Rifle-Meeker, CO: "There's no gravel on this road because it's too steep for the gravel to stick"

June 4, 2017

Meeker elevation 6,240 feet. High point for the day - 8,144 feet

Boy howdy, what a day! We agreed to meet at the Gateway for an 8 AM depart. Jacinto was not included in those plans. He always sleeps in and starts late. He likes to chase the rabbits (us), he says.

8:02 AM, I'm at the Gateway. The office didn't open for breakfast. Marty and Steve have gone to the store for breakfast. An Odwalla Protein drink is a good breakfast, right? It was like herding cats trying to get out the door and down the road. Finally we are at the point of no return. Steve and Joe have decided to take the paved road the entire distance. We say our goodbyes.

This is the mileage, exiting town, for those of the group who stayed on the paved road.

I remind Jorge and Marty a couple of times that I am a slow rider and have no expectations at all of riding together. I ride alone 99% of the time anyway, I'm good. We ended up staying together all day long. Partly I think because we were so very remote, we didn't want to leave anyone behind. Once we got past the golf course and Rifle Gap, traffic dropped off to nothing.

Be warned, those who choose the back road!

Marty and Jorge on the dirt road. It is looking good here and we are happy.

I was slightly ahead when an old Toyota pickup pulled next to me. A friendly fellow with a countable number of teeth and a dog by his side asked me if I knew what was ahead. "There's a big climb to the reservoir and another big climb to 13". I think my reply threw him slightly - I asked if they were big enough climbs to make my dinner taste good.

As he passed Jorge he yelled out the window, "I hope you took your heart medicine today!".

The sun was shining and the day was warming up. We were moving quite slowly on a gradual uphill on dirt. At one point I looked at my average speed for the day and it said 4.5 mph. I tried not to look at that function again. We made a few short stops, but mostly kept moving. Harris Reservoir was a nice photo opportunity.

We knew that mile 20 from town was decision time. At that point we could take a left on Road 253, Pieance Creek Road, and 3.9 miles later we would be on Highway 13 - a paved downhill cruise all the way to Meeker. Now, why would we want to go downhill when we could stay on the dirt and get in 700 more feet of climbing with three distinct peaks? That would be no fun at all.

Marty and his full suspension HP Velotec Scorpion.

Attention should be paid to the fine print. We had a choice at this point of taking a left on a connector road back to Highway 13. No, we did not read the sign twice, but blithely decided to continue on Road 352.

There was a giant climb up to the intersection of 252 and 253. I said it was a good thing that there wasn't any gravel because we wouldn't have traction. That was where Jorge made the comment about the gravel rolling off because of the steep road. Did that giant climb make us think twice? Perhaps we all did, silently. But no one spoke up and I ventured that I sure would like to ride all of the dirt. I said they were welcome to choose the road they wanted. I think Marty and Jorge didn't want to leave me out there all alone. At that point (4.5 mph, remember) we had been on the road quite a while and seen only the friendly fellow and a giant dually pick up. Two vehicles in all that time. If we needed rescued, it would be a long time coming.

On we continued, past the travel at your own risk sign. The road surface stayed good just long enough for us to be really committed to finishing on the dirt.

We reached the first top, but realized it was the first top. It was a nice stand of aspen and we still felt optimistic. Ha. What innocent babes we were. We had a little up and I thought to myself that it counted as number two. We saw a giant, giant climb across the way. Shit. That's us. It's not a side ranch road (we've seen a couple of those). It's us. But I was hoping it was number three, because the elevation at the top was correct -8,100 feet. Nope, that was only number two. The surface just got worse.

We saw a nice elk herd of 25-30 on Big Mountain Ranch property. They didn't quite know what to make of us.

I love a nice stand of Aspen. We are at about 7,500 feet at this point.

Holy moly, that is a big climb! Jorge and Marty are little dots on the road.

Lots of giant fist size rocks appeared all the way across the road. They were so big and so thick that I walked both uphill and downhill. Let me say - it is an insult to have to walk downhill. The guys were still talking to me in a friendly tone. I did mention we could go back, but we were past the point of no return. Once we made it to the third top, it would be 18 miles of downhill. I just hoped we didn't have to walk the entire distance. I spent a short amount of time trying to decide how far we might have to walk, but that was depressing.

The giant fist size gravel continued to the Rio Blanco County line. The the road surface immediately changed to hard packed with giant ruts. Jorge and I were happy, we could ride on the hard pack. Marty had more trouble with his trike, trying to pick a line. But now we were picking up speed. 11 mph seemed like warp speed. Wow! At this rate we would be to town in 1.5 hours. I tried to get Jorge to bet me a beer than Jacinto would already be to town. He had wisely decided in advance that he was taking the Pieance Creek connector road. Jorge declined the bet.

The lower we rode, the better the surface got. Once we passed the mine (what do they mine?) - then the road surface was hard packed and smooth with a very little pea size gravel. Just before the mine they were plowing up giant swaths of land. Acres and acres. Marty thought they already had the irrigation in place as we saw small enclosed areas at regular intervals. He thought that would be the sprinklers. We weren't sure.

I ventured the opinion that we would be to town too late for lunch, arriving around 4 PM. How about we just clean up and have an early dinner right after? That sounded excellent and we pedaled even faster. at mile 35.76 the pavement came back, with yellow lines! Civilization is just around the corner. I spent some time thinking about riding the Great Divide and Prudhoe Bay. My hat is off to people who ride these surfaces all the time. As much as I enjoyed the lack of traffic (we saw one Jeep on the rocky section, making three vehicles all of the dirt piece) - I'm going to be happy to be on pavement tomorrow. Jacinto assures us the road to Maybell is equally deserted and it's paved.

Our motel is right in the center of town, The Elk Mountain Inn. We have a very nice, large two bed room with a little kitchen. #100. $80 for two beds, $70 for one.

All is good. Steve and Joe were long in and showered. They had a real lunch instead of bars. They would go to dinner as soon as we showered. But Jacinto wasn't in? What? How strange. I wonder what time he left. No matter. He will be right along. I will get my shower. First we had to call the owner and wait for her to check us in. She lives three blocks away and showed up driving a golf cart with her Aussie dog at her side.

A shower and ice. Those were the two things on my mind as I opened the door to the room and moved my bike in. Wait! What is this? All the sudden one side of my bicycle seat is floppy. Oh no! Riding a recumbent, especially a long recumbent, to move it around I grab both sides of the top of the seat and put my hip into it to move the bike over to park. I've seen any number of recumbent rides make the same move.

This is the same seat that I just mailed the entire seat back to RANS to have it looked over. They had discussed repairing the seat fabric, but instead installed a new fabric and sent it back. I didn't believe it was damaged during shipment - the box looked fine. Was the fabric pulled too tight at the top? Surely that wouldn't break the aluminum frame.

Hell. I decided ice water and a shower was what I needed. As I finished, Jacinto came in the door. The last thing on his mind was the possibility that my bike might be broken. My good friend Shelly had sent me a text this morning saying to have fun and call her if I had a problem. She was quite surprised when I called! She was just on the edge of pouring a nice glass of wine to top off her weekend. Driving to Meeker wasn't on her list of fun Sunday evening things to do - but she and Fred kindly went to my house and pulled the seat off of my go fast bike. What is the chances someone would have two identical seats to swap out? Plus having the seat break so close to home . . . . if I have to have bad luck, this is best kind of bad luck.

We ended up going for dinner at the cafe attached to the motel, so we could wait for Shelly and Fred. I offered to buy them dinner, but they had eaten. They were to the wine part of their evening, remember?

Dinner choices were lack luster, in my opinion, but my mind was on the bike. I ordered a steak salad and TWO side orders of fries by the time the meal was finished. It took five minutes to accept my seat delivery and install the seat. Shelly took the old one back with her, that slowed her down a bit, but I pointed out I had no way to carry it.

We walked to Clark's for an ice cream to cap the evening off - but they were closed already! Maybe short hours because it was Sunday? Heck. Steve bought a pint of ice cream at the convenience store. I bought a V-8 - that's better for me than ice cream anyway. Joe disappeared to watch basketball.

There was negotiation over dinner about depart time in the morning. We have an easy PAVED day tomorrow. 45 miles with 1,500 feet of climbing. The only reason to leave early is to beat the heat. Maybell certainly doesn't have much to offer for entertainment. Steve ventured that if they have a bench in the shade, he was good until our rooms were ready.

So - I have a new seat, the bike is hopefully good to go. I'm very late cleaning the chain tonight, but it certainly needs cleaned.

Here's wishing for a boring day tomorrow. Today was very memorable. I'm glad we took the dirt the entire distance. Now I know what's there. Lots of scenery, no traffic, and big rocks!

Almost to Meeker on Road 13, we saw a big herd of bulls. No cows, so they were getting along.

The pavement returns! It has a center line. We were at mile 35.76 from Rifle.

Shelly and Fred to the rescue. The new seat is installed and this is the old one to go home. How lucky and I that we were close to home, I had another seat, and Shelly delayed her evening glass of wine to help me out?

Elk Mountain was a great place to stay. I recommend spacious room 100. Their attached cafe was very lack luster. Steve and Joe ate at the Meeker Cafe for lunch and gave it two thumbs up.

Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 43 miles (69 km)

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