Friday morning early wake up in anticipation of having a working fridge installed in my van. The fridge is at the shop and I talked service into my appointment 1 hour after they opened to allow for my travel time. I left Steve’s in the dark and doing an Irish good bye of not even waiting for him to see me off. Driving at night was different as I usually get to where I want to be before dark. OH, sun is shining shorter hours. Arrived at dealer just after they opened. Greeted service manager and complimented the parts guy on his scoring the fridge. Service drove my van inside, I emptied the contents of fridge and they shooed me to the waiting room. I didn’t pay attention to the time for how long I waited, I had not really settled into crushing the chair’s cushion before I was summoned to pay up. New fridge refrigerated very quickly. Thanked them all and paid up.
Service was so fast I was not prepared for my travel plan. Weather forecasts for between here and Fruita were not favorable to either riding or driving. I bailed on Pocatello and Vernal and the lesser traveled 2 lanes. My plan became very simple: get on the interstates and head SE. Interstate driving at less than posted speed limit. Windy requiring constant micro tab adjustments kept me in the slow lane. Sheesh: I-l5 down Utah front range with whole megalopolis of Salt lake City. Four lanes wide and they are still adding on. Seemed like it. Just lots of traffic. Too many people crammed into same space. My right cheek was barking from pressing the go fast pedal and my left shoulder hurt from doing more work than the right. Left interstate on RT 6 over Soldier Summit, down to Price, and up and away. In previous trips I have spent the night at a side road back off the highway, I just needed for memory recall to locate it. Opps, I passed it, I u-turned then turned on the road. Drove back to a level site. Desert is just parched, cattle grazing earlier in season, now what is there is stiff and brown. I was about 2 hours from Hawkeye trailhead outside of Fruita.
Sat I budgeted my time to arrive for my ride on Hawkeye when the sun had warmed things up. Refueled in Green River, UT, 25.6 mpg on interstate. Hawkeye TH is at the Mack exit way on the western edge of CO. Upon arrival there were just a few open parking slots in the small lot. Didn’t expect the trail to be crowded based on quantity of rigs. I changed into riding clothes, inside my van I was chilly and I assumed outside would be the same. I watched several riders ride by wearing summer coverage. I wore my lightweight wool jersey but decided I did not need more. I stepped outside, it was like hot. My jersey was more than sufficient.
Hawkeye is maybe 3 years old and was built by a pro trail building company. Very well laid out and built. I have ridden this trail and loop since then. Trail gets after it right from the parking lot. Whoa: there are embedded rocks in the trail. WTF? Oh, that’s the way they do it here. Mentally I was calibrating reflexes and muscle responses to this difference from the 25 rides on Idaho trails. My engine looses people power every year. I lack the punch power to make some of the roll ups, the same for others as I saw mostly clipless shoe tracks. Made it to the top and stopped at the junction of Mack Ridge downhill. 2 riders were resting, one on a hard tail. He saw my bike and said that that was his bike only had sold the one he had because he needed the $ and bought the hard tail. We all down climbed the start like I always do, it is beyond even the yellow color rating. Below that the trail has so many features better letting gravity pulling me over than fighting an uphill. I watched the hard tail guy bounce along which helped me go faster as if he could do it my more capable squish bike could handle it. After following Steve on his 29er I have been taking more aggressive lines which abuse my bike more but is doable and faster. The 2 guys were going to ride my same route. I could not keep up with them once we turned on Lions to climb. However, I did pass them as they had stopped for pics or catchup. Quite a few tight rock choked sections required walking. Once past the trail dumped onto an eroded jeep track. I pedaled all the climbs except for the steep rock problems. I even pedaled nonstop the road climb up to top on Mack ridge. Impressive for me.
Then over to upper end of Hawkeye for the descent to TH. I rolled the stepups going down. Finished. I put effort into the ride just continually pushing myself riding almost non stop for 1 hr 46 mins climbing 1335′ in 11.9 miles. Last May and October I rode this same loop for almost the same time and heart rate. Today was 4 mins faster. I don’t set out to go faster than previous times, I seem to ride with same verve. For me it is satisfying that my times are not getting slower as I am staying even with aging.
75 degrees at van. No trees or water. Welcome to next maybe 5 months of desert riding.
Back at the van I soft pedaled cool down and noticed grinding on the bike somewhere, I thought I narrowed it down to fork internals issue. Bike requires healing hands. Drove into Fruita downtown to Over the Edge, the original shop. Masks required but no max group size. I stated my case, bring the bike in. Introduced to for me a new wrench who drew my repair. He rode it while checking it out. He said it’s more likely gritty pivots. I left it in the shop’s care. The bike will now be inside and out of the forecasted rain and snow over the next 2 days. The side street going north was closed off to vehicular traffic converted to outside dining and drinking for Hot Tomato and brew pub across the street. Counter service at the Tomato. Bought beans from their coffee roaster.
Bought groceries for 2 days and filled sink water tank then drove out to Loma exit and drove north past Highline SP to a spot another road lifer shared with me. BLM land. Spent many visits here as it is the closest to town primitive camping. Access is all weather gravel road, my spot is on a spur about 30 feet from firm dirt. Forecast calls for possible rain, dropping to teens temp and 1 to 3″ of snow overnight into tomorrow. I plan on staying here all day today and possibly tomorrow to wait out the forecast. Reality is now rain and dropping temps. At wake up it was 52, it is now 37 degrees at 2:30. Furnace is running. Clouds are blocking solar gain. First rain in many months.
Bought Grisham’s new novel: A Time for Mercy, 464 pages of small print. I am occupied while waiting out the weather.
Shop called, the wrench cleaned pivots which eliminated the grinding. Nothing serious. Bike is out of the weather.
Forecast calls for increasing temps during the week, back up in 60s at weekend. However, there are nights below freezing, tonight is 15 and Monday drops to 9 degrees. Dunno if conditions will create freeze thaw mud.
Close to snug as a bug in a rug.
Back to reading.
It’s now snowing hard blowing from the north, 33 degrees at 3 PM. No solar gain.
I parked the van with the nose pointing south, the 33 mph gusts came from the north, my furnace is mounted underneath my van behind the rear axle. An intake and exhaust hoses extend downward. The wind was so strong it blew snow into the intake hose sniffing the furnace out. Threw 4 flashing lights indicating suffocation
Just way too nasty to go outside and crawl underneath to clear the hose. I turned to my original source of warmth: the catalytic infrared heater which pleased me by igniting right away. I have heat albeit with production of water vapor and consumption of oxygen. I am exposed to the wind so when I crack a door window for ventilation that 22 degree air is blasted inside. Just a little crack. This heater uses no battery power which is good. Snow is on the ground but not deep enough to drive out. Tomorrow I plan on driving into town seeking a truck garage that will allow me inside for a few minutes for me to clear the hose. Windows and doors are partially frozen shut. I lifted the wiper blades from the windshield to keep them from freezing to windshield. Just nasty outside now past sundown. I did switch to my winter weight wool sweater and I ain’t toasty inside.