Sunday, June 27, 2010

Utah Moto Day 4

Just pulled into Castledale on our way back north after a 225 mile day where I almost lost Cody. Details to follow on the day 5 post. We called the hotel from Green River tonight to let them know we were coming. Turns out we are the only ones staying in the entire hotel. The owner went home after we pulled in.

Day 4 started out of blanding heading northwest into the Abajo mountains. We climbed to about 10500 and were presented with breath taking views of the cedar Mesa looking south. I was familiar with the road as a friend from blanding took me up there once. We saw 2 black bear that time. These are some rugged mountains. Here is a photo of Van at the junction of the beef basin road.



The road from here quickly started descending into the southern part of the needles in canyonlands. I kept thinking how Allison would love the wildflowers up here. Truly amazing scenery. Here is a photo looking down into beef with the LaSals in the background.


There were cows every where. No big surprise considering beef basin is Blm land. We stopped at this old Anasazi tower which is literally right off the jeep trail. Beef basin is famous for it's plethora of ruins. Hopefully I can come back someday in the FJCruiser and see more.



We then arrived at the famous "bobbies hole" which has destroyed many jeeps. Once you go down this hill the only way out is to either come back up or go out elephant hill in canyonlands. In other words you are comittted at this point. Van took it first and lost control of his bike. He shattered his mirror in the process. Here he is descending with his 400lb bike. It gave me butterflies and caused me to curse a bit in my helmet. I read somewhere that a typical bill for the towtruck out of bobbies is about $2000 for a jeep Not sure for a bike and glad I didn't have to find out.



We then proceeded into the back entrance of the needles where we had to open a cattle gate. No fee station or ranger but no big surprise considering we were probably the only people to pass through that day. The needles was empty. We saw no one and to be honest it was almost eery. But considering the mighty jeep destroying elephant hill and bobbies hole are the only way in and out it was understandable. We proceeded down devils lane and stopped to try and find some petroglyphs a fellow jeeper shared with me. After some searching nothing turned up. Here is a photo of myself and the famous needle rocks in the background.



We then made our way over to the confluence of the green and Colorado rivers. The last time I was there was when I ran cataract canyon before I was married. Because of the intense heat I was wishing I was at river level. On our way over we encountered a man and woman hiking to the confluence. They said they were about 7 miles from their car and had no food. I gave a couple cliff bars and they both snarfed them down. Turns out the woman was 15 months pregnant. I would be surprised if they are still married after that hike. Here is a picture of Cody at the confluence. Notice the difference in water colors.



Only one more major Eco challenge adventure before departing canyonlands. We must exit by climbing the famous and mighty elephant hill. This thing has caused lots of damage to both jeeps and motorcycles. I only dropped my bike twice but luckily caused no damage to bike or bone. Here's a picture where we have carefully backed my bike down and I'm getting ready for run number 2.



After a few tries and some time we finally conquered and were on our way to Needles outpost for gas and water. Because it was 6:30 already we decided phone the wives using the satellite phone and let them know of our intentions to stay on route and head north into lockhart basin where we would camp. Turns out the outpost was closed so we couldn't buy fuel. No big deal considering I still had 1.5 liters in the rear and a good solid 2 in the front. We filled up the water and headed into the super desolate and seriously slow moving lockhart basin towards Moab. Here's a photo of van using the SAT phone at needles.



The first part of lockhart road was loaded with campers and hippies but no surprise considering highway 211 is right there. After riding a few miles it was obvious they didn't come down the basin from Moab. We rode late into the evening and watched the sunset as we slowly navigated. The lighting was seriously magical in this fabled valley. We passed where you could see the needles overlook above the valley floor and wondered if anyone was up there looking down at these 2 clowns on their dirt bikes riding into the sunset. We finally came to a section where the road started climbing and was getting very rough and decided to setup camp and call it a day. Here is a photo of camp just as the sun was coming up. This goes down as one of the most magical days of motorcycling for me. Camped in the middle of nowhere along a jeep road in the middle wild Utah. We wouldn't see another person until leaving the lockhart trail.



Total miles Today: 123
Total miles since home: 705

2 comments:

Greg Christensen said...

Cody is hard-core.

Marie aka Grams said...

Ohmyheck, am I so glad you made it. Even reading your post raises my heart rate. Welcome back to you and Cody.