally prepared myself for the traffic when we made the turn onto 191. That's the same road we had taken out of Moab on a Sunday that was wall to wall traffic. You know what? It wasn't bad. We had enough of a shoulder. It had the dreaded rumble strip, but there was room enough to the right to ride. There was certainly enough traffic that we didn't consider riding to the left of the rumble strip, so we were on the rougher pavement, but I was happy the traffic was fairly light going our direction. We had semis though, for the first time in days. Quite a few doubles. With the cross wind and the velocity of the semis passing, there was more than one time that it felt like I had a giant push of air on my back. Definitely I kept two hands on the bars in this area.

Oren stopped at the point the dirt road came in. Somewhere in that five miles, we lost the wind. It was gone. We were both happy. The sign at the turn had said 31 miles to Moab. No wind, not such bad traffic, an adequate shoulder. Maybe this day will be fine after all. I knew there was a bike path about half way. I was looking forward to riding it. Guess what? Oren said the roadway had less climbing and we should stay on the road. I was confused. It all looked about the same to me. Certainly over by Saint George, that bike path had lots of extra climbing . . . Oren said we would get on the path later. Around the corner, he gets on. I think he took pity on me. I was still confused, but at least happy. It's ok sharing the road with traffic, but being traffic free is quieter and I look around more.

It was getting close to noon. I was surprised to see several cyclists out in the heat. Me? I'd be riding in the morning. We had about a mile of level riding, then the path took a big dip down. Down, down. Moab must sit in a pit. We had to ride our way out on our first day, now we get the payback of the downhill. The cyclists we saw going the other direction in this area didn't look quite as happy. Tomorrow I believe Jacinto's plan is to ride the La Sal Loop - 62 miles, 5,700 feet of climbing. It has been freshly paved and is supposed to have amazing views. I lobbied hard for an extra day to ride it. But I really wanted two extra days, because I'd need a rest day before all of that climbing. Jacinto doesn't think the rest day is necessary, we are used to climbing now, just go for it. I believe the plan is that he will ride the loop and I will do something. I was thinking to ride out to Castle Valley and back - 40 miles. But I had not considered this big climb out of Moab - I was thinking a nice bike path cruise . . . but there's no cruising around here since Moab is in a depression. Let's see what I end up doing. My legs feel very strong. That's easy to say with three days with not so much climbing.

As we pulled into town we saw Poison Spider Bikes on the right. I needed new brake pads. I wore the brand new pads out in that ten mile descent in the hail from Cedar Breaks to Brain Head. No kidding. Oren adjusted them for me, but I could see the pads wouldn't be good for Canada. I pulled in. Oren said there was no way they would do my brakes right now and he wanted to keep moving. I told him we'd see him tomorrow when he got back to Moab with the girls.

I went inside and asked if I could get new brake pads on my bike, they said to wheel it in. No comment about it being a recumbent. The counter guy said it would be ready tomorrow. Oh . . I said, I'm riding this is my transportation. Silence. OK, he replies, how about a half hour? Yes! That's very nice, thank you so much. Shall I take off my panniers. No, don't bother. I sat outside in the shade and edited my photos. The guy quickly came out with my bike for a test ride. He had a bit of trouble getting going. He said it takes a running start with this bike! $52. and a $6. tip later, I was down the road.

My phone said 90 degrees, I was feeling a bit warm. And hungry. You knew I'd be hungry, right? But Oren's not here to have lunch with. He's long gone. I wonder if he's driving with the windows down to let the cyclist smell out?

This all feels anti climatic and a strange finish to the trip, with Oren leaving so suddenly. We didn't say goodbye or anything. Potentially we will have dinner together tomorrow.

I checked Jacinto on Strava. He was on the dirt piece. Good for him - I hope he took lots of photos.

I got to the motel and checked in. Our van is out back. I didn't go start it or anything. I don't want to admit we have wheels. I'd still rather be pedaling. I'm sure tonight when we go to dinner, I will be happy to drive.

Confessions - I haven't washed my off the bike clothes the entire trip . . .also, I am eating my emergency peanut M&M's. It's not really an emergency. I'm just hungry, waiting for Jacinto. I sure hope we don't wait until 5 PM for dinner tonight!

Later - We went to eat at 4 PM. It completely threw Jacinto off and I'm not sure he will recover. We got back to the room at 5:22 and he's still talking about how we ate dinner at the wrong time. He wanted a Chinese buffet and there wasn't one. The Chinese restaurants didn't have good reviews. I ended up voting for a Quesadilla truck parked down at the food truck park. I thought it was excellent and Jacinto was still pouting about eating at the wrong time and not getting Chinese. They had water lines strung up all over with mist coming down. It wasn't too hot, although the van said 98 degrees. Yes, I was happy to drive to go eat . . . we've been to the grocery and bought drinks for tomorrow and ice cream to share later tonight.

I'm going to look at the routes for the Moab Skinny Tire Festival and see if there's something that looks good for me tomorrow. Jacinto says just take the bags off of the bike and I will be good to go on the La Sal Loop.

BTW, he was firm in his opinion that the second dirt road was much better condition that the abandoned Highway 50. How about that? He had a headwind all day, but it didn't seem to bother him. Jacinto stopped at the same bike shop and got a new chain on his bike. He carries a chain checker and the chain was completely worn out. This is the chain he bought in Frisco last summer. It's lasted a year.

Oren rushed to Grand Junction and the girls were so tired from their early flight and winery visits that they are both sound asleep . . . .

We could hear this train coming from a long way off.

We were on the abandoned road, way out in the middle of nowhere, and there is a handful of change on the side of the road. It was so strange. Oren didn't stop - but I sure did. Note that the dark colored penny at the top is a wheat back penny. 1954!

Here's an example of the road surface on abandoned Highway 50. The gray colored pavement was smooth. The brownish color was very rough. We worked both sides of the road, trying to stay on the smoothest sections.

Scenery of the day. I've driven this area many times and always thought it quite boring. The interest level goes way up on a bicycle.

Oren at the top of the climb. Waiting for me. A typical situation.

This is the far end of the road that we did not take. Jacinto did. Stand by for details. I had had enough slow speed weaving from one side of the road to the other. I just wanted to get down the road before the wind got worse.

Jacinto's photo of the dirt road. He said it was better condition overall than the 'paved' abandoned piece of Highway 50.

Today's ride: 53 miles (85 km)
Total: 1,007 miles (1,621 km)

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