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Trans Americas 2009 - The Blog
The Just One More Mile story of Paul's Trans Americas 2009 motorcycle expedition.Friday, 21 August 2009
Yeah, though I camp in the Valley of the Gods...
Even without Jim I managed to wake early, getting up around 6.15am and loading the bike with the usual gear plus the tent and sleeping mat I've borrowed from the van. Filled my Camelbak with ice from the machine in the office, grabbed some cereal and coffee and checked out, hitting the road just after 7.25am Heading south from Moab, my first detour was to Needles Overlook, which looks over (surprisingly!) another portion of canyonlands south from both Grand View Point and Dead Horse Point, where the canyon floor is littered with spires of all sizes, hence the name, Needles. The photos don't do it justice, so I'll save them for the Gallery (when I finally get time to sort through them all, probably whilst the bikes are being serviced in Tuscon). It was all very peaceful this early in the morning, as I was there all alone, and simply stood in the early morning sunshine for a long while, taking in the view, the canyons covering the entire horizon, with nothing to interrupt the view... a great start to the day...
From Needles, I rode on to rejoin the route the others would be following from Mesa Verde, joining it just south of Blanding having stopped at a supermarket and bought a cold coffee drink and some more snacks. Once I'd found the “Trail of the Ancients”, highway 95 to Bridges National Monument. This is another national park, and contains 3 rock bridges (Sipapu, Kachina and Owachomo) formed by the meandering streams eroding the rocks, leaving the natural bridges in place. They might look like arches, but these are bridges, the difference being arches are formed by rain and wind eroding the rock, bridges being formed by flowing water... Some pictures, one of each bridge...
Now, I bet you're wondering what the names mean... well, Sipapu means “Place of Emergence”, Kachina was named after the Hopi Kachina spirits that display lightening snakes on their skin as there are similar ancient snake images etched into the rock of the bridge and Owachomo is a Hopi Indian word for rock mound... so now you know...
From Bridges I rode back to the junction with highway 261 and then on to the start of the Moki Dugway. This stretch of road was one that Kevin had selected especially, due to it being a very steep, gravelled road descending from the Cedar mesa down 1100ft in just 3 miles, with plenty of switchbacks and great views... the warning signs leading up to it gave an indication of the seriousness of its nature...
The road itself was built in 1958 specifically for Texas Zinc, a mining company, to transport uranium ore from the "Happy Jack" mine in Fry Canyon, UT. to the processing mill in Mexican Hat. Now it's used to sort the men from the boys by the sadistic Mr Sanders...
I was first to arrive, and waited at the start for the group to catch me up, which they did about half an hour later. By then I'd enjoyed a relaxing time trying to find some shade, eating a couple of oranges and gulping down lots of cold water. It was hot, damn hot...
Once we were assembled, we parked up and walked to the edge to get a view over the valley floor below. A long way below...
As it turned out, the road was pretty simple, with just a little bit of gravel at the edges ready to catch out the unwary (none of our group, then). At the bottom we turned left and onto the start of the Valley of the Gods road. This is the road that Tracy and I drove part way to watch the sunset last September whilst touring the area in an open-topped Ford Mustang (we entered at the opposite end, and only managed about half-way as we were stopped by a steep-sided dried river bed). It was as beautiful as I remembered it, gravelly but otherwise OK, the dried river bed not posing any problem for my trusty GS, although I think we got some better pictures last time, as this time I was concentrating more on riding it...
Now, I have to confess at this point, that Kevin had floated the idea of a naked ride in Valley of the Gods (naked, except for boots, gloves and helmet). And I'd been keen to join in. But, I'd got ahead of the group and stopped well before the end to wait for them to catch up so we could choose a suitable spot. Only when they hadn't turned up after about half an hour, I went back to look for them, only to find Kevin and Edwin, naked, arriving at a small plateau, obviously having performed the feat in my absence. Still, saves me having to upset Laura with more pictures of my naked backside... (oh, and they managed to get away with only been seen by one car-load of tourists, who simply waved at them...).
When they were dressed again, I rode with them out of the valley and on to Mexican Hat, and the motel. Now, I'm sure you remember me saying I wanted to camp in Valley of the Gods. Well, I did, but as it was still only around 3pm, it was simply way too early and way too hot to pitch the tent, so I went to the motel, got changed into my swimming shorts and went for a soak in the river. Which was very welcome, even if the strong current kept sweeping me downstream, meaning I had to stand up (it was only up to my knees) and wade back upstream again. Once properly cooled off, I went back to the room and showered, then went and ate dinner, a Navajo stew served with Navajo bread (which is like a sweet, deep-fried Naan bread, if you can imagine such a thing). Very filling it was, too. Then I hung around until just before 7pm, before putting my bike gear back on and riding back out to Valley of the Gods. I rode deep into the valley, to the plateau where the guys had redressed (which is also where Tracy and I saw someone camping last year), and thankfully there was no-one else around, so I pitched the tent quickly, just as the sun was beginning to set. I think you'll agree, a perfect camping spot...
With absolutely no-one around, and in complete silence (oddly, not even the sound of crickets), I sat on a rock and watched the sunset, marvelling at a great wedge of bright red emanating from the sun's position over the horizon, and the beautiful shades of red and orange bands rising from the distant rocks. To say it was breathtaking would be an understatement. It was simply one of the most moving experiences of my life. And all the time, I was thinking about how Tracy and I had seen the camper last year, and how we'd talked about camping on this spot together. I felt her presence with me, and smiled as I watched the last of the sunlight disappear, gradually turning the tops of the rocks orange before fading completely...
Finally it was time to crawl into the tent and fall asleep to the sound of absolute silence, knowing that there was not another soul for miles around, and that of all the billions of people on the Earth, I had the perfect spot all to myself...
From Needles, I rode on to rejoin the route the others would be following from Mesa Verde, joining it just south of Blanding having stopped at a supermarket and bought a cold coffee drink and some more snacks. Once I'd found the “Trail of the Ancients”, highway 95 to Bridges National Monument. This is another national park, and contains 3 rock bridges (Sipapu, Kachina and Owachomo) formed by the meandering streams eroding the rocks, leaving the natural bridges in place. They might look like arches, but these are bridges, the difference being arches are formed by rain and wind eroding the rock, bridges being formed by flowing water... Some pictures, one of each bridge...
Now, I bet you're wondering what the names mean... well, Sipapu means “Place of Emergence”, Kachina was named after the Hopi Kachina spirits that display lightening snakes on their skin as there are similar ancient snake images etched into the rock of the bridge and Owachomo is a Hopi Indian word for rock mound... so now you know...
From Bridges I rode back to the junction with highway 261 and then on to the start of the Moki Dugway. This stretch of road was one that Kevin had selected especially, due to it being a very steep, gravelled road descending from the Cedar mesa down 1100ft in just 3 miles, with plenty of switchbacks and great views... the warning signs leading up to it gave an indication of the seriousness of its nature...
The road itself was built in 1958 specifically for Texas Zinc, a mining company, to transport uranium ore from the "Happy Jack" mine in Fry Canyon, UT. to the processing mill in Mexican Hat. Now it's used to sort the men from the boys by the sadistic Mr Sanders...
I was first to arrive, and waited at the start for the group to catch me up, which they did about half an hour later. By then I'd enjoyed a relaxing time trying to find some shade, eating a couple of oranges and gulping down lots of cold water. It was hot, damn hot...
Once we were assembled, we parked up and walked to the edge to get a view over the valley floor below. A long way below...
As it turned out, the road was pretty simple, with just a little bit of gravel at the edges ready to catch out the unwary (none of our group, then). At the bottom we turned left and onto the start of the Valley of the Gods road. This is the road that Tracy and I drove part way to watch the sunset last September whilst touring the area in an open-topped Ford Mustang (we entered at the opposite end, and only managed about half-way as we were stopped by a steep-sided dried river bed). It was as beautiful as I remembered it, gravelly but otherwise OK, the dried river bed not posing any problem for my trusty GS, although I think we got some better pictures last time, as this time I was concentrating more on riding it...
Now, I have to confess at this point, that Kevin had floated the idea of a naked ride in Valley of the Gods (naked, except for boots, gloves and helmet). And I'd been keen to join in. But, I'd got ahead of the group and stopped well before the end to wait for them to catch up so we could choose a suitable spot. Only when they hadn't turned up after about half an hour, I went back to look for them, only to find Kevin and Edwin, naked, arriving at a small plateau, obviously having performed the feat in my absence. Still, saves me having to upset Laura with more pictures of my naked backside... (oh, and they managed to get away with only been seen by one car-load of tourists, who simply waved at them...).
When they were dressed again, I rode with them out of the valley and on to Mexican Hat, and the motel. Now, I'm sure you remember me saying I wanted to camp in Valley of the Gods. Well, I did, but as it was still only around 3pm, it was simply way too early and way too hot to pitch the tent, so I went to the motel, got changed into my swimming shorts and went for a soak in the river. Which was very welcome, even if the strong current kept sweeping me downstream, meaning I had to stand up (it was only up to my knees) and wade back upstream again. Once properly cooled off, I went back to the room and showered, then went and ate dinner, a Navajo stew served with Navajo bread (which is like a sweet, deep-fried Naan bread, if you can imagine such a thing). Very filling it was, too. Then I hung around until just before 7pm, before putting my bike gear back on and riding back out to Valley of the Gods. I rode deep into the valley, to the plateau where the guys had redressed (which is also where Tracy and I saw someone camping last year), and thankfully there was no-one else around, so I pitched the tent quickly, just as the sun was beginning to set. I think you'll agree, a perfect camping spot...
With absolutely no-one around, and in complete silence (oddly, not even the sound of crickets), I sat on a rock and watched the sunset, marvelling at a great wedge of bright red emanating from the sun's position over the horizon, and the beautiful shades of red and orange bands rising from the distant rocks. To say it was breathtaking would be an understatement. It was simply one of the most moving experiences of my life. And all the time, I was thinking about how Tracy and I had seen the camper last year, and how we'd talked about camping on this spot together. I felt her presence with me, and smiled as I watched the last of the sunlight disappear, gradually turning the tops of the rocks orange before fading completely...
Finally it was time to crawl into the tent and fall asleep to the sound of absolute silence, knowing that there was not another soul for miles around, and that of all the billions of people on the Earth, I had the perfect spot all to myself...
posted by Paul # 23:07 
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