Riding Grand Mesa, Colorado

So I've been cooped up all winter with only a weekend ride now and then. I live near San Diego, and the boys have called for their annual get together in Cedaredge Co (near Grand Junction) on June 23.....and I needed to be there.

This is a street ride function of riders from all over the States. A couple Coloradans hunt down a campground near an interesting location and this year it's at the nearby Grand Mesa.

Of course that area includes almost all of Indian Country as a place to launch daily rides From.

I debated long and hard about whether or not to take my dualsport bike along with me. In the end I was seduced by the little roads on top of the Grand Mesa...and that Includes the famous Lands End Road, the old original way from Delta to the 10500ft top. I'd need my DR350 for that area.

From moto trailer

Of Course, when you live on the west coast, and want to go to Colorado, there is the desert crossing to contend with. Traditionally late June in not the ultra hot part of the year. But having said that, perusing the weather forecasts showed that the 2 routes to Grand Junction were predicted to be 113 degrees. It didn't matter whether I went through Baker, Ca or Needles, Ca.

I wanted to take a week or more and spend a couple days with a friend in western central Co at his Hay ranch in Paradox Valley, so that meant taking the Indian Country route through Needles, Flagstaff, and Monument Valley.

I worried and worried about how to cross the desert with me and my vintage iron. Extreme heat isn't good for either one of us. I decided to make the desert crossing at night.

I'd leave at midnight. I'd seen Ca plenty so I wouldn't miss anything there. I'h hit the Co River at Needles at 6am, and climb up toward Flagstaff and cooler air from there.

Leaving at Midnight has it's own problems. How to get some rest so I could Ride 12 or 14 hrs had to be worked out. I wanted to get as far as the Navajo National monument to camp for the night....about 650 miles. Free camping, don't you know. Did I mention that I like to save a buck when I can? :clap

I was all packed up on Saturday night and went to bed at 7pm. I woke up just before Midnight, having managed to get about 3 hrs sleep, stepped into my clothes, and was actually riding by Midnight.

I felt good. I'd been in anticipation mode for months. The ride was finally on. I soon would be enjoying old friends and all that the southwest had to offer. I'm a big fan of Indian country, and most all of the southwest.

Temperatures were 60 -65 degrees as I rode within a 100 miles of the coast where the sea breeze had some influence. I jumped up to Barstow by 3am, and noted a 15 degree increase in temps...still nice at 80ish.

That how it was crossing the Mojave Desert. At 4:30 there was the slightest glow showing on the eastern Horizon, and a brilliant toenail moon. I needed to, at least, try to get a picture of that.

I need to work on my night photos.... Taken at Mountain Springs summit

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

The eastern light grew as I descended toward the river. The smoke from the Coloradan fires was hanging in the air....made a peculiar sunrise.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Temps at the first gas station inside Arizona, Essentially at the low elevation of the river were no more than 85. The night crossing had been a success, and worth the effort.

I got my first dumbass at that gas station. I filled my DR and the aux gas can as well as my bike and ate a breakfast bar. Somewhere in those activities I forgot to put the gas cap back on the gas can....Grrrrr. :cry

I was cooking up some traveling food while I rode. I'm always experimenting with road cooking. I had a medium sized potato and 2 eggs cooking in the V of my V4 engine.

this trip I actually made a small compartment for cooking, hopefully to increase the temps in the V. Turns out that a plastic shopping bag won't melt in there so it keeps the food clean.

From Road food

I also had put some split peas in water in my electric cooker up on the handle bars.

From odds and ends

Here's the complicated circuitry...:evil

From odds and ends

A sampleing of the pea soup showed it wasn't ready to be eaten after 6 hrs of simmering. Hummmm....

I sampled an egg which was little harder than a soft boiled egg. The potato was about half cooked.

I was back on the bike and climbing toward Kingman by 6am. I had completely beaten the heat. but was showing signs of fatigue about 30 miles east of Kingman so I pulled off the highway to take a break.

I ate one of my eggs..... which was little harder than a soft boiled egg. The potato was about half cooked. 10 miutes of walking around had me awake enough to get to Seligman where I'd get some coffee.

Seligman may be the most Route 66ish town in america. I stopped at this convenience store for my coffee and met 2 resident geezers getting their hearts started.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

One was a retired teacher who'd come there in the Late 70s and never left. I think he was waiting for the bars to open so he could become somebody. The other guy was sporting his portable oxygen bottle and complaining that he'd already lived too long. :freaky

The second guy kept me entertained with one liners, one after another. I would have liked to listen to him more, but my coffe was gone and I had miles to ride before I could rest.

I made Kingman by noon Az times, then cut north on hwy 89 toward Page. I got out there to the Cameron Trading post and stopped for gas. It was about 1pm, and time for lunch....or summat.

I parked my rig out of the way and took my bag from the engine as well as my thermos cooker over to the rim of the dry wash behind the trading post and sat for a spell in the shade of one of the bridges. Very nice.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

The pea soup was ready so I cut the potato up and added it to the soup for expedience and minimizing cookware.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

I took a half hour there, and imagined the life of the locals in the past as I took in the calories and rested up for the next 100 miles to the Navajo Monument.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

I felt revived even though it was nearing 100 degree, as I pushed off toward Tuba City. I got to the junction to the NNM. There is an Indian Convenience store there. That's Navajo for 'Trading Post'. I stopped to see if there might not be something for dinner there that I could eat at camp. Yike! the prices were high, so I passed on buying something there.

Time for another 10 minute break in the shade.......

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

The dog agreed with me.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

There are some run down building around here. The buildings, water tanks, or whatever all have some murals of Indian art on them. This is a poor example, but the best that I photographed.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Road 564 took me 10 miles to the north to the canyon system that Makes of the NNM. It's a fascinating place with a visitor center. You can easily spend a few days here if you do all the hiking that's available. You can sign up for free ranger escorted 1 to 10 mile hikes at the Visitor Center. One of them is an overnight tour.

Canyon System.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Me? I was just going to spend the night. It was about 3pm when I arrived. An ADVrider greeted me as I rode up saying that my old Sabre was Honda's inspiration for making the bike he was riding, his ST1000. We were brothers of a sort right off the bat.

Well, that was good enough for me. Rich was a great guy. We camped next to one another and had a good evening together.

A little later I got my Ramen noodles out and cooked up a spaghetti dinner for myself. My road recipe is noodles, tomato sauce, Vienna Sausage, and spaghetti sauce powder mix. I cook the Spaghetti, pour the water off and add the other ingredients, and let the spaghetti heat the rest of it. It doesn't get any easier than that.

A lady from across the way stopped by to apologize for running her generator. She was having trouble with her Fridge that had run her trailer battery dry. We tried to get her to cool some of Rich's beer.....but that was a failed attempt. Nice little travel trailer though, but to big for my bike to pull. :rofl

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

I'd been up 20 hrs by 9pm so I was ready to sleep when the sun went down....and I did.

.....Here's a little Story....

Tom Swaim was an adventurer who was born in the UK, and found himself in the late stages of the California gold rush wondering what to do next. He was fixing to move on.

He hadn't struck it rich, but he had a good sized grub stake. He asked a mountain man type traveler, "Where was the nicest place that he ever been?"

He was told that the Paradox Valley of Colorado was that place. So along about the 1880s Sir Tom, as he was called, made the move to that Coloradan Valley, and made a new life for his family.

There wasn't much there at that time....maybe no permanent residences. There was a copper mine. The Cashin Copper mine was just starting up, and Sir Tom started a store to supply the mine workers. The mine was about 5 miles down a deep canyon that came off the La Sal hill. There were families that lived down there.

The Valley is truly beautiful....

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

There wasn't much farming in the area as there wasn't any sustainable water supply. Other places in arid western Colorado had developed a way of gathering the mountain snow melt in reservoir lakes, and releasing the water little by little over the year to irrigate their fields.

Sir Tom organized the folks from the area in the early 90s, and they enlisted a man named Ray to dig a ditch with horses and a drag scoop to put a Ditch along the high side of the valley that would distribute water for 10 miles or so down the valley. Today Ray's ditch is still supplying water all along the valley to the ranchers. The water comes out of the La Sal Mountains located between Parodox and Moab.

I know this because I'm on my way to visit Glenn and Enid case of Paradox Valley....and Sir Tom is Enid's great great granddaddy. Glenn and Enid have a section of land right there in the middle of that valley.

So anyway, when I awoke this morning, I was feeling rested and excited to get to moving on.

But this is too early.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

I waited till 8am to get permanently out of the sleeping bag.

I had an easy day of just a couple hundred miles to ride so I could take my time, and smell the roses along the way. There was Monument Valley and Moki Dugway to be enjoy one more time.

It's my 5th time through there, but that didn't stop me from taking more picture. It was 30 miles of Indian country to get to Kayenta and the Mc Donalds there for a wifi session.

Here's a pictorial of that thirty miles. First a picture, through the trees, of Rick saddling up in the morning. He was going up to the Visitor's Center to go on a 5 mile hike to some ruins... that's 5 miles out and 5 miles back...

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

On the way out to the main road I got a better understanding of just how huge this canyon system really is.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Back out to the main road I took 564 south a mile to the top of Black Mesa. Black Mesa is Indian reservation land, and one of the biggest coal reserves anywhere in the world. So here's how it works some Indians mine the coal through the Peabody Mine works.....they conveyer the coal down to the plant at the left of the picture.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

The plant is where they crush the coal and mix it with water to make a slurry out of it to pump/flow it under ground down to Laughlin where it can be used to make power. Cool huh?

Well not so cool. All that water from wells has lowered the ground water level by a hundred feet or more. Now lots of the Indian windmills no longer reach the water table. They will be fighting for years over all this.

I imagine that the General that signed the treaty giving all that valuable coal away is kicking himself in the ass. LOL

So on to Kayenta where I had a coffee and McMuffin, and checked on my email. While I was ordering I talked to a 40 year old Indian. That's where I learned about the windmills that are sucking dust and the 20 year drought that the Navajo Nation is suffering through.

After an hour, I'm back on the road riding thru Monument Valley. Here are a few pics of the ride over to Mexican hat. Right outside Kayenta..

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

The one on the left looks like a woman with a long skirt on...

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Here's a website that make's my pics look like crap. :cry [url]http://www.lovethesepics.com/2011/05/magnificent-monument-valley-46-fantastic-photos-navajo-nation-part-2/[/url] But anyway

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Finally I crossed the San Juan River at Mexican Hat...

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

I stopped for a Gatorade. With the coffee at Seligman, the MDs at Kayenta I'd spent over $5 so far, if you aren't counting gasoline. The cold drink was a welcome break as it was in the heat of the day and close to a 100 degrees. From here I go to the Moki Dugway. It's longer but much more interesting. I approach the cliffs of the MD.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Looking back as I begin to climb....

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

That's the 'MD Bed & Breakfast' down there...

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Halfway up....

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

At the top...

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

These guys left St Louis yesterday....

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Once on top there was a different Utah. I was headed to Blanding and Monticello.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Other riders having as much fun as I was. That's Frys Canyon up ahead

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Frys Canyon Gap....

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

The canyon goes all the way south to Bluff and beyond.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

I gassed up in Blanding and moved on toward Monticello. That's a hole in that rock at the bottom there.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

That's Wilsons Arch from the back side. One third from the left side...middle up and down...

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Wilsons Arch from in front....I guess that's the front.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

I was only an hour from Glenn and Enid's....I got there about 5pm. I was just in time to help with the evening irrigation moving. That took us an hour and a half.

Enid cooked up a good meal, good ranching food, then we watched a Netflix movie, and I did some evening email.

I got my old room again, and I went to bed feeling like it had been a great day.......nice. Ranching not Riding

A new day arrived at the ranch. We all got up before breakfast. :wink: Over the last week, Glenn had noticed a pesky Milkweed starting to become numerous in his Alfalfa field. Seems like there is always something trying to add new disasters to a Rancher/farmer's life. The three of us went out to the freshly watered part of the field and pulled Milkweed. We pulled half a mini PU load of Milkweed in a couple hours.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Enid went back to work in her garden, Glen and I went off to check on his irrigation pump. Seems that Glenn has used his allotted share of the water from the Mtn that's in Rays Ditch. He now has to irrigate his fields with water from his well.

Glenn's property owns a shared well with a neighbor that's a mile away on the neighbors property. It has to be checked once a day to make sure it's running properly. ...on the way to the pump....she got a 10 in style points as she neatly cleared that fence

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

There's Glen's well pump

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

I've heard of wells and pumps and all that all my life, but had no idea how they worked. Glenn's well water is 80 ft down, and will supply 500 gals a minute. Hummmm.....how to get the water up and out?

You can't suck from a depth of more than 29 ft (I think). So here's what they do. They send a pump, suspended on a shaft, that is the diameter of the 12" pipe and about 4' long that goes down 80 ft into the water. They hook a big motor to the shaft at the surface, and spin the 80' shaft and pump internals at 1700 RPM to pump the water out of the hole.

Glenn uses a 40 hp surplus pump motor that he got from a defunct school project. Recently he spent $1800 having that motor rebuilt. It was humming away like a brand new one when we checked on it. The water is pumped to a little pond where the water is dumped into Ray's Ditch thru that little gauge sluice.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

They note on the meter gauge how much water is passing thru that sluice to know how much he's adding to the ditch so that they know how much he can use when he takes water out of the ditch to irrigate with.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

This ranching is all pretty simple.....as long as you understand how to dig a well, wire in a huge electric motor, keep 3 sprinkler lines working and keep all the tractors, mowers and such operational.

Scheesh!....my head hurts just thinking about doing this on a permanent basis.

...on the way back from the pump, I took photos of things that interested me......more than 50 year of accumulation.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

'Chop Cut Rebuild' specials....somebody is looking for one of these. :freaky

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Glenn say this 58ish Dodge has been sitting there as long as he can remember.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

This Kaiser Manhattan actually came with Glenn's ranch when he bought it 18 years ago.

Now for a break in all the serious stuff.....

I'd asked Glenn if he wanted to take a ride down to the Cashin Copper mine. He and Enid both hadn't been there for about 5 years, and welcomed the opportunity to get away.

So before Lunch Enid loaded up a picnic basket of bread and hotdogs in Glenns little Jeep SUV, and off we went. The road to the mines was less than 10 miles away about half way up the La Sal Mtn grade on Co HWY 90.

We dropped into the canyon and immediately had big cliffs on both sides of us. Remember this mine started up around the 1890, and all the ore came out this road of about 5 miles long.

Not that this road was so horrible, but doing anything at all with horses and wagons must have been tough.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

At one point Enid was feeling so good she wanted to walk the rest of the way to the mine, she said, "You go on ahead". Now remember this came from a women who had a hip replaced 3 times over the last 30 years.

We stopped a half mile up ahead, as we realize the Mine wasn't just up ahead, and waited. Enid said that she was glad to see us. That sort of thing will keep a marriage together.

In another couple miles some of the mine ruins began to show up...there must have been nearly a dozen building of one sort or another.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

A Well...

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Glenn traipsing around..

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Cool storage....probably kept dynamite in there...

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Finally the processing plant...

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

We wandered around there for an hour trying to find some sort of relic or a piece of copper.....as had thousands of folks before us.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

We hadn't brought a flash light so we were limited in our tunnel exploration. Kinda spooky in there anyway.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

We found a place to cook up the hotdog for lunch. I asked Enid a bunch of questions about what she knew about Sir Tom Swain's beginning. It was fascinating to get the story from an actual descendant. Turns out that Sir Tom's original adobe house is still being lived in by a new owner.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

After lunch we rode back to Paradox and stopped by Sir Tom's old homestead. It a 2 story core building made of adobe.....currently they are adding that surrounding wood porch structure. It was a damned nice house back in the early 1900s....2 story, yet.

From Grand Mesa SMR

So back at the Ranch we all took a nap for an hour or so. We all came back to life. Enid had started a big batch of Pinto Beans for dinner. She went back to the garden and Glenn and I went out to move the three sprinkler lines.....while the beans simmered, sucking the flavor out of the ham hocks that hid below the surface.

To move the the sprinklers all the lines have to be drained as full line are to heavy to turn. I calculated that 1300 ft of 5" pipe carry about 1200 gallons of water or almost 9000 lbs of water. The pipes woulod destroy themselves if they were moved when full.

Glenn's view every day during growing season....

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

So the first order of business it to drain the pipes. There are 30 automatic drain that drain when the water is shut off on each line. The drains don't close till the water is turned on and pressure is added to the pipe.

That means that the pipe has to fill faster than the drains drain them once the water is turned on again .....after the sprinkler lines have been moved 60' to a new location.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Well, that doesn't always happen just like it's supposed to. Sometimes the pipes won't pressurize, and a couple lines will have to be shut down in order to pressurize the third one.....and then start over on the first 2. Temps can affect how that all goes .....as can the Gods that control all irrigation.

You See, I didn't even know there was a God of Irrigation. :eek1

That night only took us an hour and a half to move the irrigation lines. Of course some of the girls came by for an evening meal.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

One was smaller, probably an offspring, mom gave her a stout kick when she got too close.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

After the evening chores were done we all sat down to evening meal. Tonight it was a nice salad and those lovely beans. We ate off TV trays and watched the evening news then cranked up Glenn's router, and caught up on the days emails. I transfers daily photos to my Netbook so as not to lose them for some reason.

It had been a long day. We all were tired. For no good reason I felt as though I had accomplished something. I went to my room and slept as though I deserved it.

I could smell the coffee coming from the kitchen. That was the signal for a new day's beginning. As I grabbed my pants, I looked out the window into the back yard.

I quickly jammed my legs in my pants, grabbed my camera and ran for the back door to get a shot of some of Glenn and Enid's girls. CLICK ON PIC FOR A VIDEO

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

After that little bit of excitement for me, (old hat for G&E) we settled into breakfast and the new day. We went out to see what kind of trouble the sprinklers had gotten themselves into.... It turned out that 3 of the rainbird sprinklers had either quit rotating or were plugged up and one automatic drain was open near the far end of the line.

Glenn changed the bad rainbirds and banged on the plugged sprinkler, that sometimes clears it. Success on that one and the sprinkler line didn't need to be shut down to do it.

That left only the auto drain to be cleared of whatever debris was holding it open. Banging on it didn't help. He was lucky that it was at the end of the line,,,,he could just take the end plug out of the 5" line and reach the drain.

Of course that meant he was standing where 5" of water was coming out and drenching him. Ah....did I say cold water? :cry Then he had to shove the 5" plug back in the end of the pipe.

He struggled with that for a couple minutes before he was so worn out that he knew he would never get that plug in the pipe. Finally he sent me up to shut off that line. Me being there save him the trip, and when he waved his arms I was to turn it back on.

Then of course, that line wouldn't recharge without shutting down the other 2 lines to get enough pressure in that one in order to shut off all the drains....and then open the other 2 lines in the right order to get everything sprinkling again.

That's all in a days work on the ranch. Glenn had to go back and change into some dry clothes. When he was dry we went back to pull milkweed for a couple hours.

Glenn decided to take the milkweed from the 2 days to the town landfill, and pick up a few items at the store.

I bought lunch, to go, at the Naturita Mexican cafe, then we headed out to the landfill. Glenn worked at the landfill for the 10 years before he retired a couple years ago.

We planned to show up at lunch time, and it was old home week with the boys. We all ate lunch together, and I particularly delighted in seeing one of Sir Toms great grandsons, Ken Swaim (Enids Uncle).

We laughed with the landfill boys till lunch hour was over then went on about our business. Some of our business was getting Eggs, Milk and Broccoli at the Naturita Market before we drove the 25 miles back to the ranch.

Back at the ranch we had time to finish off changing the sickle bar in Glenn's hay mower. Glenn usually buys his machines from the used machinery auction. He had this mover for a few years now and a week ago discovered a hidden compartment that goes the whole width of the mower.

Hot damn! There was a nearly new sickle cutting blade in there. The one he'd been using was in really poor shape. That probably saved him 3 or 4 hundred bucks. The God of mowing was in on that for sure. :freaky

I may have earned my dinner there as Glenn got on the ground to guide the bar as I hammered it home. Clearly a 2 man job. Although I'm sure Glenn would have gotten the job done if I hadn't been there. That's just how he flies.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

For all the help I was at the ranch, I was probably that much distraction to his efficiency. But he'll just have to deal with that as I really like going there for a couple days when I get the chance.

Glenn says that the ranch isn't as much funs as it used to be though, and he may sell out one of these days. I'll just have to deal with that when the day comes. Nothing good lasts forever. :cry

We did have time to take Glenn's 37 Dodge Coupe out for a ride. Glenn's had his coupe for 6 or 7 years, but it's only been since he retired that he had time in the winters to finish it off to running condition.

I'd never seen it drive down the road, let along ridden in it. We'd take a ride up to the lookout on the La Sal Canyon Hill. Glenn airs up the tires and lift kit.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Coincidentally my first car was a 37 dodge coupe just like this back when I was 15....well it wasn't like this, mine didn't have a 350ci Chevy in it, or a nice paint job, or well, actually I guess it wasn't anything like this. :rofl

Looks like an instrument panel out of a 747 damn near.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Glenn surveys his land from atop LA Sal Hill. I'd have been proud to be in his shoes.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

In tribute to my friend Glenn

From Grand Mesa SMR

We finished off the day with the evening water sprinkler moving, shot some prairie dogs, and picked a few more Milkweeds. I marveled again at his pretty red cliff against the foreground of the green fields.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Just one girl out for her evening meal today.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

A little standoffish....

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

We did the usual for the evening, dinner, news, and email. Worn out, in a good way, we all went to bed. Tomorrow I would ride. Fun while ranching would be over. Riding Again

Life on the ranch began at a slow pace the next morning. I went to the window to look for girls in the yard. Nada. Then to the kitchen for coffee.

Enid made a nice ham and egg breakfast that morning. Glenn gave us all the morning off from milkweed pulling. We had gotten the majority of them. The Milkweed has a seed bloom like a dandy lion. Hundreds of wind blown little cotton balls type of seeds. We had seen enough empty seed stalks where those seeds had been to know that this fight wasn't over yet.

BTW, I've been meaning to tell you something about alfalfa that I thought was interesting. Glenn's field could grow more than twice what it does grow for the same amount of time and water. There is lots of open space between plants.

So one day a few years back Glenn bought 400 dollars worth of seed and seeded the whole field. Wasted Money. Seems as though Alfalfa won't let new Alfalfa start up as some sort of defense against a new guy take over.

What you have to do is deep plow the last alfalfa crop into the ground, then grow a wheat crop on the field, then plow that in and then reseed with Alfalfa for the next spring. It takes a good year or more to do all that.

He'd lose 4 Alfalfa mowings, ($50000) or so). But the good news would be that he'd make that up in the next couple years if every thing went right. Hummmm....

Anyway, enough of that interesting stuff, we got riding to talk about. After breakfast, I dug out the bike.....

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

.......and loaded my stuff, mostly just my shaving kit, netbook, phone and charger. Last time I was here I left my phone charger plugged into the wall.

I did require a change into my spare set of clothes. I'd squatted down in the field to get a good hold of a stuborn milkweed....rippppp went the crotch of my pants. Being a comando rider, I had to take care of that. :D

Handshakes and man hugs were doled out Where appropriate. A big hug for Enid. I swore to come back soon. Now Glenn and Enid could rest a couple days till their youngest daughter's family showed up next week with their 9 kids.

So I carefully backed my bikes out onto the gravel driveway, and managed to get out onto the security of pavement, and headed down the road toward Naturita to gas up.

Wind in my helmet was a welcome change. I had plenty of time to enjoy Hwy 141 past Gateway and on to hwy 50 at Whitewater. Delta and the Cedaredge meetup were in my sites.

Near Naturita there were more old junker to admire.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Glenn's got his eye on that old '65 T-bird, second from the right.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

There's a 50 mile radius of area over here that was populated because of Uranium mining. Town like Nucla, Naturita, and Uravan all supported the Uranium trade, and the mining was all shut down by government regulations back in the early 60s for some reason. Nucla and Naturita survived the shut down, but the actually mine town/site of Uravan was just a contaminated mining site till about 25 years ago when the goverment started cleaning it up. It's hardly more than a Historical marker on the side of 141 now. Most travelers have no idea of the hustle and bustle of the Uranium heyday more than a half century ago.

The 'Unaweep/Tabegauche Scenic and Historic Byway' is the moniker of 141 these days. That's a mouthful, but the extremely beautiful canyon deserve a colorful title to go with is brilliant red cliffs and green valleys. The motorcycle friendly, curvy road is one of cycledoms best. Here are some pictures...curves

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Look at that 20' long rock sticking out up there....might be 40'.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

near Gateway.....did you know there is an awesome auto museum in Gateway?

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Gateway corner's cliff....road makes 90 degree turn toward Whitewater Co

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Pointed toward Whitewater I noticed a greener landscape.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

I wondered if these guys were having as good a time as I was....I bet they were. 141 is a can't miss road.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

The beauty continued almost all the way to Whitewater. It was now an easy 35 mile ride to the Aspen Trail RV and campground site. I did gas up and pick of a can of spaghettios and a lb of pasta for dinner later on.

When I got to the Campground there were several riders from our group already there. Cool, it was good to see Rand (KLR, bay area), and Carl (Knows shit) Custer (ST1100, DC area), and Ed Shea (FJR1300, Maryland or sum'er).

It seemed like a good group. I unloaded the DR and took it to town to get a Styrofoam cooler and some beer. That was probably all I was going to need for the three days that I'd be with these guys.

It was Thursday. Most of the guys would show up today. LD walker showed up about 4pm. He was on his DR650. He and I had planned to see what the top of the Grand Mesa was all about.

I cooked some Pasta and threw the Spaghettios with meatballs into the pasta for color. That was enough for LD and I. Then we had a few beers along with some well placed BS as the guys related their stories of sweltering heat crossing from the east.

The campgrond was almost a 100 degrees in the heat of the day but cooled to the 80s by 6pm. That wasn't too bad. Although some guys did run to the sanctuary of the Cedaredge motels. :huh Tomorrow we'd be dualsporting the big hill.

Word got out last night that we all were to gather at breakfast to meet everyone who'd showed up. LD and I had morning coffee at camp before going to the cafe in Cedaredge.

We ended up with a group of eager, smilie faces at the Cafe. Carl Custer, left, then Bob Cutler and Ron Erhart....and back of Ryder's head

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

...and Left, Ed Shea, Dave Bowers, Tom Bowers, and Matt McDonald

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

and, left, Dave Ryder, Polly, (soon to be Ryder) and LD Walker

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Have you ever seen a group picture around a table where everyone was looking ??? I don't think so. Sorry to say that Jack Smith was Missing....already out riding

This is the first. Green shirt, back left, is Matt McDonald, organizer of this get together...

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Most of the guys went out to ride Black Canyon or the Colorado Monument Valley. But LD and I were going into the back country up top of Grand Mesa.

We'd heard about the Land End road. It was the original road to the top built back in the late 30s by the WPA and CCC of the great depression era. Before that there were only horse trails to the top.

According to Glenn, at one time they held rally car races through the switchbacks to the top. The road is 18 miles long from near Delta Co.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

LD and I gassed up and headed up hwy 65, the pave road to the top. It was already near 90 degrees at Cedaredge so we imagined that the cooler temps as we clImbed would be welcome.

We stopped at the visitors center near the top and got a very nice free map of the G M National Forest. The Lady said that our turn off was 3 miles further up the Mtn. We went 4.5 and decided that we missed it somehow, and stopped to look the map over.

Turns out the road was just a half mile further. We made the turn into the light breeze, and took the 2 lane gravel road out along the rim of the Gran Mesa. It was 10 miles to an old ranger's building called the Observatory. That where the Land End road starts the zigzag down the hill .

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

My pic of Land End Road from the top

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

LD prepared for a masterpiece photo of his own....

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

The Ranger's Observatory

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

........and the road down......

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

We started down the switchback, and rode for a mile or so. We decided it would only take us back into the hot weather away from the high country so we turned around and went back up.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

We went back to 65 and took it over the mtn toward I-70. When we got to 330 (10 miles short of I-70) we took a right turn toward Collburn. Collburn had gas and a cafe, and not much more. We took a welcome break from riding and the 100 degrees that the lower elevation had brought on.

With a burger and several glasses of water inside us we headed up the forest access road directly up the mountain toward cooler air. The first couple thousand feet brought welcome relief.

Once the road turned to dirt, we found it to be fairly heavily wash boarded as any gravel road becomes, especially as it was steeply uphill. It seems that acceleration or braking expedites the growth of wash boarding.

In fact at one point the wash board shocked my bike so bad that it died. Oh Crap!...what can the matter be? My DR had been known to die from some silicone getting into the float needle which shut off the fuel supple. I hoped this was again the case , as that's something I can work on.

The first test was to break loose the float bowl drain screw. I carry a little folding screw driver in my pocket as well as 4" Channel Lock pliers, a 4" adjustable wrench, and a pocket knife. I can fix most things with these handy tool.

Anyway no fuel flowed from the float bowl....that was good. Bikes these day usually down't have a fuel shut off position on their petcocks, so I added an on/off valve in the fuel line before the carb.

I shut the fuel off, and pulled the line to the carb off of my shut off valve. That way I could suck on the float bowl's needle valve. The first suck got me a mouth full of gas. Well, it wasn't really a mouthful, but it tasted like a mouth full. Patooie! I hated that.

....the second suck rewarded me with a piece of silicone gel that had plugged the fuel supply. I hooked the line back to the fuel valve and sure enough fuel began to flow from the drain of the carb. That was a relief.

Note to self....give myself a kick in the ass for my reckless use of silicone sealer. We were again underway with only a 5 minute loss of time.

LD and I gained the Mtn top in only 20 minutes from Collburn. It was beautiful up there with many lakes. There are hundreds of them up there....many are linked together to be used as the water supply for Grand Junction and Delta.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

I had to get into the story...

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

It took us another hour and a half to find our way back to the campground. We were happy to get back. An afternoon nap was in order.

Post nap we all gathered at Jack Smith's cabin to lie about what we'd done that day....and listen to Jack entertain. You had to be there. He's a funny guy. First thing you hear when you say, "Hi, Jack". is an admonishment, "Don't say that in an airport", and it gets worse from then on. LD and I had worn ourselves out so we went to bed early. We would tackle the Grand Mesa again tomorrow. Last Day on Grand Mesa

LD and I planned another day on top of Grand Mesa. Rand had ridden his 650 KLR all the way from the San Francisco area. At breakfast with the boys, we invited him to join us.

We assured him that there'd be no tough stuff up there as Rand doesn't have much experience on gravel. It's amazging how intimidating, not without reason, that getting off the pavement can be.

Some folks take to it like a duck to water, but others shy away. Rand is slight of build, and probably would have trouble picking up his bike if he should drop it, so he welcomed the chance to ride along with us.

So it's up the hill we go.....

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

I was leading and heading for the Old Grand Mesa Road to get us into the dirt. We were climbing hwy 65 going to Old Grand Mesa Rd. I'm leading cause I think I know where I'm going. There were 2 PUs and an RV dawdling up the hill and getting ready to go into a big sweeper to the right. They're doing 40mph. I have a head of steam up at 55 and I can see across the corner to the right that there's no one coming. I didn't see a double yellow...truthfully, I don't remember looking.

I'd never get the DR350 up to speed again, if I slowed for these guys, So I went for it. As I'm beginning to pass the RV, the second PU finally gets organized, and he honks at me. Should I have been offended after that bit of in-hospitality?

Did he know how fast I should have been driving............Was he wrong to honk? Could he have been honking his approval? It's all so confusing. :evil:evil

One person suggested that the guy's wife probably said, "Honk at that Idiot." so the guy honked to save face with the missus, but inside his head he was saying, "yea, buddy, go for it". I just don't know.

Old Grand Mesa Road is uphill and wash boardy for the first couple miles till we got on top. Once on top it was miles and miles of this. The honking PU driver's wife was long forgotten.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

We rode around for a half hour when I realized I'd been on this road yesterday so I took an offshoot road. It wasn't graded 2 lane, It was a single lane with rocks occasionally that required High clearance at least.

In fact it was a little much for us geezers. We made it a mile or so...both LD and Rand having an issue once with the 'tired bike syndrome' in short rocky climbs.

We were looking for a an excuse to turn around when our prayers were answered....some 2' deep of it.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Now this probably would have stopped us if there was a good reason to get to the other side, but there wasn't, and we weren't out here to hurt ourselves. We were here to enjoy ourselves looking at pretty country. We weren't here to learn how to swim in swift, cold water. Duh!

We took a break in the shade and discussed what we'd already learned, not what we might learn if were were young men and just could leave that water alone. :D

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

We corrected my mistake and went back to the top.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Rand is having a ball on the dirt roads and so expresses himself.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

Getting out of the saddle is good for all of us. We make the decision that lunch in Collburn is sounding pretty good, so after a short break by this lake we will head that way.

From Destination, Grand Mesa Co.

It's another hour before we get settled into the cafe in Collburn. We may have been riding for 3 hrs by now and 40 miles. We are dog tired. We learn that although Rand is having his first dirt ride in this kind of beauty, the skittery roads have him white knuckled most all the time.

Thinking back LD and I could relate to our first experiences with gravel roads. I remember being nervous at 15 mph in a turn, and being passed by guys doing more than twice that, wondering, "How do they do that?".

We explained to Rand how to get back to camp on the paved road from Collbun. He liked that idea, and after lunch he was off in that direction.

LD and I had been revived enough that we elected to go back over the mtn on the dirt road that we came in on. We figured we'd get to cool air quicker that way, and once on top we'd take another route to see some new territory.

I got thru the horrible uphill wash board today without a problem, and once on top we worked out way out to the ranger/visitors center. We passed a dozen more lakes, and we were over amped with the beautimusness of it all. It was just another fine day riding in mother nature's back yard.

Back at camp we found Rand had gotten back just fine. Word went out that we'd all have our last dinner at a steakhouse in Cedaredge. Cool....time enough for a nap. It amazes me how much work riding a dirt bike is.....Work maybe, but a good kind of work.

Dinner was good, and back at camp LD and I capped off our couple days together. We'll get back together in August as I intend to ride some or all of the Continental Divide Route. LD has a job, but will take a few days off to ride some of it with me. LD is always great company.

As we talked we busied ourselves with breaking camp down so we could get an early start on tomorrow's ride home. I was developing another plan of attack on the hot country crossing as I climbed into my bag for the night.

The Ride Home

LD and I got up at first light. We took the time to boil up some water on our homade alcohol stoves while we packed up. I had coffee with my hot water, and LD fueled up with oatmeal. KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Soon it was the awkward moment of saying goodbye to a good friend. I didn't like it but it had to be done. The reality is that once you get to geezerdom, it could be the last time you see your friend.

So we pulled out nearly together. I'd chosen the southern route thru AZ, Kayenta, and Kingman again. There's something about I-70 and I-15 that threw me off even though it's about a hundred miles shorter. I did a Saddlesore 1000 using the I-15 route one time, starting in Salida, when it was hot. That left a bad taste in my mouth. That's when I learned to stuff half a bag of Ice in the front of my shirt.

So I made the left hand turn in Delta toward Ridgeway. I'm an AAA member, and I have a filling cabinet at home that is full of maps, but I didn't have a Colorado map.

I'd was a bit doubtful of my route going this way so I stopped on the side of the road and called Glenn. While I was getting straighten out an original owner riding his 6 cylinder, CBX1000 Honda pulled up to see if I needed any help. We chatted a bit and then I again headed down the road.

Soon I was picking up a couple big adventure bikes in my sites. It took me all the way to Ridgeway to catch them. They were obviously smelling the roses, but it gave me a sense of accomplishment.

I got to the Ridgeway hill first, but wasn't able to keep up with the pace of the adventure riders. They overtook me long before the top, but I had my groove on. I passed them back going down the hill. I got the sense that one of them was a newish rider being sensible, and the other guy was hanging back with him.

I'd been long out of battery for my camera so I been unable to take pictures unless I wanted to use my phone. Well going up the Norwood hill was so striking I had to stop for a photo. I made a hasty decisions to pull into a small pullout. It was a little rutty and gravely.....but I got stopped without dropping the bike, whew.

I got off the bike and snapped a picture, but forgot to push the save function so I don't have anything to show for my effort.....and I still had to get out of there with out any catastrophes. It turned out that I didn't have any trouble getting underway, but it kinda shows that towing is certainly more complicated than just riding normally.

I continued on into Norwood, and gassed up. I pressed on to toward Dove Creek taking 141 just before Naturita. When I got to Slick Rock, it reminded me of the deer hunting week that I spent there some 20 years ago. The guy I was with had grown up in Nucla, and knew Dan that ran the Slick Rock cafe.

We'd gotten a deer and an Elk. Dan gave us a key to the storage cave a few miles down the Dolores River where the Uranium boys had a lot of defunct mining infrastructure, and skinned and quartered the animals there where it was cool. Then Dan let us cut them up for storage in his meat cutting room. >P> Dan was/is a class act. He's also a friend of Glenn's (or maybe a relative), and Glenn told me where he is now, but I've forgotten what he said.

Dan closed down the Cafe a few years after that. There's nothing there now but the couple of buildings and memories. Speaking of memories .....Dan's daughter had been privy to a Mtn sheep fight on the cliffs behind their place just across the river. She got it on film and showed it to us all one night at the cafe.

I struggled to bring the moments back.....thinking about the beer and the bullshit that went on around the campfire during that week. Good times, and I swore not to shoot anymore animals. I'm too soft for that nowadays. :cry

I got back to the business of climbing out of the Dolores River switchbacks at Slick Rock and getting through Egner to Dove Creek. I made good time though to Kayenta.

I stopped at the MickyDs to take a break and get a cold drink and a McDouble ($1 menu, of course). I spend an hour with email and such. Then back on the road. I was headed for Kingman. I figured to get a cheap motel there and do another night crossing though the heat.

Last time when I started the uphill pull to Flagstaff on 89 last year, my fuel filter began to fail on me and I couldn't maintain speed. I struggled up all the hills on the way home.

Not the case this time. I pretty much held the speed limit (75) on the way down the hill to Kingman. there's a funny story about my stay in Kingman, now that I look back on, here's what I wrote at the time as a way to wrap up my trip report.

I rolled into Kingman last night a 6pm. I saw the motel sign from the freeway that I stay in, 29$ single. So I'm going to get a room and wait for midnight to make the desert crossing.

I pull off the freeway and looked to pull into the motel parking lot.....well, where is it anyway? Further investigation showed a clean lot. The bulldozer had gotten there first. Crap!

....but just down the street was one for 27$. So quickly I inquired if I get my senior discount. The Indian lady said she'd give me 3 bucks off. I said I liked that so much that I'd give her cash. She gave me a key and a remote, and noted that she didn't charge me a deposit. I liked that, too.

So I cooked pasta in the microwave, and added 4 spoonfulls of margarine (LD donated to my cause), and also added a can of tuna fish that I had'nt eaten yet. I also ate the rest of the tuna on bread with the mayo that I gleeped from the cafe in down town Cedaredge. That satisfied my hunger, and saved me from going out.

I watched a little TV and fell asleep. I awoke at 1:30am. I got up and quickly packed. I hadn't unpacked much so I was ready by 1:45. I grabbed the key and went down to the key drop box, which drops the key inside the office, and dropped the key in. I went back to the room to lock and shut the door, when I noticed the room key was still in the room, and that I'd dropped my MC key in the drop box. Mucho Dumbasssssss..... I have no explanation what so ever. I was dumbfounded. I went back in the room and slept till 6am, when the lady came in and traded me the room key for my key.

That turned out ok, (except it shows I'm that much closer to needing a care giver) as today wasn't hot at 7am at the river, and then the hwy goes back up a couple thousand feet when heading west out of Needles. Before I got to Barstow there was a new cool breeze coming from the Northwest so I rode the whole way at around 85 degrees + or - .

So I pulled into the homestead at noon today, Monday. It was good to be home.....960 miles, 600 on Sun and 360 today. Nearly 2000 miles for the trip....not counting a couple hundred miles on top of the Grand Mesa.