Day 4

After the Burr Trail ride we continued on toward LD's place in Westcliffe where we'd all do a bit of Dualsporting With LD, Tom, Nip, Bud, and me. We'd have to make 500+ miles today for that to happen....not likely.

North from Boulder, there was some nice 9500 ft mtns to twist our way thru on the way to Torrey.

Then east thru a magnificent red cliff section to Hanksville where we connect to 95.  Red Cliffs east of Torrey....My bikes still following and intact.

We stopped for gas in Hanksville. There were three 20 yr old bicycle gals in the gas station getting refreshed. They had ridden 55 miles from Torrey mostly all gradually sloped downhill all the way losing a 1000ft or so. They said they were dreading the ride back which was the same 55 heading up hill this time and at 90 degrees by now.
While we sat in that station I noticed an old defunct Hillman type of Station wagon sitting dead on the edge of the lot. I asked Nip or Bud if they knew what it was. As we spoke another tourist went over to look at it and take pictures. I asked him about it....in a German accent he said it was a German made Goliath. He also said that that car was rare in Germany. I wondered what it's story was, and how the hell did it get to Hanksville to die in the heat. It might just be the 'eighth' wonder of the world.

So on toward Blanding we continued. We would cross Lake Powell at Hite Ut prolly at 3000 ft......lower than we were at Hanksville. Temperature would surely be a factor there, even though we were using our cool vests. Yep, we stopped there for sodas and a dip in the Lake....Nert, Wrong, Some branch of the government has managed to slap a charge on the last 1/4 mile to the water. Did I mention it was 109 at the Hite store.

We'd rise back up to 7500 feet at Blanding in the next hour so that dropped the temp to reasonable. We gassed and lunched in Blanding then continued on the small roads to Montecello, Dove Creek, Edgar, Norwood. That's all Co now. At Norwood we found that the gas station, though closed after 6pm, would, thankfully, take our credit cards.

It was time to camp for the night. Some kids walking down the street told us that a National forest was just off to our south a few miles. That was all we needed to hear. We found the Natl Forest access road and headed for the hills. Not 100 feet past the forest boundary was a trail to a free campsite. We got in there about 7pm. Plenty of time for a nice camp setup, and to make a fire in the already made rock fire ring.

We even had time to enjoy my mp3 music player with speakers. Patsy Cline, Ray Charles, Roy Clark....etc. It doesn't get any better than that.

Even at around 9000 ft the temp was very comfortable. Under the shadow of Lone Cone Peak we felt like the masters of our souls.

.........We were officially a day late to LD's meet up, but we only had about 150 miles to complete tomorrow.