Salt Lake City Thru Colorado Rockies

Salt Lake City through Colorado Rockies

Fall 2021

Day 0: Sep 5 - Salt Lake City, UT [7.8, 00:38, 12.1 mph, +187', -200']

Last year was a bust because of the pandemic so I was determined to tour this year. I decided on a route that started in Salt Lake City and headed east through the Colorado Rockies and eventually ending up in La Junta, CO. The plan was to travel to and from via Amtrak since it makes traveling with the bike easy. Then covid reared its ugly head again with another surge and I started to question my route but decided to stick with the planned route. However, I was very leery of being confined on a train for the 33-hour ride from Chicago to Salt Lake City. I considered renting a car one-way and driving but that would have required two long days of driving and would have cost about $600 with gas.

In the end, I decided flying was the best option because I would only have to spend 4 hours on a plane. However, that made the bike transportation more complicated. In a previous trip to Salt Lake City, I was able to ship my bicycle via Amtrak Express and pick it up after flying to Salt Lake City. Unfortunately, Amtrak Express was not available so that required packing up the bike in a bike box and taking it with me on the plane. I chose to fly Southwest Airlines because they only charge $75 as compared to $150-200 for other airlines.

So, I arranged with a limo service to transport my bike and myself to Midway Airport where Southwest flies. I made it clear a couple of times that I was bringing a bike in a bike box with dimensions of 120x32x10 inches. That required an SUV rather than a limo, which was not a problem.

I had a 6 am pickup time for my 8:30 am flight. The limo driver showed up with an SUV in plenty of time but, incredibly, did not know how to fold down his rear seats to accommodate the bike box. The driver insisted the seats did not fold but they obviously did since there was a vertical separation between the folding halves. He just didn’t know how to fold them down. I was naturally agitated since folding the seats were required to fit the bicycle box.

So, I went back into my house to contact the owner of the limo service and explain the problem. When I came out of the house, I discovered that the SUV driver had simply dumped my luggage and left without any word. Fortunately, the company owner was able to get another SUV driver who showed up at 6:07 and had no problem folding down the rear seats.

It was only a 30-minute ride to the airport and I was able to do curb side check-in which made the bicycle handling pretty easy. Meanwhile, the limo company owner refused to charge anything because of the fiasco. So, despite some anxiety I got a free ride to the airport (and tipped the driver). Shortly after 7 am I was checked in and eating breakfast. I didn’t really need another breakfast after my cereal breakfast but I didn’t expect any food on the plane so figured it was best to eat something.

The flight was uneventful. I had upgraded to Business Select (additional $40) to make sure I could get an early seat selection. I got an aisle seat and hoped a single traveler would grabbed the window seat but a couple was magnetically drawn to me for some reason and that hope was dashed. The flight was about 80% full with about half of the middle seats unoccupied.

We arrived in Salt Lake City a few minutes ahead of schedule. It was a LONG walk from the terminal to the baggage claim. So long that I expected the bags would already be available by the time I got to baggage claim. Instead, I had to wait about 20 minutes for my bags and then another 15 minutes for my bike box but everything arrived in good condition.

I retreated to an unoccupied corner near baggage claim and reassembled my bike. It took nearly 2 hours before I was ready to ride. I had a motel reservation at an EconoLodge that was about 5 miles away. I used Google Maps to map out a bicycle route to the motel. The only problem was my starting point did not match Google’s so I had to wing it a bit. I needed to get to 3700W to get to North Temple Ave. I started riding around the circle around the terminal and took an exit to 3700W. Then I stopped at a stop sign to figure out where I was using MAPS.ME on my smart phone. At that point, a police officer came along and told me how to get to North Temple Ave. He explained I could pass through two gates by riding straight ahead that would have been closed to vehicles. That got me to North Temple Ave that had a bike lane.

When I got to the motel at 2 pm I was informed there was no way I could check in before 3 pm, which wasn’t a surprise. What was a surprise was I learned I needed to make a $100 cash deposit which was refundable at checkout time. I was very unhappy to have that sprung on me when there was no mention of that when I made the online reservation. Then I was even more unhappy when I learned there was no continental breakfast as advertised. It wasn’t surprising that the breakfast would be cancelled due to covid but it was a benefit and figured into my cost equation. So, I was decidedly unhappy with EconoLodge due to these surprises.

Since I couldn’t check in for almost an hour, I backtracked a couple of blocks where there was a grocery store. Unfortunately, it was primarily a Mexican grocery store so I was only able to pick up a couple of things.

When I got back to the motel I was able to check in a few minutes early. Then I walked a couple of blocks to another grocery store where I was able to pick up a few more things including a sandwich for lunch.

Back at the motel, I ate lunch and then reorganized my packing. I also scouted out where I could eat breakfast since there was no continental breakfast. I also used Google Maps to come up with a bicycle route to Emigration Canyon tomorrow, a very straightforward route.

Then it was time to take a shower. For some reason the shower curtain was laying on my bed. So I had to hang the shower curtain myself. Then I found that was a wasted effort since the shower didn’t work. Another black mark against this EconoLodge.

By then it was 8 pm which was really 9 pm Chicago time. It was a long day with an initial scare with a clueless limo driver and then some surprises at the motel. But overall, mostly a good day.

Day 1: Sep 6 - Salt Lake City, UT to Kimball Junction, UT [31.4, 05:19, 5.9 mph, +3,841', -1,755']

I checked out of the motel just before 7 am and was happy to escape with my $100 cash deposit. I retraced my route a couple of blocks to a McDonalds for breakfast. The McDonalds was closed and you had to order at the drive up and pay with non-cash. I had a McMuffin breakfast, which was fine, but there was no good place to sit and eat.

The route to get to the start of Emigration Canyon was easy. I rode a couple blocks east to 600W, rode south to 800S, and turned east. This took me about four miles to the start of Emigration Canyon. However, 800S was a gradual uphill to start. It looked flat but I was only riding 8-9 mph. Then there was a killer hill, the steepest climb of the day. I had to get off and push the bike for a couple hundred feet on the steepest part.

At the start of Emigration Canyon, there was a rotary park where cyclists were gathering for the ride up Emigration Canyon on this Labor Day Monday holiday. The ride up the canyon was a steady 3% grade, 8-mile climb with a good shoulder most of the way. I think there were more bicycles than vehicles on this holiday. Since most cyclists refused to carry as much gear as I was carrying everybody was passing me including older women. So, I had to worry more about cycling traffic than vehicular traffic.

The climb peaked at Little Mountain Summit, 6,240 feet, where most of the cyclists turned around and cruised back home. I cruised down the other side, hitting a max speed of 37 mph. This took me to the I80 intersection. When I got to the I80 overpass, I stopped for my second breakfast at 11 am. I would have stopped sooner but there was no good place. This place wasn’t ideal but the overpass provided shade and there was a large rock for a seat.

I thought there was a frontage road and I could avoid I80 but no such luck. That was probably just as well because it was a 5-mile, 5% grade climb to Parleys Summit and the Interstate would be a more gradual climb than any frontage road. This climb was a little steeper than the Emigration Canyon climb. As I was riding, it became obvious that I would not be able to make it to Jordanelle State Park, my planned destination, and I needed to find an intermediate stop point. This was probably just as well because the Jordanelle destination was an aggressive route for a first day outing.

On this climb, I passed an area where the Parleys Canyon fire hit just a few weeks ago. I was worried at the time whether this was going to affect my tour but some well-timed rain got the fire under control. From my vantage point, the fire didn’t look that bad but probably because I could only see part of the fire area. There was one spot where the fire was next to I80. Conjecture was the fire was started by sparks from a failing catalytic converter and I would guess this spot was where it started.

When I reached the peak of the climb at Parleys Summit (7,048 feet), I discovered there was an I80 exit where there was a Shell station. So, I took the exit and got a large cold drink at the Shell. I actually didn’t need to stop at this exit because Kimball Junction was only 5 miles down the road on a downhill run but I didn’t realize that.

When I took the Kimball Junction exit, I was pleasantly surprised to discover some motels. I could have ridden another six miles to Park City but I figured the motels were only going to be more expensive in Park City. As it was, I got a room at a Holiday Inn Express for $124 with my AARP discount and that was the cheapest rate I could find in Kimball Junction.

Checking in at the Holiday Inn Express was a lot more comfortable than the EconoLodge check-in. The folks at this motel actually went through some hoops to get me checked in before the official check in time and they didn’t require a deposit. And they had a working shower to boot with a shower curtain already in place. Of course, this did cost about $40 more…

After cleaning up I did some more grocery shopping at a Smith’s, which is a huge grocery store. It was almost overwhelming trying to find a few things in the store. Next, I looked for takeout food. I started walking to a nearby pizza place when I happened on a Subway that Google Maps didn’t know about. So, I stopped and got a foot long meal with drink and it came to $17.51. I guess this is the price of a resort area.

A very hard day to start a bicycle tour. In the end, I was happy to find Kimball Junction, which was about half way to my original ending point. In retrospect, this is the first day route I should have planned.

Day 2: Sep 7 - Kimball Junction, UT to Knotty Pine RV, UT [29.7, 03:55, 7.5 mph, +2,093', -1,555']

I didn’t sleep very well which was a surprise given how hard I worked. When I woke up once I used my iCare to measure my heartrate, blood pressure, and blood oxygen level and they were fine although my heartrate was a little high at 66 whereas I expect it to be in the 55-60 range. When I got up in the morning, I checked again and my heartrate was 64, down just a little.

The motel had a good breakfast. My room was just around the corner from the breakfast options and I had some egg sandwich, oatmeal, cereal, coffee cake, banana, and coffee. I was well satisfied with breakfast.

It was a chilly morning at 35F so I wasn’t in a hurry to leave. When I left just before 8 am, the temperature was low to mid 40s and that was fine. I started riding towards Park City on the wide UT224 shoulder. Then I noticed a couple of cyclists riding by on the other side of the road and realized there was a bike trail. However, the traffic was pretty heavy so I didn’t try to move over until about 1.5 miles where there was a gap in the traffic and I was able to get in the left turn lane at a light and pick up the trail. The trail went all the way to the intersection with UT248 to Kamas and even followed UT248 a little ways. It was nice to be a little removed from the traffic and avoid the intersection with UT248.

When the trail ended I picked up UT248 at a light. I rode by the Jordanelle Reservoir, which would have been a great view if power lines hadn’t marred the view. UT248 descended to the reservoir level and then started a couple mile climb that wasn’t too bad and I never dipped below 4 mph.

At the top of the climb, there would have been a great view of the valley looking towards Kamas except for the haze. From the top, it was an easy cruise down to Kamas where I stopped at a 7-Eleven for my second breakfast at 11 am. As I was nearing Kamas, I realized I could have made Kamas yesterday but I would have been pushing darkness. It was also good to break this ride up into two since it made today a relatively easy day and I ended up 7 miles down the road on UT35 that had a big climb tomorrow.

I spent about 30 minutes in Kamas and then pushed on. I rode another mile to Francis and then picked up UT35 heading east. It was a slight uphill 7-mile ride to Knotty Pine RV where I got a tent site for $20. I was the only tenter in the park, which was not a surprise since this was primarily an RV Park.

A surprisingly easy day that almost seemed like a rest day.

Day 3: Sep 8 - Knotty Pine RV, UT to Duchesne, UT [62.6, 07:05, 8.8 mph, +1,955', -1,604']

I had breakfast in bed because it was a little chilly with temperature in the mid-40s. Then I packed up and left at 7:40 am.

It was 13 miles to the summit with the last 5 miles the really steep part. My elevation profile from RideWithGPS showed some 8-10% grades with an average 7%. The first 8 miles were a modest uphill but the last 5 miles were steep. There was a road sign warning about the curvy road and steep grades. I had some fear that I might have to hitch a ride to the summit.

There was also a road sign warning this was open range showing a cow. They should have shown a sheep. At one point, I rode around a corner and sheep covered the road. At first, I thought someone was having a sheep drive but these sheep just came down a side hill and spread across the road. Eventually they figured there was no grass on the road and they mostly wandered off the road. Several vehicles passed through and they had to be careful. There was also two sheep dogs but it wasn’t clear what they were doing. One even just sat down in the middle of the road until I approached. My guess there were at least several hundred sheep.

During the really steep part the best I could manage was 2.8 mph. At that slow pace it is really hard to balance a heavy bike. Fortunately, there was very little traffic so wandering around a bit wasn’t dangerous. Usually I can find a pace and just keep at it but at this slow pace I had to stop several times to catch my breath.

I stopped at just after 11 am at the campground at Wolf Creek Summit (9,485 feet) hoping they might have water but it looked closed and there were no signs. Probably they shut down after Labor Day. I did have my second breakfast at the campground. While I was there, I saw a cyclist ride up to the summit sign, spent a few minutes, and then turned around and headed back down.

From the summit, it was 50 miles to Duchesne with a great descent for about the first 8 miles and then a gradual descent the rest of the way. This allowed me to recover from the morning ride.

It was nice scenery on the way down, first descending between some high hills and then it opened up into a wide ranching valley with irrigated fields. I was surprised to find a gas station with a small grocery store in Hanna where I was able to get a cold drink.

It had gotten a lot warmer by this time, partly because it was a lot lower elevation than the summit but also it was early afternoon. Fortunately, there was a little headwind that provided a cooling breeze.

When UT35 ended, I picked up UT87 south to Duchesne. Fortunately, I only had to ride 5 miles on this basically shoulderless road which had some large truck traffic. First, there was an oversized vehicle that was able to move to the left because there was no oncoming traffic. Then a large truck approached from behind that couldn’t pass because of oncoming traffic. I had to ride a little further to find a spot where I could bail off the road. Then there was a final descent into town.

Initially I was planning to camp at Starvation State Park but I was in no mood to ride out to the park and it wasn’t obvious what route I should take. So I opted for a motel. My first choice was full and I thought it was going to be really expensive. However, an extended stay motel rented rooms for single nights so I got a room for $100 with my AARP discount.

After cleaning up, I ordered a pizza from across the road and did a little food shopping at a grocery store across from the motel. I was able to put away an entire 12” pizza.

A hard day with the climb to the summit. Interestingly, it took about 3.5 hours to climb 13 miles and 4.5 hours to ride the remaining 50 miles. I was able to recover on the descent from the summit so I didn’t end up as tired as I might have.

Day 4: Sep 9 - Duchesne, UT to Vernal, UT [59.5, 06:01, 9.8 mph, +1,879', -2,272']

When I got up in the morning I checked the motel’s breakfast offering and was not surprised to find it was only some pastries and granola bars and coffee. I took advantage of that and then went looking for more. I expected the food mart next door would have some kind of breakfast sandwich but they had nothing. So I walked across the street to a small cafe and had two pancakes that were good. There were only a few people in the cafe so I was able to sit reasonably far away. It looked like this was the hangout for some older folks, two who were close together and two others who looked like they were trying to do some social distancing. My order was fast so I didn’t have to hang around long.

Back at the ranch, I packed up and was gone by 7:30. I was somewhat in a hurry because the temperature forecast was for 92F by 2 pm and I wanted to spend as little time in the heat as possible.

It was 69 miles to Vernal on a fairly easy route. The first 20 miles were a gradual downhill. Then there was some up and down with one major climb of 5 miles with a 3-4% grade at the end.

The big question of the day was what US40 would be like since the entire route was on US40. The answer was very mixed. The shoulder varied from not very much too very wide but the real issue was the rumble strips in the shoulder. Instead of being right next to the white line they were offset by about a foot. So on a 3-foot wide shoulder it was effectively a 2-foot wide shoulder. Worse, sometimes the rumble strips were in the middle of about a 2-foot wide shoulder.

The first 20 miles of the route was an easy gradual descent. There was some nice scenery leaving Duchesne with green, irrigated fields against a backdrop of muted brown hills on my left.

I reached Roosevelt at 10:30, which was the half way point for the day, almost entirely a gradual descent. I stopped in Myton, Roosevelt, and Fort Duchesne for cold drinks. Unfortunately, these were spaced only 7-9 miles apart. After Fort Duchesne there were no services for the remaining 20 miles.

In the morning it felt like my body was a little tired even though I felt reasonably okay after yesterday’s very hard climb in the morning. Then on the 5-mile climb just before Vernal I started really dragging on what was just a moderate climb. I don’t know if that was the after effects of yesterday’s hard ride or the heat that was forecasted to reach 92F. Probably it was a combination. Then to make matters worse there was a passing lane on this climb. Whenever there is a passing lane the shoulder width is usually reduced. In this case, the shoulder was reduced to about 2 feet wide with a rumble strip in the middle. That meant I had to ride on the white line and trust the traffic. With two lanes, this was only a problem for traffic when there was two lanes of traffic. It was stressful to continue to have to monitor the traffic to decide when I had to get off the road for safety.

I ended up in Vernal about 2:30 pm. I found the Sage Motel in the middle of town where I got a room for $62, the best value of the trip. The only downside was I got the last ground floor unit at the end of the motel so WiFi coverage was somewhat weak.

Once I was set with my motel, I took care of a couple of errands. I was somewhat cramped for space in my 2 rear panniers so I decide to ship my synthetic insulated jacket home to free up some space. I found a Mailbox Etc a few blocks from my motel and arranged to have my jacket shipped to my neighbor across the street from me.

Then I needed to get new cycling gloves. I started out with a new Perl Izumi glove that I had bought years ago but had never used until this trip. Amazingly, they were virtually trash after just 4 days of riding. I found two bike shops in town so I started walking to get a replacement glove. The first shop didn’t have any half-finger gloves. The next shop was closed for some reason until 5pm. So I walked about six blocks out and then back for nothing. When 5 pm rolled around I called the shop and verified they had gloves. Then I unloaded my bicycle and rode to the shop rather than do another long walk. I got a pair of gloves for $35, which seemed rather high although I hadn’t bought any gloves for years.

Then I walked to a nearby 7-Eleven and picked up a burrito and some chips for dinner.

A surprisingly hard day with the final moderate climb. Big question was when I would take a rest day. One factor with covid is what to do on a rest day. I enjoy hanging out in a coffee shop but that doesn’t seem like a good idea. Something that is more attractive is to pick a day like Saturday or Sunday to watch football while holed up in a motel.

Day 5: Sep 10 - Vernal, UT to Rangely, CO [53.3, 05:22, 9.9 mph, +1,860', -2,027']

I checked out the motel breakfast where I got some cereal and oatmeal. These were small bowls and not enough by themselves. Apparently, the motel used to have waffles because there were signs but no waffles. So I walked about a half a block to a 7-Eleven for an egg sandwich and a banana.

The projected high temperature for the day was low 90s so I was out the door by 7:15 to try to beat as much of the heat as possible. It was 50 miles to Rangely with roughly the first third downhill to the Green River, the next third a gradual climb to the Colorado border, and the last third downhill to Rangely. Just as I was walking out the door I encountered a motorcyclist who said he admired my rig. I told him I admired the engine on his rig.

When I started out it wasn’t long before the shoulder was useless. It was less than 3 feet wide and the rumble strips were down the middle so I was mostly forced to ride on the white line. Fortunately, in comparison to yesterday morning, there was not as much traffic and there were no big trucks. It was easy for the traffic to avoid me since there was almost no oncoming traffic but still it was a pain to have to watch for traffic.

The scenery was very nice most of the day, more scenic than the previous days. The route bottomed out at the Green River drainage. Then it was a fairly steep climb out of the drainage. The rest of the morning was a gradual climb to the Colorado border with one short downhill mixed in. There was a scenic overlook along the way for the Blue Mountain which was nice. Better yet, there was a picnic table in the shade that I took advantage of for my second breakfast just before 10 am.

When I stopped in Dinosaur, there were two food marts and the one I stopped at didn’t have ice for the soda machine. I was inclined to go to the other food mart until I realized this one had a bench in shade and it didn’t look like the other one had shade.

I left town shortly before noon and picked up CO64 to Rangely for almost 20 miles. It was all downhill except for one moderate climb near the middle. CO64 had no shoulder but there was very little traffic so that really didn’t matter. It was plenty warm so I made several stops to drink.

Five miles from Rangely CO64 suddenly developed a nice shoulder the rest of the way. When I reached Rangely I stopped at the first food mart for a cold drink. This marked the third time I’ve been in Rangely so I knew what to expect. At the other end of town, the Rangely Camper Park offered camping for $15, which was a good deal, and I’ve stayed in the park before so I chose to stay there again.

After setting up I headed back into town for food and stopped at a Kum & Go for a couple of sandwiches. One sandwich wouldn’t ring up so I got that one for free. Feeling a little guilty, I paid for another sandwich. Then I discovered they had a milk shake machine so I had a milk shake.

Tomorrow is a planned rest day. I felt okay today even though I felt a little tired yesterday. However, the next ride heading south from Rangely is a long ride with a climb over a steep pass and I wanted to be fresh for that ride. I didn’t want to be stuck in a tent on my rest day so I made a reservation for tomorrow at the Moosehead Lodge for $92, the best price in town.

It was a pleasant evening except the mosquitoes were out. So I retired early to my tent before it was dark.

This was a fairly easy day with mostly only gradual climbing on a very warm day. This was the best scenery of the trip so far.

Day 6: Sep 11 - Rangely, CO - rest day

I was up early and rode up town looking for breakfast. I rode to the far end of town since the closest food mart didn’t have their grill cook working today. I got an egg sandwich and coffee and took my time eating. It was warm enough that I only had shorts and a lightweight jacket. I checked out the other food mart on my way back and discovered they had a pumpkin muffin and I couldn’t turn that down.

Back at the park, I took care of a couple of bicycle items. First, I have aero bars on my bike for general fitness riding. They don’t give enough control for loaded touring but they provide a nice platform for holding maps. I zip tied a bar horizontally to the two arms of the aero bars. That allows me to attach my Leyzne GPS unit and a light holder. I also use this bar to hold my map holder in place. However, this doesn’t work so well so I finally got the bright idea that I needed two horizontal bars for these two functions. So when I came into town yesterday I stopped at a hardware store and got a piece of PCV pipe that I also zip tied to the two arms of the aero bars. That allowed me to move the GPS unit higher up on the aero bars and position the new PVC bar for holding my map holder. This allows better adjustment and, in particular, gives me more space between the platform and the handlebar so my hands fit on the handlebar without rubbing against the platform, and potentially tearing my new $35 gloves. After that I cleaned my chain.

Then I rode back to the Kum N Go and had another pumpkin muffin. I also found there was a laundromat two blocks away so I headed there and took care of my laundry. By the time I was done with laundry, it was close to noon so I stopped by the Moosehead Lodge and was able to check into my room. My room was actually a cabin and it was pretty nice. When I connected to the Internet, I discovered there was the possibility of a thunderstorm in the afternoon, which made checking into the cabin a good move.

It never rained much. There were some sprinkles and then one short period of a hard drizzle. It was unfortunate that the library was not open on the weekend so I wasn’t able to get caught up on some news. Unfortunately, my subscription to the NY Times, which I use to access their opinion section, was messed up. I sent an email to the Times and they responded that I wasn’t a subscriber but I checked and they billed me for the month on Aug 18 so something is awry. It is interesting that I’ve had this problem since I left home on Labor Day Sunday. My suspicion was that the subscription would work fine on my home PC but not on my Chromebook that I use on my trips.

Overall, it was a nice relaxing day.

Day 7: Sep 12 - Rangely, CO to Fruita, CO [81.1, 09:49, 8.2 mph, +3,867', -4,622']

I rode uptown looking for breakfast. It didn’t look like the Kum & Go had anything so I went to the food mart at the end of town. They didn’t have anything so I returned to the Kum & Go and found I hadn’t looked close enough. I got two egg sandwiches and coffee and took them back to my room.

I left town at 7:30 and rode east a short ways and picked up CO139 south. The route was a story of two halves. The first half was a gradual ascent and then a steep climb over 3 miles to Douglas Pass at 8,205 feet. The other side was the reciprocal. A steep descent but not quite as steep as the ascent but a longer descent and then a gradual descent the rest of the way.

The first 35 miles were a gradual ascent including a 15-mile stretch through Canyon Pintado (“painted canyon”), an archaeological site of Native American rock art, which was very scenic. The rock art was believed to be part of the Fremont Culture and the Ute and there were a number of interpretive sites along the way. CO139 had a good shoulder until the end of the Canyon and then the shoulder disappeared. However, there was very little traffic so the shoulder wasn’t a problem.

After 11 miles there was a rest stop. I wasn’t quite ready for my second breakfast but I had to take advantage of the rest stop with shade and a picnic table. Later there was another rest stop at 20 miles and I stopped for a short break.

The climb to Douglas Pass started after 36 miles of gradual ascent. The climb was very steep, an average of 8% grade, for 2.5 miles. There were some great views looking back and I took frequent breaks to admire the scenery and to catch my breath. By the time I reached the pass, it was 3 pm, taking much longer than I expected.

At the top of the pass, a sign warned about a steep, curvy descent for 10 miles. It was that and the road was rough enough that I couldn’t turn the bike loose. After about 10 miles, it was just a matter of grinding out the miles. It was also a matter of rationing my water. I always carry three large water bottles and one regular water bottle. Before today I had never touched the two large water bottles in my two rear panniers. That’s because there was always some place along the route where I would get a cold drink but there were no services along today’s route until Loma. It was soon obvious that I didn’t have as much water as I should have. I had debated whether to carry extra water but never did so.

I knew the day would be a long day. Technically my destination was Fruita but there was a campground at Highline Lake State Park at the 66-mile mark and that was my bail out option. Unfortunately, the park was not so easily accessible. To reach it I would have had to ride past the park, take a road west a little way and then a road north to the park. I didn’t know exactly how far I would have to detour from CO139 but it looked like a 3-4 mile detour.

So as I neared where I would have to decide whether to camp I decided to bypass the park. At this point, I was out of water despite rationing and I knew I could get a cold drink just a little further on in Loma and from there it wasn’t far to Fruita.

When I got to Loma, there was a store where I lucked out and the soda fountain had lemon-lime Gatorade. I filled up a 44 oz cup and pretty much inhaled it. The $2.31 I paid for this was some of the best money I ever spent. I also filled up my regular water bottle and used the ice from my Gatorade to fill my large water bottle with cold water.

It was an easy five miles to Fruita from Loma. As I neared downtown Fruita there was a motel that I checked out. I figured it would be the least expensive but I couldn’t get a ground floor room and the location was the greatest. So I called a Super 8 for a room. I couldn’t get a ground floor either but I figured it would at least be a better location.

Unfortunately, I missed the turn to get to the Super 8 and where the other motels were. Fortunately, a couple flagged me down as I continued out of town. Since it was getting dark, they must have figured I needed help and I did. With their guidance I was able to backtrack and figure out how to pick up the I70 Overpass that I had blithely ignored. The only problem was it was dark and not the best time to be on a bike. However, I saw that the overpass had a sidewalk so I opted to use the sidewalk to avoid the traffic. Once I was across the overpass I could see the Super 8 and I just stayed on the sidewalks until I ended up at the motel. Interestingly, I had been to Fruita twice before coming from the west like this time and I didn’t remember needing to use an overpass to get to downtown. That’s why I think I ignored the overpass.

One good thing about the motel was it had an elevator so not having a ground floor room didn’t matter. The other good thing was there was a Subway next door so that made my meal selection easy.

When I got my WiFi access, I checked distances to Highline State Park and Fruita. It was only seven more miles to Fruita so what I thought was my bailout option wouldn’t have helped much. It was also almost 3 miles out of the way to get to the park from the turnoff from CO139.

A very long and difficult day and almost a disaster as I passed through Fruita when I missed my turn. If this observant couple hadn’t flagged me down I might still be riding.

Day 8: Sep 13 - Fruita, CO to Grand Junction, CO [21.3, 02:24, 8.8 mph, +502', -207']

It was nice to wake up with no urgency to get on the road. The Super 8 had a good breakfast and I had a waffle, some oatmeal, and some pastries.

Since I was in no hurry to leave I worked on my NY Times subscription issue. I subscribe to NYT so I can read their opinion columnists but I have been unable to access their opinions since I left on this trip. I assumed it had something to do with using a Chromebook while on the road rather than my home PC. However, when I emailed NYT about this issue a couple days ago they claimed I had no subscription, even though they have been charging my credit card every 4 weeks, the latest charge on Aug 18. Since I had time today, I called their Help Desk and pointed out they shouldn’t be charging me if I have no subscription. I gave them my credit card and most recent date for charging and was told someone would get back to me in 24 to 48 hours. However, I told them that I was going to re-subscribe rather than wait for their resolution. Interestingly, by resubscribing I was taking advantage of a special rate of $4 for every 4 weeks for a year. Then it will revert to what I had been paying.

My goal for the day was to get to Grand Junction that was only 15 miles away. When I asked Google Maps for a cycling route, I learned there was a river front trail that would get me there. All I had to do was get on the I70 frontage road near the Super 8 and the river front trail started shortly. The trail was a concrete trail unlike the usual asphalt when a trail is paved. However, the trail was rarely near enough to the Colorado River to see the river.

About half way to Grand Junction the trail changed to asphalt and it was not a good change since it was rougher. What was surprising was periodically a rectangular section of the trail was cut out, maybe a foot wide, and a new section installed in place with a gap of about an inch around the rectangular section. At first, I thought these must be expansion gaps but that didn’t make sense since an inch expansion wasn’t needed. Then I guessed maybe this was intended to prevent upheaval in the surface. In any event, the asphalt lasted a few miles and then reverted back to concrete which was much smoother.

The trail took me to about a mile of main street where I rode down main street, looking for a bike shop and a camera shop. I found a bike shop and got two presta valve caps to replace a cracked cap and a missing cap. However, I never found a camera shop where I was hoping to get my camera lens cleaned.

Then I rode to North Ave where there were three motels that I figured would be the least expensive in town. However, I never got an answer to any of my three phone calls. I stopped by one motel and was told they were sold out. I stopped by another motel and no one was around. At that point, I sat down and pulled out my phone to have Google Maps show me the motels. I got a Travelodge room for $66 that was much better than I expected. However, it was on the north end of town by I70 and the wrong direction since I was heading south on my next route.

I had to ride maybe 3 miles north to get to the place and then wait about 45 minutes to check in early just after 2 pm. There also was, again, a Subway next door so I ate there for the second night in a row.