Quiet night @ Cortez airport. A flashing beacon swirled all night but I parked the back of my van towards it. Another 27 degree AM w/ the heater on high made getting out of bed tolerable.

Fixed bfast & cleaned up and waited for sun to warm up. Walked across the road to the airport to use restroom. Locked up tight. Drove back into town & visited the tourist bureau facility. received some info on Sand Canyon. Stopped @ Mr Smiley for another sticky bun. The owner’s wife waited on me, she knew about me. Sunday paper is published on Sat.

Drove out road G down McElmo canyon to Sand Canyon TH which is just a small piece of slick rock. 3 rigs were there. Geared up & rode away climbing right on slick rock, Navaho sandstone. Popular hiking & biking trail. Route was marked by cairns & a few signs for awhile. Rode past a small ruin:

Rock walls are dead straight and made up of lots of small rocks and held together w/ clay mud, I could see the finger prints left over. Soil is red clay looking like Sedona. Only ruins on trail that I saw.

My ride was touristy in that i spent time looking around until trail got back in and got more technical. Early on the land managers established a trail to go somewhere, then the mtn bikers built a loop that just was a ride. Ah, good desert tech riding. Towards the end the trail dropped into a wash apparently because I missed a turn off. I pushed my bike down wash until I hit a lateral which i followed as did old horse traffic. I found the trail at a point where it was signed Horse not recommended, shortly the trail dumped out on slick rock. Slick rock got its name because horses w/ steel shoes slip on it.

Back @ TH it was plugged. Good choice to have ridden early. Several riders came in at their ride completion. Chad came over to talk to me. He read the Bikemag article. He said he help develop the trails. several of his buddies work for Osprey packs based in Cortez. He told me where John Tomac lives which isn’t right off the road.

Drove back into town to the rec center for a shower. I had time on my hands as I wanted to arrive back @ airport parking lot just after dark so i stopped @ Main Street brewery. They amke their own beer, i enjoyed a Dopplebach. The owner onversed w/ me and bought me my beer. I watched 2 football games simultaneously.

Drove back to airport. Same rigs from last night are still here.

My breathing has not improved after 8 days of no vapor. Found a pulmonary disease doctor in ST George to see.

Tomorrow is Durango and fork repair. Tuesday is a ride w/ the Mary locals.

Forecast is still for clear skies and below freezing nights. Sundown is @ 5:07.

27 degrees outside, frost al over including inside of windshield,   but it was 68 degrees inside w/ heater on high. Ah, comfort.

I drove from Moab back to Cortez, CO on my way to Durango.  Today is a ride @ Phil’s World trails again. Made TH parking lot that was almost plugged. big Sprinter casts a big shadow. As i was getting geared up a young woman spoke w/ me. She and her  husband work for Western Spirit in Moab, Ashley’s company. She invited me to ride @ Durango. She was riding w/ 2 other women, another Mary who was vice president of IMBA w/ Ashley for a long while. They headed out, I dallied. The IMBA Mary is married to Travis Brown, a former Trek factory racer, a team mate of Sue Haywood from Shenandoah bicycle in Harrisonburg, VA. What a mountain bike world it is. I chatted w/ Travis for awhile, nice guy, then just had to get my ride in.

$3.00 trail fee. I rode for just under 2 hours smoking for me the trails. Trails are hard packed and just scream. A few tech features but mostly just pedal.

Landan from OTE in Fruita called telling me he has my warranty replacement Reverb. He cut the hose to meet my frame size and ascertained that it works as advertised. Good, I get a seat post that rise to the occasion. He is shipping it to OTE in Hurricane where I figure I will be next week.

I burn about 2.2 gallons of propane a day, of course it depends upon how I burn the heater. Time again to pay attention to keeping it filled.

I am off to Sand canyon SW of Cortez down near 4 corners for tomorrow’s ride.

Sorry Les, I skipped Porcupine. i just couldn’t get into the long road ride to and from.

Sundown is local  5:08PM, like right now.

Off to find a sleep spot in the dark.

Dave, i do have several pics that I might add later.

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.