Early in the morning we headed out of Blanding on a dirt
road climbing to the west and hoping to intersect Elk Ridge Trail
which would turn north and eventually connect to county road 211
which leads to the southern portion of Canyon Lands National Park.
The weather was clear but cool and as we climbed to the west one
could feel the temperature dropping. The road was great dirt!
Some mud began to appear but we rode through with little trouble.
At around 8,000 feet the temperature was down to 35 degrees and we were stopped by a large section of snow across the road! After a few solo attempts to ride across we decided it best to walk the bikes through one at a time. The altitude and cold weather made this a bigger chore then expected. After Ken's bike we walked Neal's through. Now it was John's turn to go. John came up with a great idea! Why not let Ken ride ahead a few miles and see if there was anymore snow to stop us! Brilliant! Ken was back in a few minutes and informed us this was just the first of a lot more snow. We proceeded to walk Ken's and Neal's bike back across the snow! Somehow, we got the feeling that John gets real smart when it comes close to his turn to push his bike. We would keep this in mind for other possibilities on the trail!
We retraced our route back to Blanding
and decided to ride up Highway 191 to Monticello and pick up the
county road 211 that runs west into Canyon Lands National Park.
Looking at the map we saw that Lockhart Trail runs north off of
211 and ends up in Moab about 57 miles away! This should be a
great ride and there should be no snow as the elevation is down
to 4,000 feet. Much of the trail runs next to the Colorado river.
The first 25 or 30 miles was a ride we had all dreamed about.
Fantastic scenery, good dirt with just some challenge and it looked
like we were on our way to Moab! Then we hit sand. Lots of sand!
Long stretches of sand! At times it was difficult to even tell
where the road was as it was all SAND! After a few of us got stuck
and the sand appeared to get worse we had to evaluate our situation
and make a decision! It was close to 4:00pm, we had little water
left, and we still had about 25 miles to go with no knowledge
of how long the sand would last. We knew we could make it back
and we made the decision to go back for now but in a few days
we would attack this trail coming from Moab and see if we could
get through. It turned out we made the correct choice! More on
this trail later.
We back tracked, hit the pavement at Monticello and headed north to Moab. Arriving Moab in the early evening we figured we had spent close to eleven hours trying to go from Blanding to Moab. It was a great day; turned back twice, but we had ridden some fine roads, tested our bikes and ourselves and we knew we had five days of riding to go!
The next morning we decided to
visit Fred's motorcycle shop and get some ideas for a good day
ride. Fred was the sponsor for the KLR650 Rally and an invaluable
help in pointing out trails to ride in the area. Fred and Peggy
were great hosts and provided many services to rally riders throughout
the week. His shop is modest but full of useful parts and accessories.
Fred was a non-stop mechanic and provider throughout the week.
Anyone planning on traveling through or around Moab should stop
by and visit Fred for a few minutes - he is a wealth of information
on the area!
It was at Fred's shop that we met Robert Carreras from Fort Worth. Robert was to ride the rest of the week with our group. He became a good friend to us all and a solid riding companion on the many trails we rode that week. Also, we soon met a fellow named Russ Fellows from Vermont and John Houchins from Omaha, Nebraska. The group was expanding and we enjoyed meeting and riding with them during the next few days.
Fred suggested a good morning run would be to ride the Sand Flats Road Loop up to Porcupine Rim Campsite for a spectacular view into Castle Valley and Round Mountain.
Robert recommended an afternoon ride on Shafer Trail as a ride to remember. He had done this trail the day before but wanted to return in the afternoon for better photographic light conditions. It begins near the Island in the Sky Visitor Center and immediately drops down three thousand feet from the mesa edge to the bottom of Canyonlands National Park. We were ready for our first day in Moab!
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