A week a Flaming Gorge Rec. Area. --- 9/29-10/6/08
This is a beautiful spot. The weather dropped down from 75-80 degrees the first couple days to 50-55
by the end of the week. We did some hiking, biking, fishing, and shooting. Unfortunately,
we are fair weather kayakers and we didn't get he boats wet. Manila has it's own petroglyphs etched into sandstone cliffs north of town. Deb and I "found" them
after the Forest Ranger who told us about them couldn't. We went back and gave her GPS
coordinates.
It's deer season. There must be a million guys running around these
woods with loaded rifles. Creepy. Yuck.
Vernal, Utah to Grand Junction, CO 10/7 - 10/19
Rock. Rocks. More Rocks. I think there is a theme developing. Everything note-worthy seems to be a rock. Big rocks, little rocks, rocks made of dinosaur bones. Rocks with 100 year old graffiti... See for yourself:
Look at that dinosaur bone rock, and, that REALLY BIG rock keeping the Green River from overflowing.
Below is Colorado National Monument, intimate, accessible, and un-crowded, much better than the Grand Canyon. In my opinion, you can, um, throw rocks at the Grand Canyon. Wonderful trails!! We hiked down from Coke Ovens Overlook. A pretty little trail that switchbacks down a cliff dropping 700 feet in the first third of a mile. Absolutely stunning scenery.
On the East side of Grand Junction, the Grand Mesa.... stand by for a fishing report!!!
Fishing Report --- Grand Mesa, Big Creek Lake 10/16/08
This time of year, it fishes just like Western Washington. "You can use any color you want, as long as it's black." Water temp was 44 degrees F and the air temp wasn't much better. Tougher on the fisherman than the fish. The fish were strong, fat, and healthy --- and, a species I'd never heard of before: Colorado Greenback Cutthroat Trout. The Cutts liked a black bunny leach stripped in on a 10 foot type III sink tip line. Stripping speed didn't matter. Fast, medium, or slow, all speeds produced strikes.
Colorado National Monument --- We hiked down from the top one day, and up from the bottom another day.
Did I mention I was tired? Beat? Bushed? Out-of-steam? Yesterday was an eight mile bike ride and a eight mile kayak drift. We didn't row all the way, just most of it. It was enough for me. Too much perhaps. Today is a rest day. We'll sit in the Jeep, drive Arches National Park, and take photos, and rest all day.
We come to the end of the road where the arches are. The arches are a mile or two down a well groomed path. No problem. I can get my butt in gear for this. What's a mile or two? We take off...
And so do at least a hundred other people. You would think we were at a shopping mall the day after Thanksgiving with a Wal-Mart at the end giving away free turkeys. This is definitely not us.
In case you haven't noticed it, Deb and I have our own style. Whatever other folks are doing, we go the other way. For example, when we'd go snow-shoeing, we'd be up before dawn and on the trail at first light breaking fresh powder. No traffic, no lines, solitude, nature, fresh powder. It was a blast! On the way back to the truck, we'd run into the incoming hordes stomping their way up the trail that Deb and I had cut. Why show up at 10:30AM with everybody else?
At Arches National Monument, we showed up at 10:30 with everybody else. Out of nowhere, the Good Lord gave us a sign.
This is the sign:
Actually, it was the second sign. Deb and I completely ignored the first sign since we didn't really plan on a "hike". The first sign read "If you are not experienced at scrambling up and down rock faces, DO NOT take the primitive trail". Yup. We took the primitive trail.
Difficult and strenuous fail to adequately describe the 6 miles of torture we subjected ourselves to. Yes, we saw the arches AND avoided the crowds. And no, I didn't get any rest. We agreed: TOMORROW IS A REST DAY.
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Kayaking the Colorado River with a self shuttle is a "work-fun" experience (the more work you do, the more fun you have). For those of you that haven't tried it, this is what it looks like:
Step 1: Load EVERYTHING on the Jeep. Step 2: Drop the kayaks at the put in eight miles up river.
Step 3: Drive the Jeep back to the take out. Then, take off on the bikes...
Step 4: Leave the bikes at the put in.
Step 5: Hop in the kayaks and shove off!!
Steps 6 and 7: Load the kayaks on the roof rack. Drive up river and fetch the bikes. Piece of cake.
Did I mention I was a little tired? Ok, maybe more than a little. --- B
The Potash Road / Shafer Trail entrance to Canyonlands National Park was recommended by two sources. We are glad we took it. Views from the trail were much better than those in the park. Although 4x4's are recommended, as far as I can tell, the only time you would absolutely need 4x4 would be to ford small creeks in the spring time. This time of year the creeks were dry. High ground clearance is a plus. There was one large rock with years of wear from vehicle undercarriages.
Cortez / Durango, End of October 2008
We've slowed the pace a bit. A week in Grand Junction, CO then a 100 mile drive to Moab. A week in Moab followed by another 100 miles to Cortez. By Monday, we will have been in Cortez for 6 days --- three weeks and only 200 miles on the bus.
We always figured that when we quit working we'd have lots of spare time on our hands. Not so. We have been so BUSY doing stuff, seeing stuff, driving from place to place, and planning the next step. There has been little down time. We are like Tasmanian Devils: whirlwinds of activity. Not anymore. We are going to slow it down --- read more books, take some walks, put our feet up more.
There are distractions like..... Mesa Verde National Park.
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