Trans America Trail - 2008
Day 10 – from Lake City, Colorado to Moab, Utah.
Miles: 246 (road
distance as per GPS)
Hotel: Super8
Maps:
Utah
Complete – KML (Google Earth)
Utah
– Part 1 – KML (Google Earth)
Utah
– Part 2 – KML (Google Earth)
Utah
– Part 3 – KML (Google Earth)
Utah
– Part 4 – KML (Google Earth)
Utah
– Part 5 – KML (Google Earth)
Utah
– Part 6 – KML (Google Earth)
Commentary:
Started
off real early as I was concerned that the passes in this area would be closed
with snow. The first pass was called ‘
An avalanche had
occurred here at some point in the winter and the trees had been pushed flat.
Looking across the road some of the larger trees had been snapped off and some
of the bark had been stripped off them. All the snow had ended up in a pile and
was still there in the gorge as the sunlight didn’t stay in that area for too
long.
I got near the
top of the pass and started struggling with the bike. It was heavy, running
poorly due to the altitude and slipping and spinning up (Death-wing tyres…) on
the rocks at this point. I shouldn’t have bothered though as the pass was
closed up to the right of this. The bulldozer that was there didn’t seem to
have seen too much action for quite a while. I headed back to
On the way back
I saw
Anyway, I was
again faced with a bit of a detour. This was a pity as I’m sure the
As I was coming
up to Blue Mesa lake I swung around a corner and was
met by a road full of long horn cattle. Not being sure what the protocol was
when faced with a few thousand head of cattle I decided to pull of the road
next to the lake and relax with some trail mix and a soda. The cattle came by
slowly but surely, and after about half an hour (!) the cowboys followed up.
This must have been some sort of drive, not sure where they were going to
though.
I got onto US50 and
had a great ride next to the reservoir and up into some high back country (La
Sal). I eventually came down to the town of
I got onto I-70
and it was cooking! I was riding (again) into 30-40 mph head winds that were so
nasty it felt like a giant blast furnace. Not a nice ride. Eventually got
through to the 191 and headed south to
As I was sitting
in Denny’s having a burger I decided to call Fred to check what time I should
come in the next day. It was 18h00 at that point so I was wondering whether he
would still be in. He was, and said I could come around then and we could
start! I packed up the bike and headed south to his shop. Fred is in the
accessories business and had a nice air-con workshop/showroom/office. When I
got there he showed me a selection of tyres and I decided to take a set of
Continental Twinduros. They seemed a better
compromise between dirt and road; the D606’s were far more off road oriented.
Fred also had an oil filter (and oil) do we got the
bike up on a stand and he set to work on the tyres while I did the oil change.
After we finished I had a look at some of the Wolfman
luggage he had. This stuff is built for offroad bikes
and is excellent. I bought a tank bag off him which can be seen in the pics from now on. This gem had an extending top, heavy duty
zips, a map case on top and attached to the bike in a simple but clever manner.
Fred was very
helpful indeed, and it’s the little things that count – when he was changing
the tyres he checked all the spokes on both wheels; he asked me about what
pressure I wanted in each tyre and put the chain on at the correct tension; he
adjusted the rear shock so that the bike handled much better. He helped me fit
the tank bag properly. All these things matter when you’re on the road with no
place to service the bike, there are a lot of big dealerships that would not
have been so helpful – thanks Fred.
I finished at
Arrow head at about 20h00 and headed back to the Super8. The bike felt much
better on the new tyres and the adjusted suspension.
When I got back
to the motel there was a load of ‘rock-crawlers’ in the parking lot. Jeeps with high suspension and BIG tyres. I think this was a
popular past time in
Journal Quote:
Started today in
Got into