Day 16 Moab, UT to Grand Junction, CO
One of our team members, Tony Free, approached me the day before and asked Larry and me to join him and Mike Brady on an "off route" section of Monday's ride. Tony rented a local taxi (a '80 Suburban--well dusted) and the four of us drove the 45 minutes south from Green River to Moab, UT. Marci, mother of 8, dropped us off exactly at the Moab National Park Service sign and we began our 50 mile journey.
I'm not exaggerated when I say that this adventure was the most exciting of the trip. Imagine 1000 ft mountains on both your left and right and the Colorado River singing on your left. The road turned and would like a New England country road with "view of a lifetime" for two solid hours.
Since potable water was hard to come by, we stopped at a dude ranch, the Red Cliffs Lodge, to fill our bottles before the last 45 miles.
The next two hours combined both sensory overload and physical challenge. The river canyon tour lasted about an hour and a half and then we had one hour of peddling over rolling high desert. It was HOT!! (~95). We joined our fellow riders at I -70E with still 40 miles to go. As we were about to drive down I-70 and pick up the pace, Larry and I realized that Mike had turned around to go back down the on ramp to find Tony. To make a long story short, Tony had a heat event that required a short trip to the emergency room. Fortunately, after a short IV, he bounced back and was ready to ride the next day.
Minutes later, we arrived in our fourth state, Colorado!
The ride ended with more heat and some light tail winds into Grand Junction.
Last note: one of our Brit riders, Alan stopped by our room after dinner and we did some brainstorming with Larry on how to make his 34 lb bike a little lighter and faster. We adjusted his seat position to make him more efficient and we removed the carrier on his bike to bring it under 30 lbs. Alan was pleased and our bike diplomacy was complete.
I'm not exaggerated when I say that this adventure was the most exciting of the trip. Imagine 1000 ft mountains on both your left and right and the Colorado River singing on your left. The road turned and would like a New England country road with "view of a lifetime" for two solid hours.
Since potable water was hard to come by, we stopped at a dude ranch, the Red Cliffs Lodge, to fill our bottles before the last 45 miles.
The next two hours combined both sensory overload and physical challenge. The river canyon tour lasted about an hour and a half and then we had one hour of peddling over rolling high desert. It was HOT!! (~95). We joined our fellow riders at I -70E with still 40 miles to go. As we were about to drive down I-70 and pick up the pace, Larry and I realized that Mike had turned around to go back down the on ramp to find Tony. To make a long story short, Tony had a heat event that required a short trip to the emergency room. Fortunately, after a short IV, he bounced back and was ready to ride the next day.
Minutes later, we arrived in our fourth state, Colorado!
The ride ended with more heat and some light tail winds into Grand Junction.
Last note: one of our Brit riders, Alan stopped by our room after dinner and we did some brainstorming with Larry on how to make his 34 lb bike a little lighter and faster. We adjusted his seat position to make him more efficient and we removed the carrier on his bike to bring it under 30 lbs. Alan was pleased and our bike diplomacy was complete.
posted by Steve King at 2:46 PM
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