We got off the dirty dog in Green River, Utah, intent on seeing Arches and the town of Moab. Put our bikes together, reanimating their boxed up selves, ate at Ben's Cafe and were about to head East when two Colorado folk informed us of a much better, less traffic, few trucks, kinda route West. We bit.
Road out into the desert. Slept on BLM dirt. Rose and shone, road into Hanksville for Hamburger and groceries, realizing that it will be a while before we see another grocery store, give or take 120 miles. Huh. Shoulda, coulda, woulda taken a longer look at that there mapper-thingy.
The road fallows a red rock canyon of empty beauty, crosses the Colorado River, lifts up into the pygmy forests of Pinon and Juniper trees. Then drops off a cliff in dirt switchbacks at Moki Dugway, to strech out into the horizon again. Remarkably serene, endlessly remote and in October, lightly traveled.
Four days later we safely roll into Mexican Hat. We still had food: a tortilla, some oats, a cliff bar.
We ate pizza to celebrate our return to "towns with gas stations."
We almost made it to Kayenta after stopping for groceries at Gouldings. But the sun was setting and so we asked a dude if we could pitch our tent in his property.
"Yeah Sure. Whatever." His name is Gearison and has three kids and a wife. He gave us BEER and Spare Ribs. (Beer is hard to come by on a dry reservation).
Since then we have been pushing along the flat expanse of the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona. Yesterday we left Kayenta and slept at Red Lake. Right now we are sipping coffee in Tuba City. Hoping to wait out the dust storm that is darkening the sky so we can push on to Cameron and up over into Flagstaff...
Skills learned:
Cooking beans.
Map skills.
Communication.
Road out into the desert. Slept on BLM dirt. Rose and shone, road into Hanksville for Hamburger and groceries, realizing that it will be a while before we see another grocery store, give or take 120 miles. Huh. Shoulda, coulda, woulda taken a longer look at that there mapper-thingy.
The road fallows a red rock canyon of empty beauty, crosses the Colorado River, lifts up into the pygmy forests of Pinon and Juniper trees. Then drops off a cliff in dirt switchbacks at Moki Dugway, to strech out into the horizon again. Remarkably serene, endlessly remote and in October, lightly traveled.
Four days later we safely roll into Mexican Hat. We still had food: a tortilla, some oats, a cliff bar.
We ate pizza to celebrate our return to "towns with gas stations."
We almost made it to Kayenta after stopping for groceries at Gouldings. But the sun was setting and so we asked a dude if we could pitch our tent in his property.
"Yeah Sure. Whatever." His name is Gearison and has three kids and a wife. He gave us BEER and Spare Ribs. (Beer is hard to come by on a dry reservation).
Since then we have been pushing along the flat expanse of the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona. Yesterday we left Kayenta and slept at Red Lake. Right now we are sipping coffee in Tuba City. Hoping to wait out the dust storm that is darkening the sky so we can push on to Cameron and up over into Flagstaff...
Skills learned:
Cooking beans.
Map skills.
Communication.
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