Slept fitfully last night as the temp didn’t drop @ bed time. Crawled out of bed, made the bed & made it a Murphy bed, put stuff away, got dressed, then fixed bfast of Buckwheat pancakes & real maple syrup. Cleaned the kitchen up then made rig ready for stutter bump road out.

Drove into Grand Junction to check out 3 bike shops looking for a Deuter bladder and whatever. At Bicycle Outfitters downtown a Pugsley was on display. Hurkin bike w/ huge tires & no suspension as the tires provide the bounce. No bladder anywhere.

Drove out of the valley climbing 1,100′ to Butterknife trail head. Trail was made by dirtbikes but not many ride it as it is too technical for them but very enjoyable by us mtn bikers. Like 83 degrees under full sun. I rode more of the trail today than previous 2 times using confidence from Sedona and spinning. Entire ride all to myself. Loose broken rock on sand making for dicey controlled contact w/ the ground. 12.54 miles in just under 2 hours, climbed 1705′. I ride several trails when visiting Fruita / Grand Junction, this is one of them.

From the TH the Ribbon slab trails are visible. I rode this last summer. Need a shuttle to gain the road climb:

Yesterday I sat in the full sun for several chapters of Robinson Crusoe. This 24 hours later:

Yesterday I replaced the idler pulleys on my rear derailleur, the old pulleys were worn and worn to the exiting condition of the drive train. I rode a short distance testing the drive train. Seemed to work OK. Today on my ride the chain skipped on gears 4 down on both chain rings. What’s up w/ that? Finished ride using the smaller gears. Drove back into GJ and went to Bicycle Outfitters and challenged the young man to identify and fix the skip. He nailed it. Turned out the rear derailleur was adjusted to the worn old pulleys. He adjusted to the newer pulleys.

Plan for dinner is @ Hot Tomato in Fruita owned by Jen and Anne. Great to see them again. Fun pizza and New Belgium draft beer place. Anne is a photographer and every now and then I see her pics in Bike Mag who made the Hot Tomato  the official pizza place. Friends let friends eat hot pie.

Tomorrow is the Kokopelli trails between I-70 and the Colorado river. The river is flooding bottom lands along I-70. Rising waters just might close the interstate.

I lost my in to Squirt lube sponsorship as Larry has moved on.

Hot during the day, in the 80s which is better than Moab’s upper 90s.

Juniper gnat bites. Small flying insects buzz me, I do not know what a gnat looks like as I have never caught one biting me. Bites itch for days afterwards.

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.

And I have several juniper gnat bites.

Yesterday was a long day under the sun. My skin that is uncovered is well tanned, albeit a biker tan. The sun was intense enough to sunburn my tanned arms. No peeling, just darkening my skin and bleaching blond my arm hairs.

So today, my last day in Moab this go around I chose to ride Pipe Dream which is a trail right above the south end of town, hung on the steep mountainside. I had no idea what the trail would be like. The map showed a trail just noodling north to south.  It is up on the slope that gets the sun full on right from sunup. What a doozie. Lots of rock work to make the trail rideable but the tread was narrow an offered exposure. Required lots of attention and perseverance to ride. Trail went in & out of draws, dipped and climbed, broached ridge faces, and I baked from the cloudless sky w/ no wind and climbing temp. I was cooked physically and mentally from intense focus to keep the rubber on the trail. recommend the trail, just pick cooler temps.

I rode the highway back.

Reflection on trails built by mtn bikers for mtn bikers: The trails are well laid out and built for what we can pedal and turn and roll. The trails seem to be about the ride w/o a destination focus. Hiking trails we have been riding go to a destination, hence a ride here would be all about getting some place. If a trail is built we will ride it. I say that trails can be built on lands that have been scarred by resource extraction, and possibly land fills. Build a good enough trail and we will come.

Back into town. yesterday I hit a rock w/ the left side of my front wheel that let out a sharp sound one that i have never heard b4. I was concerned that I wowed my front wheel. I made yesterday’s ride OK and todays. I took it to Chile Pepper and asked for it to be checked in wheel truing stand. Steve said the wheel is fine. I added more Stan’s to my tires, first the Schraeder valve (car tire valve) and pumped it up w/ my floor pump. next was the presta valve rear tire. The pump head failed to direct the air from the Schraeder valve to the presto. Chile pepper gave me a replacement head. Great to discover and fix the problem while still in  a town.

Baking hot in town. I drove under some shade the ran errands. I needed replacement jockey pulleys for my rear derailleur as the are worn to points. Moab Cyclery gave me a junk derailleur that still has good pulleys. Walked to used book store to exchange the Grisham novel for something else. At the counter was a list of 100 books to be read. One was Robinson Crusoe and a used copy was right there. I am now reading it as getting lost literature. Editor note says he believes the story to be true.

Listened to the Mariners homestand on XM. They are playing great ball.

Drove up out of canyon seeking cooler temp. Found a camp spot on same road I have been out on but closer to hard road. Everytime driving in I have longed for this spot because of reduced desert road driving. Once I turned off the engine I heard the road noise that I didn’t hear when back in the 1.1 miles to my other spot.  This spot offered a bit of shade behind a regular sized cedar, not much.

Waiting for evening cool, @ 10:15PM it is 76 degrees.

Tomorrow is the short jaunt up the CO River to Fruita, CO. Same weather: Hot.

Drinking h2o from Matrimony springs that pours out from underneath rock just off the river highway.