West-Bound Towards Home

Well I'm going on four months now of traveling and over 4,000 miles. Its strange traveling west for the remainig time to san diego. I have ridden south, south-east, and even north-east towards Tok... but never west. As I near home I have mixed emotions. On one hand, it will be a joyous time to see friends and family, surf, relax, etc. On the other, I'm not looking forward to city congestion, and urban life.

I had such a great time in Moab, spending more time there than any other town since anchorage. Unfortunately I lost my chargers to everything: camera, iPod, mp3 player. Hopefully I will be able to take some pictures with my iPod until i get back to San Diego.

I was able to use a computer for a limited amount of time to upload my pictures at least. With my iPod battery fading quick, I have only enough time to jot down these quick thoughts. Once I find another computer, I will update with a more thorough story and more pictures as well as some videos.

I spent Halloween weekend in flagstaff, and am back on the road today. I'll be passing through Sedona, Prescott, and finally down into the warm deserts where my worry of snow will vanish. I'll bike to the salton sea and the town of niland (via 10), where I'll check out the famous slab city. A friend is planning on meeting me in the slabs, I'll spend a couple days there probably, then head towards the town of ocotillo and camp at a spot that my dad, uncles, and I, have camped at since I was a child. I'll take the more scenic route up s2 stopping at some hot springs and the famous town for apple pies, then finally arriving in my home town for some much needed TLC and enjoy seeing all the familiar faces.

Happy Halloween!

New Sponsor

Big thanks to Shawn and Peter of OSS for the new tent! I met them in Moab coincidentally, and had mentioned my tent is getting worn out... they provided me with a new 2 person. Details of story to come.

Check them out at: http://www.ossbag.com

(My new pictures with the orange bag is the OSS bag.)

Media

Found on the highway, full intact, rigged, and ready to fish.  Tried using it once, to no avail.

Provo

What a spot for a snack and a stretch

Ryan

Never a good sight for a cyclist, was still happy to see though.  Fortunately a calm day as I passed through the canyon.

Hundreds of thousands of years of evolutionary history

Sun's not down and temperature's dropping in a hurry

You know it's f*ing cold out, when the olive oil clouds

Surprisingly, I only had a couple comments on this - computer malfunctions sometimes, must switch to km's momentarily

Donald's riding from Denver to Las Vegas. His rear derailleur is stuck in first gear with a screwdriver, and he has no front derailleur.  He's also carrying all of his stuff on the front of his bike, as well as on his back.

Welcome to the desert

Camping on the open range

The area around Moab is strikingly beautiful

Fun bike path into town.

Moab

Moab from above

Quick check of the slickrock - awesome.

Hiking up Mill Creek

My own pool, perfect on a hot day

Frisbee, Moab-style

Our camp on the bluff

Darryl, Cory, Shawn, Jodi, and Peter

The slickrock is actually quite sticky for bikes.  The name comes from early settlers in the area who rode horses on the rock, and noticed the metal shoes wouldn't grip.  

The slickrock trail is marked with white paint, and traverses about 10 miles, almost entirely on rock.

Moab and the Colorado flowing through

It was incredible getting up hills like this, standing up on the bike, the rear tire would grip the whole time.

Jodi

Arches

Mike

Fun climbing

Soooo windy

Foolhardy 

Double-O

The "primitive" trail back to the car

Kevin's diesel van

The Kamloops crew

James and Jordan, warming up

Petroglyphs 

The UMTRA project

Uranium mill tailings = major cleanup operation = expensive

Radioactive

They built a whole new rail line to transport the uranium tailings to the dump site

The tailings site was setup by a company called Atlas (that's now bankrupt).  The site is conveniently located directly next to the Colorado river, and just a few miles from the town of Moab.

Farms in Souther California are fed by water from the Colorado

Biking back to camp from town

BBQ'n

Fire with tumbleweeds

Fire with gas

Goodtimes

Passing the bottle around

Eric, mid-yawn

Bye Moab, I'll miss you

Strange, large, insect I've never seen before

The area around southern Utah is like a super-highway for airline traffic.  I counted ten jets in the air at one point.

Comb Ridge

Cliff dwellings, thousands of years old

Bob, Jim, and David

Well worth the detour

Always a great view after a long climb

Moki Dugway

Goosenecks.  I met Lucy and Dave here, a nice, traveling, Australian couple, that provided some delicous instant, vietnamese coffee, and some other great food items.

Mexican hat, what the nearby town was named after, supposed to look like an upside down sombrero

Look familiar? Where Forrest Gump ended his run

Monument Valley

With so many "no trespassing" signs, and loads of fencing. I had to ask these people to camp on their land, and Darlene kindly let me stay the night.

Mike introduced me to a Navajo burger.  I was battling a terrible headwind, light rain, struggling up a hill to look over and see him wave me over, and offer to buy me dinner.  Thanks so much!  I saw him the following morning when he pulled over and gave me his continental breakfast.

Cold night camping at marsh pass, and snow on the mountains across the valley

Highest yet

Another cold morning

The cheap of the cheap

Looking at hill ahead to get to Flag