15. Arches

Aug 5, 2009 Uncategorized

Well after riding from SW Utah to SE Utah my back was killing me. I pulled into a restaurant in Monticello, Utah and thought I was going to crash my bike from the pain burst in my upper back. I got some dinner and bought a bottle of Aleve per Christina’s recommendation. She’s going to school for pharmacy, so I figure she should know her pain pills. After talking to my friend Sarah (we’ll get to her when I get to Wisconsin) she suggested staying in a hotel for the night. Fabulous fucking idea, Sarah!!! Normally I plan stuff pretty well, but for whatever reason the thought of a hotel hadn’t even crossed my mind. I was still planning on camping and suffering.

So I spent like $50 to camp at some shitty local hotel rather than a Best Western. What a tragic mistake. Rather than spend the night catching up on the blog, I stayed in a place with an internet connection that only worked in one corner of the room and was slower than dial up. Not exactly the fuel needed to keep a website running. I watched some Law & Order: SVU because nothing else was on and went to bed after taking a shower. The shower was very refreshing after a long day of desert riding.

The next morning my back still hurt, which made me bitter about even bothering with the hotel. But as it was pointed out to me, if I had camped my back pain could have increased.

My goal for the day was Denver, Colorado. Christina’s sister Sonja lives there. Also, Christina was on a short vacation for work and was due in at midnight. It was a race to Denver for Christina and me!

There was really no time effective way to make it to Denver with out taking the free way. So I headed north from Monticello to I-70. Before reaching I-70 I stopped at Arches National Park which I think was somewhere near Moab, Utah.

Here are some pics from the park

Twisties

So there was this trail and sign. It was a mile walk to the lookout area, but I was way to hot to walk a mile. So instead I figured I would ride this trail instead and hope it took me near the same place.

I got maybe a mile before I encountered this. Oh well, I did a U-turn and went back to the parking lot

They call those holes in the rocks the Windows

After Arches I just headed for Denver. I took a couple pics on the way there before things hit the fan.

I stopped in this town to get gas and took a picture of this weird lady

The rest of the pics were taken at this pull out

Then these huge dark clouds appeared in the distance. I didn’t like the look of them one bit. As I approached them I saw lightening and felt thunder. I figured I better get as many miles in while dry as I could and sped up. Then I hit the rain. Mesh gear is great for desert riding, but it takes about 5 seconds of rain to have me soaked all the way through.

I quickly pulled off to find shelter. There was a big restaurant and shop that had long eaves that provided the cover I needed. I tried to take some pictures of the storm, but it kept coming out blurry. I don’t know why the camera was having issues. Maybe it was focusing on the moving rain. Here is the only picture that someone came out

I was still a ways out, but since I was already soaked I toughed the weather and kept going. I drove 40 miles with my hazards flashing going about 35 mph. The road was covered in water and it alternated between rain and hail the entire way. It was a miserable experience. Also, since my visor is tinted, I couldn’t see with it closed because it was so dark. But since it was raining, I couldn’t really ride with it open either. So I had to open the visor almost all the way, but I left it down a couple clicks to protect my eyes. I wore my sunglasses low on my nose so I could see over the top of them. It sucked, and I probably looked foolish.

When I finally made it there I missed the road to my friend’s house. I finally stopped at a gas station to get directions, and I was told I overshot it by about 50 blocks. Ugh. When I stopped there I held my hand up and clenched my fist. A bunch of water shot out of the glove. Fun stuff. I finally made it to Sonja’s place. Sonja is Christina’s sister.

We picked up Christina at the airport a couple hours later and called it a night.