Drunkcyclist.com

I don’t know how he did it really, but the guy made it to Moab from Flagstaff with quite the story in reflection:

From: BGR
Subject: Finally Made it

Well it isn’t prompt, but here is my final leg of the trip update.
Check out the photos here.

After finishing my last update and loading up on what I believed to be three days worth of food in Escalate I continued on down the road leaving in the heat of the day. I dropped down into the Escalate river and spent a few hours swimming in the water and cooling of under the bridge. Left the river feeling nice and cool and rode right into a 14% climb for two miles, or so the sign says. I guess you could say I lost my cool on that climb. Rode in Boulder and stopped at a great little gas station/ natural foods store. The girl working had just move there and was into bicycle touring so I chatted with her for a while. She set me up with some near outdated sandwiches from the cooler , and i bought a Hanson’s ginger ale and some fig newtons. Made it a couple miles down the road and begin a stiff climb towards the burr trail road. A Subaru drove past me honking and yelling, while waving something out the window. They continued on and stopped at the top of the climb and pulled over. I took me what seemed like 5 mins to get to the top and pull up to the window. A very nice local lady was in the drivers seat , holding my Hanson’s soda which i had left outside the station. It sure tasted good on the top of that climb!

Turned down the Burr Trail which is a paved rode for the first 45 miles and was clearly marked “Danger No services for 75 miles”. It was going to be about twice that for me. Great road, saw maybe 4 cars all the next day. Dropped down through Capital Reef and took a left and headed North on Norton road along the San Rafael Swell. The road however was not so swell. The huge rain the day before had the sand/clay road a disaster and moving was slow with lots of walking. After 20 plus miles of this I turned on the road to take me up to the Henry Mountains, and up it went. Left the swell around 2,800 feet and climbed up to 10, 500 in less than 15 miles. Camped out near the summit of the road and hiked the 1 mile trail to the top of Mount Ellen 11,553 feet. It was the last mountain range to be surveyed by the USGS in the lower 48. Why? My guess it because its in the middle of nowhere. Left early the next day and had a great hour plus down hill to start of the day with.

Arrived at my turn to head toward Hite crossing, only to see that all the see that all services in Hite were crossed off the sign. This was troubling since I’d been rationing food for the last couple days, mostly getting by on raisin burritos. Whats in a raisin burrito? Raisins. So i decided to head south to Tippico adding around 60 miles to get food. Arrived in the peak heat of the day, to what seems to be an oasis in the desert. Cool green grass and all the food and cold beverages money could buy. And money I spent. Load up again with what I now believed to be 3 days worth of food and two bottles of Heet for my stove. Total $55 dollars. I gotta say spending almost 60 buck on gas station food doesn’t really get you stocked, but it did keep me feed.

All filled up i rode the 8 miles in to Glen Canyon park. Which is a funny name since i don’t see a canyon, I see a lake. I was tired and hot and ready to be done for the day so I decided to stay by the lake and get in some swimming. The man at the gate said “Welcome to glen canyon 7 dollars for entry”. Great, does that cover camping too? “No just gets you into the park, camping is extra”. Ok how much extra. “20 dollars”. Wow, my next question was “how much if I have a mobile home with 5 people hauling a boat and 4 quads” which seems to be the average visitor. Same. I tell him I pass and I’m just going to take the ferry across the lake. Ok that will be 7 dollars. But I thought the ferry was 5 dollars? It is but it’s still 7 to get in the park to the ferry. I start asking why I must pay to get to a Utah D.O.T. crossing. He loses his cool and tells me i better ride straight to the ferry and let me pass. Went to the Ferry dock and had a nice dip in the lake while waiting. Clouds started building as the ferry arrived, and sure enough we got caught in a huge down pour mid way across. This was no panic for the ferry, but the rest of the people on the lake were racing around to get off the water, and I was very entertained.

Spent the first half of the next day cruising down the nearly vacant highway, stopping a few time to check out cliff dwellings that you could see from the road if you where looking. Road past Natural Bridges and started climbing up a dirt road toward the Bears Ears and the Abajo mountains. Shortly after climbing back up to 7000+ feet it started to rain, hard. The roads where already borderline muddy and it quickly turned to one big mud puddle. I was slow going, mostly walking , unless it was a down hill, then it was ridding and falling. The funny thing was I was stuck in torrential down pour, water was everywhere, but I was out. I could have filtered outta a mud puddle, but i new how well my filter would handle that, so I continue pushing along for hours. I was tired, I wanted to set up camp. I stopped a few times and looked for a place to put up my tent, but everywhere was completely soaked, much like me. Four hours later the sun was going down, it stopped raining and I found an abandoned ranger station with a water pump. Oh how great that water tasted.

The next morning I left camp and found myself flying down the hill toward Beef Basin and Needles. The road was fast and the turns where great in the moist soil. Arrived at the south west corner of Needles Park where several signs warned me of the severity of the jeep road and advised it only passable in a Jeep. Well that’s just bullshit. Or maybe it wasn’t. I could barley walk my bike down some of the hills. It was so blown out that they had installed some kind of honeycomb mesh about 10 inches deep to hold everything together better. Over an hour later I ran into the first car I’d seen in over a day. It was a Jeep, a park service one at that. It pulled to a stop next to me, and I was greeted by three female park service employees, who appeared to be in there early 20’s. They seemed as shocked to me as i was them. It was around noon and hot, so I was wearing nothing but my running short and Kroc’s. It seemed to make the girl in the drivers seat who was asking me questions somewhat uncomfortable. She looked at me, asked me where where I was coming from, and was looking at her lap before finishing her question. She inquired about my park pass and I told her that I was just passing though and didn’t believe I needed one. She assured me that this wasn’t true and send me on my way to pay the man. Somehow on my way through the park exit I forgot to do so. I must have been bonking I guess.

Right outside that park I discovered there was a store/gas station/burger joint that I didn’t know of and I pulled in to get some bonus snacks and wait out the heat for a while. The store is called Needles Outpost , and around those parts its the place to be. Its run by a couple who have been there for over 20 years. Sitting at the bar was another traveler sporting a big pack who was hiking the ADT. The ADT is the newest long distance thru hiking trail, and it goes all the way from the east coast to the west. I was asking what the terrain was like, and he stated that the majority of the route through mid America is dirt roads and railroad tracks. He also commented on how when you walk into a town in the Midwest with a pack on you back, they seem to do all they can to keep you moving on down the road. For there sake that is , not yours. Its got to be hard thru hiking in places where people don’t even get hiking at all. His route to Escalate was very close to the one I took only more direct and he was happy to get some info on water. Check out his site walkingwithfreedom.com to get an idea on how big of a character this guy is.

Fueled up on soda and chocolate I headed down the highway a couple of miles to the turn off for Lockhart basin road. I couple miles down the rode is Indian Creek where I planned on camping. I arrived at the creek to see it flowing high with brown flood water. I filled up a bag with water and let it set to settle while I found a nice place in the rocks to relax in the murky water. After cooling down for a long time I made an attempt to filter some water, totally screwing up my pump within the first few ounces. I was already dehydrated and instead of drinking untreated water I decided to make a go for it since Moab was only 70 miles away and I had almost a gallon of water left. So I rode on a couple hours till it was to dark to continue without a light. I threw my sleeping bag down 10 feet off the rode and quickly fell asleep.

An hour before sunrise in the early morning light I was riding again, racing the heat and sipping water. I made it over the final big climb , Hurrah Pass, before 11:00 and it was mostly downhill the last 15miles to Moab. Had my first flat of the trip, the 29″*2.3 tube I was using for my massive 26″*4.0 front tire had finally given out at the seam after over 700 miles. Stopped by a spring near town, filled my water bag , and had my first shower in a while next to the rode, it was so worth the wait.

I’ve somehow deleted my gps file, but it was at 715 miles coming into town, and that was missing at least 40 miles. I think it was 14 days since leaving flagstaff with 2 days off. Went though 5 national parks, paid zero entrance fees and never paid to camp. I have to say of all the tours I’ve done, this was my favorite. Maybe next time I can drag one of you along for the ride.

Randy

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