Made Fruita yesterday from Moab. UT Rt 128 climbs along the Colorado river carved down thru the sand stone. Learned it is better to drive w/ the sun @ my back for back lighting of the rock. River is swollen from snow melt. Just outside Fruita the Interstate highway and the river almost meet. The shoulder of the East bound lane was a short raft carry from the river.
The city was busy jack hammering the concrete sidewalk in front of Over the Edge store front. Noise was hard on my ears. Ran an errand to the PO to pick up my forwarded mail that contained my new bank card. Good to go b4 expiration at end of June.
Lunch break for the jack hammer so I made my visit to the store. I met these guys last fall here and then again in Sedona. Hot Tomato is closed on Sun & Mon.
Forecast was for hot and strong winds. Decided to suffer the stuttered gravel 18 Road to drive up to camping area just below Book Cliffs. And my site was wind blown. Hot. Plan is to stay 2 nights riding on Tuesday and leaving Wed morn.
My fridge is not cooling as low as I think it should. I found a Norcold service shop in GJ and called them. They were busy and threw a bone to a mobile tech who used to work there. Called him. Worked out solution is a fan in the burner compartment to force blow air across the cooling fins. Standard fix to increase cooling efficiency. He will meet me in the parking lot of my Fri DR appointment. During the hot 90 degree days the fridge temp rises to 40 but during the cool evening it drops back to like 35.
Last night nightime cool caused me to pull the down blanket over me. Sweet sleeping from hot Moab.
I do have multiple juniper gnat bites that are flat out irritating.
This AM I relished the cool temps and leisure of knowing I was riding right from my camp. I created a ride plan to go down 3 routes and ride up the same Prime Cut. Trails are well buffed like the clay soil is packed and baked hard. A fun ride experience are the trails on the ridge spines, some drop all but straight down w/ a run out. Make the turn, drop in and ride out. compensate for cross winds. Had the trails to myself, just a few other riders but system is so expansive we never crossed paths.
Rode almost 3 hours for 21.69 miles w/ 2823′ climbed. Good grunters. I worked on spinning as my days as a masher are long gone. Bit slower & maybe can’t climb all the hills but I am making my body tackle the challenges. Advair and albuterol inhaler.
My solar shower is draped on the hood of my van full into the sun, my reward for sweaty ride is a solar shower. I sat in the sun for several chapters of Robinson Crusoe to heat up before evaporative heat loss during shower. I opened the driver’s door to create a 2 sided shower stall blocking a bit of the drying winds. Humidity was 8%. Got nicely painfully sunburned on the white skin.
Soloed my first PT-INR blood test. Called in the results: 2.2.
Just a few campers out here. Perhaps high temps are causing riders to seek cooler climes. Quiet the deal for people taking their vacation during the summer: it’s hot in the desert.
I started plotting the rest of my summer using Google maps and a calculator. $ spent on diesel is becoming a factor to be budgeted. Plan looks like hanging here till Sat AM then driving to near Price, UT, skip SLC, ride Twin Falls, ID that I tried riding last fall, perhaps a dash up to Sun Valley for a bunch of days, Boise maybe if not too hot, a short detour to McCall, then US 20 to central OR. I need to be in Oakridge, OR on July 10 to start helping at the Cream Puff race. Scot is down for my help. This year’s course is 3 laps of the full Alpine trail. Might ride North Umpqua trail that goes by Toketee RS where I spent summers of ’69 and ’70 working for the USFS. Historical gut smacker remembering my life as a 19 and 20 yo, back 42 years ago.
Life goes around in circles.