Rolling At My Own Pace: Pedaling from Durango to Moab

August 15th

Route: Paradox Valley to Geyser Pass
Mileage: 23 miles
Elevation gained: 5,400 ft!
Mud encounters: ...... Yes
Lost riders: none!
Wildlife encounters: deer, turkey, elk and Cooter*
* more detail to follow

Rolling out of Paradox Valley

Today we started out with a pretty big climb right off the bat. The good news is that it got us out of the valley quickly.... The bad news was that the climbing was steep and on a road that had suffered some damage from the recent rains. But after being out for 6 days we were in good cycling shape and it really was just another day pedaling through some beautiful country.

Jason and Brice topping out on the first climb

All seemed good. Minimal clouds, good road and we were getting back into the high country. Then, the mud came back. And it was stickier than before, so pushing your bike was not always an option if your tires could not rotate...... So we had a couple of less than fun hours pushing, carrying and scraping on our bikes.

Manti-Lasal roughly translates to "white man scraping mud"

Once we hit Buckeye Reservoir, the roads became sandier and our tires much happier. We stoped at the reservoir to filter some water, and could see a thunderstorm building right where we were heading. Nice.

Water stop

We'll be heading that-o-way

We continued to climb, and then we were in Utah.

As we continued to climb, we got a little more rain - but the roads were in good shape and it kept things a nice temperature.

Looks like we're on "Ponderosa Land"

Hoss, Adam and Little Joe

A few miles after we entered the Redd Ranch land, we located a spring (sorta close to where the map said it would be....) and stopped to get some fresh water. Nice place for a stop. John even had time to eat one of his cheese and mayonnaise sandwiches.

Bob loading up on some spring water

This is when we met a most interesting character. He was an older guy in flannel and overalls, and rolled up in a quad runner to fill his water jugs. He lives alone on the Redd Ranch land in a primitive cabin with no water or electricity (we surmised he did some work for/with ranch) Friendly guy. He offered us some cherries (which unfortunately had gone bad a few weeks ago - but we appreciated the gesture nonetheless). We also discovered that he ate a lot of squirrel and turkey, and relied on 2 of his "squirrel cats" to help fill the squirrel pipeline. The best part was when he showed us how call turkeys using a cigarrette box (Camels only) and a bic lighter. Having used a fancy turkey call when I was a kid (hunting with my grandpa), I was amazed at how well it sounded!
We never caught his name, but "Cooter" seemed to fit.
A bunch more uphill and some careful routefinding delivered us to our last hut - and no one got lost!