214 Moab Canyonlands

Thursday 15th August 2013 Miles Today 78  Total  17,625

Happy birthday Zoe. (my daughter)

Today we set off intending to ride around the 'White Rim Trail'. We measured it on the map (Google Earth) and the distance total was around 140 miles. Easily do-able with a tank that on normal roads would do 200 miles. When we set out and programmed the GPS it turned out that the actual distance was 190 miles. It was unlikely that the bike would go the full distance and the thought of being stuck 50 odd miles from the nearest petrol station did not fill me with joy. Whilst I was chewing this over and approached the turn off for the trail we were flagged down by a couple in a white car. They were waving madly at us as though they had broken down. We thought this a bit odd as we were in a National Park. We rode over to them and they said Hi Ray !  Whaaaaaaaat !

It was Brian and Kelly, a couple on a BMW we met in Hyder, Alaska, in mid June. They recognised our bike.  Brian is a South African now living in High Wycombe, Hertfordshire, with his English wife Kelly. They has hired a car for the day to do some touring in the park. We had a surreal conversation for about 10 minutes and agreed to meet up for dinner later.

We forgot to take any photos so and they do not take many as a couple so I stole this old one from their web site. I hope they do not mind, (Brian is about 6 feet 12 inches !)

One thing Brian told me about was about a compromise route that we could take that was overall a lot shorter. The route was called the Shaffer Trail and took in some of our original intended route so we did a bit of both.

The views were spectacular

This is part of our route, we just have to get there first.

An idiot abroad.

This is how we get down !

Muscleman Arch.

And musclewoman gingerly walking over it. This took some guts considering the drop either side.

We saw this one with its baby a couple of minutes later.

One of the salt pans on the route back. Scary when you consider that 5 miles further up the Colorado there is a uranium mine that is being filled in!

On the final part of the ride home we sawa sign that said 'Indian Writing'. This is what it was. These are believed to be between 1000 BC to around 500 AD.

When we got back we chilled out for a while and then met Brian and Kelly for Dinner. We had a great evening. The girls and the boys seemed to click very well and when we get back to the UK we will definitely look them up. You have been warned guys ;-)


Friday 16th August 2013 Miles Today 0  Total  17,625

Today we did very little except went for a trip into town to sort out tomorrows off road riding event. We just chilled out. I did however decide to clean the camera that has dust on the sensor. It seemed like a good idea at first and after I had cleaned it out, I could not put it back together and ended up breaking it. Scratch one nearly new camera. To be honest it had had a hard time since we bought it. Used everyday in often bad conditions of dust and moist windy air. Karen however was not amused and I felt like a complete plank.