March 17, 2020
Ho Hum, Another Vista: Moab to Potash and Return
Ho Hum, another day riding through massive canyons on the Colorado River, with the sun shining and the world nearly devoid of cars because of the Covid-19. A tough duty to pull, but someone’s gotta do it.
First a little catch-up vignette from yesterday. This one is truly a bummer. In the breakfast area of the motel there have been a few obvious cyclists who, like us, decided to come to Moab even after the cancellation and ride on their own. You can tell they are from the two-wheeled tribe by their cycling themed T-shirts. After we came out of the hot tub and were walking down the hallway back to our room, we saw a husband and wife who were obviously bikers. She was on crutches with a bandage wrapped around her right calf. Uh-Oh. We said hello and asked what had happened. “I was taking a right hand turn at the stop lights and slid out on some loose gravel and sand.” As we offered our sympathy, she added, “Yep. Fractured pelvis. At least it happened doing what I love and not something stupid like laundry.” This was both humorous and horrible all at once. Think about it: You drive to Moab from God-Knows-Where USA only to find out the event is cancelled. But you decide to overcome that disappointment and ride it self-supported, virus be damned. Then you break your pelvis. Not fair. Oh man we felt so badly for her.
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For today’s ride we had only so-so expectations. We rode the same route the Festival would have offered as its last day had it not been cancelled. The route was close to town, out and back along a long, paved, dead end road that terminated at the massive potash plant. The ride publicity had mentioned only that this day’s ride would be a mellow and not-too-challenging ride after the three previous days which packed in some long distances and plenty of climbing. They didn’t quite present it as their Red Headed Step-Child, but it was most definitely seen as a quick final ride so everyone could pack their cars and get on the road for home.
Nope. Even this day was another eyeball popping wonder of beauty. Once out of town and on Route 279, we were almost immediately paralleling the Colorado River. Only this route had the river just to one hand, no more than 50 yards away, while there were sheer cliff faces directly on your other. Like, 200 foot high cliffs. A long section of the route had a multitude of rock climbers base camped right off the roadside, belayed and climbing some pretty impressive pitches. If there is anything in this world I am NOT built to do, physically or psychologically, it’s to be a climber. It boggles my mind people can do that. I’m a groundling, for sure.
The canyon formed by the river does some weird things to the wind. For many miles we would have a brisk tailwind, then come around a gentle bend with very little direction change only to then have a block headwind. This back and forth-ed both downriver and upriver on the return. At times we were just crushing it and other times bucking a head wind that made no sense.
The sign at the start of the road said “Potash 15 miles.” We assumed there might be a little town at that point but it was an actual potash mining plant. The road proceeded beyond it but was not maintained or well paved, so we looped back and had a great 35 mile ride.
Back at the motel we still had a big chunk of the day left, so Margaret negotiated a quick refuel for me and then we hopped in the car and returned to the same road we had just biked and hiked on a BLM trail. We were surely tempting fate when we hiked the Corona Arch trail! Yeah, the irony wasn’t lost on us ... I mean, would that go over anyone’s heads right now? It was another mind bendingly beautiful hike. We marveled at the fact that the location we hiked wasn’t a National Park or a State Park, or even a City Park. Nope. Just a random hike off the highway on a few acres of BLM land to a place that would have shamed several of the spots in Arches NP.
I know I had some other pithy observations to pass along today but holy moly I am tired after three days in the sun and wind, so we’ll leave it there in hopes that a good night’s sleep helps me change back into a writer instead of a reporter.
Thanks for reading!
Today's ride: 36 miles (58 km)
Total: 125 miles (201 km)
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