Tuesday, May 19, 2009

day nine: Moab to Bryce Canyon




  Mike and I began the day already worn out since neither of us slept almost at all the night before.  We set up in a great camping area but about midnight the wind began blowing.  I don’t mean the gentle desert zephyr but the more feared Sahara-like sand moving wind.  Mike and I attempted to sleep with the vents closed which meant a hot tent alternating with the vents open which meant eating and laying in grit.  But like intrepid the adventure-loving boys we are, we pushed on.  We had breakfast at the Moab Diner.  It sounds kind of like something out of the Old Testament but that is not actually the case.  After breakfast we trekked to the Arches National Park, yet another awesome display of God’s handiwork. (See pictures!)  After the park we headed north on hwy 191 to hwy 70 west.  This was some of the ugliest landscape I personally have ever seen.  We went through a small town called Mesa Luna.  My Spanish is not so good but I’m pretty sure this means Moon Table-land.  Never were words more appropriately spoken!  The entire area looked like the surface of the moon.  Our helmet to helmet radios stopped working and no people were to be seen.  We thought we’d entered the Twilight Zone.  From Mesa Luna we went to Hanksville.  Now America is a country predicated on having at least some choice in where you live, work, etc.  If you live in Mesa Luna or Hanksville I’m sorry- not sorry I said these things; sorry you have to live on the surface of the moon!  Right as I was getting wigged out about having chosen the ugliest road through the most barren terrain imaginable, we turned onto hwy 12, possibly one of the absolute prettiest roads in this country.  The day was redeemed.  Mike and I were happy for the high mountain road with winding curves, alpine meadows and a new kind of huge pine mixed with aspen.  We rode into Bryce Canyon at the end of the day to eat a quick supper and rode back to the town of Tropic (yep, Tropic) to camp for the night.

 Mike can give you his usual highlights of the day but I want to give mine as a pre-emptive strike.  For the second time on this trip I dropped my bike!  It was Mike’s fault for taking me off-rode.  His bike is much more agile off-road than the beast I ride.  When I went to put my foot down it was in a deep rut.  God did not make me with long legs and He certainly did not enable me to compensate for the black beast after stepping in a hole.  The good news is that it was soft ground and I was able to pick it up myself.  Boy am I proud! 

Well I’m done for the evening.  Michael is talking to his sweetheart, Megan while I slave away keeping up with our adventures.  His work of putting pictures on the blog and posting his comments about the day’s highlights is yet to come.

PS:  We met a nice guy named Paul who’s here with his family camping in Escalante.  He had a sweet BMW GS1100 Mike and both admired.  Hope you and your family have a great trip if you’re reading this!

1 comment:

  1. Highlights:

    1) Getting to climb around (just a little bit) at Arches! As soon as I'm home, a day trip to Rumbling Bald will be in order!

    2) Driving across a canyon ridge on Hwy 12 with nothing but a few hundred feet of air on either side. These things have a way of making you carefully consider each move you make.

    3) NOT Luna Mesa...haha, the place really affected us---on some pretty deep levels I think.

    4) Going from sweating it out in the canyon land, to freezing my tookus off in the sleety rain on the mountain. It's amazing how different the weather can be over just a few miles of highway.

    5) Getting my bike looked at by the "desert doc" a.k.a. "the bike doctor" a.k.a....ok seriously, I asked the guy his name and this is all he would give me. His identity must be petty wrapped up in his vocation (or avocation--he obviously loved his job). Characters welcome...

    6) Breakfast at the Moab Diner--we ate like royalty!

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