Last night sleeping up at 5712′ outside temp was sufficiently warmer such that the furnace could keep up with the heat loss from the van. I turned the furnace down which caused it to cycle on and off while keeping me toasty under down blanket. Get up inside temp is in the upper 50s, my new norm. Battery power remains high to power my needs albeit not driving for a day relying on solar gain which doesn’t seem to put as much charge into the batteries as if I would have driven every day.
Cold temps cleared the crowds making for open sleep spots and few riders to experience their trail love practice. I spent 2 nights up high just off Rodeo trail. One other camper was on the road.
Thursday I drove back into town for resupply. Clean clothes. made an appointment to have the van carpet cleaned. Unable to find an alteration person to size my new sheet. Called place I used in ST George who said they are still in for the work. I will mail my sheet to them and wait for return mail.
License tabs expire shortly, getting antsy with WA DOL processing my tabs in timely manner. Issue here is that the van still needs to pass an emission test but I am out of state. There is a process to follow which I have, waiting on the state.
Thursday I picked up Rodeo riding it to the intersection of Chisholm which I rode out to terminus at Big Lonely then turned around rejoining Rodeo for the finish. Beautiful day but still long underwear chilly. My nose hurts in the cold. 16 miles climbing less than 100’/mile. Still ain’t a cake walk: lots of blue challenges.
Friday I rode Bull Canyon to avoid the weekender shuttle riders. The trail is becoming nastier as the dirt erodes away raising the rocks. Diaz said that a properly tuned fork should leave about an inch of travel not used. Bull drops took the fork to that measurement. 22.2 miles pedaling for 3 hrs, climbed only 13xx’. Beautiful day, almost all by myself.
There are 4 oil pumping stations up here, no rigs any more.
Saturday I repeated the Rodeo / Chisholm loop. Learning slow speed bike handling skills on well behaved bike. Balance, being in a bigger gear to be able to muscle my way over something is better than sitting and spinning.
Wrap your head around the wide open sight lines here in the desert.
2 national parks are local: Arches, and Canyonlands, both dept of interior. Last month a decree was issued by the secretary to open the park roads to ATVs and allow E bikes on same trails pedal bikes enjoy. Local push back was sufficient to rescind the ATVs in the parks. The ebikes will take longer, at present ebikes are banned from pedal trails. Interesting tangled web legalizing ebikes will be as miles of existing trails were funded by non motorized contributors which includes volunteer hours. Trails I ride here in Moab are all on BLM land except for the whole Enchilada which is USFS. Last week 2 ebikers were riding on Big Lonely, they appeared to be fit, not the riders that the ebike proponents claim will enjoy being able to ride because they lack the physical ability. I yielded to them as they were climbing. They really scooted up that climb. I don’t plan on yielding to ebikers as they are illegal on present on these trails.
Furnace is cycling 100% of the time. Still, 14 degrees outside, only 47 inside. Tonight at 8 PM it is 39 degrees, inside at the ceiling it is 72 but that is not where my head is.
Today I drove back down to town to resupply, needed was water and propane. I drove back up to Willow Springs road picking same spot. Strong internet signal for writing this.
Day light savings is now waiting till March. Sun comes up earlier and goes down like 5:09.