Wow, what a birthday ride, big views, rain, mud, more views, lots of deer & elk, a coyote that I swear was ½ wolf, did I mention the views!
Will blog up a bit in the next day or so with pics etc etc but here is the short short:
a) Good Day
b) Bad Day
c) Mostly Good/Last Day
And here are some, well lots of, details:
Section 1, Smooth sailing to Dewey Bridge (met Mark, headed the other way just before I reached the bridge). However my Dewey Bridge ‘shade, snack & rest’ stop either didn’t provide enough rest or the burrito was spoiled cause I was sick and puking a few hours later at Rose Garden, pushed on to Hideout Canyon for a nice camp with lots of fresh spring water. Filtered up some water and crashed right away, expecting to be recovered and ready to eat & push on in a few hours.
Section 2, Woke up thirsty but not hungry, not hungry ?? what?? From prior experience I was expecting/planning on waking up to a ravenous appetite, fully prepared to cook up & chow down 500 + cals and get on up & over to Bed Rock by 6:00pm. But I could not eat anything, not even a single sport bean, heck not a single Frito chip. Right then I knew my ‘4.5 day’ loop was basically kaput.
No cals equals no energy so….. Struggled slowly slowly up the trail, walking even the slightest climb, oh and this section is all ‘climb’. On & on through the long sorry wet miserable, irritating, lousy, frustrating raining blasted day, all while endlessly planning and re-planning my ‘bail out’ options. And hey, just why am I out here in the middle of nowhere anyway, I could learn to play golf or something.
However, it was not a total waste of a day as I did get to see Scott, Chad headed the other way, paying in the mud, silly boys. Scott was worried about a non-working GPS. Chad had lost his GPS. And I think sort of funny, but when my camera came out he was suddenly worried if he had as much mud on his face as Scott’s. (imo they both looked like drowning rats, happy rats, but still all wet and soggy) Dave passed by a bit later, the mud was mostly gone by then and he looked fresh, poised & ready to hammer on. And so he did.
Me, I was caked in mud but almost feeling better, & glad I had not used bail option 1 and turned to Moab, even knowing with my allotted time I was going to have to bail somewhere. Cruised on down to Buckeye Reservoir for a nice wash up and early camp. Perfect camp spot, there were campers camping, fishermen fishing in little boats, little kids with big mean dogs exploring the shore line, all suspiciously watching me wash up in the lake.
Section 3, Slept till bout 5:00am so as to not get to Bedrock before they opened, arrived there at 7:30, iced up the bladder and had my ice cream bar. Was actually feeling good again, in fact I was great by Uravan and middle ringed it up and over to Tabeguache Creek. But shouldn’t have done so much ‘faux SS’ as I blew up my right knee, or maybe it was all that clip/unclip in the mud the day before, anyway minor to almost major ouch .
End Game: Pushed on up to Pinto Mesa, 203 miles of the Grand Loop to this point and time to bail off the trail. Down to Delta-Nucla road. Started up the D/N rode up towards Columbine Pass. 9 miles from the top a nice older couple, out sight seeing for bear & elk, took pity on one tired, dirty, stinky, limping bike rider and gave me a quick ride in their pick-up to the pass. (Oh and I saw Mark headed the other way, he was bailing to Nucla). The sign at the pass read “Delta 33 Miles”. So, with almost all down hill, lights blazing full blast down down down I goes---stopped at a car wash in Delta to wash off the dried caked on mud & laid my tired head down on a soft hotel pillow at exactly 12:47pm.
Pretty good BD ride imo
