Saturday 31st October – Sunday 1st November

Green River, UT to Castle Dale, UT

It was obvious that my bike wasn’t happy, so we decided to stay in Green River another night and address the issue. Wayne continued to be a star and gave us a generous discount on a room, before we set to work on the bike.

 

 

Ed couldn’t find anything untoward, but it was definitely burning oil. All we could think was that where we’d got the cylinder re-honed, it was slightly on the big side, and where the new piston and rings had finally bedded in, it had become a bit of a loose fit. All we could do was put some new rings in, fill it up with oil and hope that it did the trick.

 

 

We’d planned to get on the road early the next day, but despite all our efforts we still didn’t manage to get going until 11am. It was a bright day, with a delightfully warm sun, and a paved road took us quickly out of town before turning in to gravel.

 

 

There were some pretty cool hills that ran alongside us that were a really soft pale green, then before we knew it we appeared to be riding on a completely different planet.

 

 

The rocks and formations were incredible, and it really looked like a Luna scape with white and grey rocks and multicoloured layered mounds.

 

 

We wound our way out of there and got in to a wide open space with long straight gravel roads, and I absolutely loved the colours. I felt like I was immersed in a pastel painting, where the artist could have plucked me out at any moment. It was beautiful.

 

 

The weird and wonderful rock formations continued, but the gravel and dirt soon turned to sand. There were some really long stretches of it, but if I’m completely honest I couldn’t notice any difference between being on sand or being on gravel, apart from maybe sand being better for steering.

 

 

My bike always tracked to the right but now it’s a trike it’s even worse, and I find on paved road or flat compacted gravel that I have to constantly push with my right hand and pull with my left, just to keep the damn thing in a straight line. It’s quite tiring but a good workout, although I could end up with one arm bigger than the other, a bit like Ed before he met me…

I soon discovered that the trike absolutely loved sand, however the same couldn’t be said for Ed’s bike. While I rode along effortlessly, Ed was constantly having to readjust to stop his bike washing out, but being rather competent on sand (unlike me, at least with a low powered bike) his bike only squirmed and snaked a bit, and there were no tumbles. Needless to say that if I’d been on my bike I’d have been arse over tit after the first few metres. I hope my RR isn’t boring now that I’ve stopped crashing?!

 

 

We started to climb up slowly and entered the realm of wide open spaces and beautiful views, with the usual rock formations that Utah is famed for. After a relatively short stretch on a couple of paved roads, with more rock in the distance, we got back on to dirt and wound our way round yet more rock formations and past some really beautiful scenery.

 

 

Everywhere I looked it didn’t disappoint, it really was a spectacular area. It’s the whole otherworldly thing that I love, you really feel like you’re on a different planet, and not just mentally for a change.

 

 

While we’d seen some really fantastic scenery, I’d spent the whole day expecting and looking forward to riding through Black Dragon Canyon. However as we neared I70 I started to wonder if it was even on the trail. Basically all the ride reports I’d read from other people had said about riding through it, but I started to wonder if it was only on Kevin’s route and not on Sam’s. I hadn’t thought to look where it was as I thought it was a given, but after crossing under the interstate we decided to look at our GPS and the various routes. After a good five minutes with very little information we managed to work out where it was, and it was in fact on Kevin’s completely different route out of Green River. We were now at the turning to it but it meant going in the wrong direction and then back on ourselves, and as it was getting late we wouldn’t get there and back in time before it was dark. We decided to give it a miss, and continued on our way to Castle Dale where we’d planned to stop for the night.

 

 

Of course there were even more rock formations which looked brilliant as the sun started to set, casting a glorious golden light across their tops, and we soon ended up in a canyon of sorts.

 

 

A graded gravel road took us though it, and I particularly loved the contrast between the blue sky, coloured rock and green and yellow trees that lined the bottom. It was really beautiful.

 

 

We then got a brilliant surprise, in the form of a huge panel of Petroglyphs and Pictographs that were apparently created 1000-2000 years ago; it was fascinating.

 

 

The light was dropping and we were really lucky that we got there when we did, otherwise we could have ridden straight past them completely unawares. I couldn’t help but wonder who drew them and what they actually meant, and if they’d done it for themselves or for someone else to find. What impelled them to draw and carve those pictures? Was it simply an expression of creativity, or was it to tell a story to future generations? I really wished that we could see a little snippet back in time and see who created them.

 

 

One thing I did know is that they definitely wouldn’t have guessed that 2000 years later someone would be stood there taking photos of them with a camera! I have to say though that it was quite sad to see that over the years people had vandalised and defaced them, I don’t quite understand why anyone would want to do that.

I’d been the perfect temperature all day, but as the sun set and the light started dropping it got really cold. I then found out that poor Ed had been chilled for most of the day in his summer gear, and realised that a trip to the thrift store might be in order. Summer had most definitely buggered off, and it seemed that winter was just around the corner.

I can’t really tell you what the scenery was like from there to Castle Dale, but the silhouettes reminded me of the Badlands in Drumheller, Canada. We’d arrived there in the dark too. Lots of domes and rounded shapes, with a graded gravel road which took us to the main road. After a couple of miles on a paved road we finally arrived in town, and grabbed a snack from the garage. We then found a rather expensive motel room, as being the only motel in town and within a 15 mile radius there was no room for haggling. Not that I didn’t try, although we were so cold that I think we would have taken it whatever the price!