Ride a day, rest a day, not my mantra but worked that way.
My winter destination is Sedona, AZ and I am working my way there, slowly. I am being chased south by snow and freeze thaw mud.
Yesterday I left Sand Flats XG for downtown Moab to do laundry etc. There is a new laundromat in the strip shopping center where GearHeads is located ( home of free filtered h2o) and across the street from City Market, the main grocery store in town. Very nice laundromat. Struck up a conversation w/ a woman. She gave me like a toy sheriff’s badge w/ “change agent” on it. Wow, heavy. She didn’t know it but i just finished Robert Reicht’s After Shock book. The last part I read was his proposal on restoring our economy. To me his proposals have merit, I can only vote for an elected official that will vote to implement them. i am mostly powerless. Few people are willing to understand the economic and psychological underpinnings to grasp why his proposals make sense. His premise is middle class wages have not kept pace w/ increases in productivity and are unable to consume what the economy produces. And a bunch more. Good read.
Filled my h2o jug @ store. later I learned that the filtered h2o just filters out the heavy metals. Lots of uranium mining around here.
Checked out Chili Pepper bike shop. I liked it the best of the Moab shops. Bought a pair of baggy shorts & Smart Wool knee warmers. Listened to a wrench talk about the new single track trails being built here. Moab has it’s share of illegally built trails, he said that some were built to meet a need to connect existing trails. Several have been legitimated. Trails here are shared by dirt bikes.
Learned about Matrimony spring outside of town from local health official. The spring is undeveloped now so the government has no liability to test h2o quality. He found gnats in the h2o telling him that the geological seal has been broken to allow bad stuff to enter spring . People still drink from it. I drank a bottle of it b4 talking w/ him.
Drove out of CO river canyon to Willow Springs road to a primitive campsite near the Sovereign TH. The road and the wash crossing were recently graded. I chose not to drive across the smooth wash for a camp up against a rock cliff. I camped here previously. I went for a bushbash hike up a cliff and in the desert for a ways then climbed back down and followed the wash back to the road. Beautiful day but as the afternoon wore on the temp dropped.
This AM it was 27 degrees and I had frost on the inside of the windshield. My catalytic infrared heater’s by products are CO2 and h2o vapor that freezes on below freezing surfaces. I sleep under a light down blanket, not a comforter weight, I double it over and wear a helmet cap. I saw my breath b4 I crawled out.
Today is to ride the Sovereign trail which is single track thru the desert. I waited for the sun to melt the frost and environment. I saw 44 degrees when i left. A new piece of trail has been added, Sand Wash, such that I rode out it and returned on the original Sovereign trail. Sand wash had many patches of sand albeit not a wash. desert single track is challenging because of it is narrow and the features it goes up, over, & down. I noticed an unwelcomed play in my fork, something is either loose or worn inside. I rode to the last connector trail to Sovereign and turned back home. I passed maybe 15 riders heading out in the warmer part of the day.
I forget the mineral that makes the rock blueish green
My plan now was to drive quickly back to Chili Pepper and see if shop could fix the fork. Made the shop. Wrench agreed to tear into it. I told him that PUSH when they tuned it last summer that the bushings moved and they reseated them. I called PUSH who talked to the wrench. PUSH concurred that it was bushing movement again. The shop does not ahve the tool to reseat them. Solution is to find a shop w/ the tool or send it back to PUSH. Things wear.
My plan is to drive the center part of the state to Hurricane and send the fork to PUSH. I still have my old fork and wheel from my old Spot so i would still have a ride. Too late to start driving and I was behind on internet stuff so i returned to Sand Flats XG for a $10 night for internet access and a quiet sleep spot. Brain jolt: call Kokopelli’s back in Cortez to see if they had tool. Cortez is just a little backwards of my route. No, they do not have tool. Suggested Durango which is a bit further east. Found a shop w/ the tool and per their web site their main wrench is a Rockshox whiz. Made an appointment for this Monday. I’ll ride Cortez Sat & Sun then hit Durango for several days.
No snow down low is forecast but teens & 20s @ night.