Having spent all day Tuesday getting a new rear tire for me, Mike Atkinson and I had a super day of riding on Wednesday.  There are so many places to go from this area that it's hard to make choices, but Ouray is an easy choice. We got an early start after a small breakfast at Poker Alice's restaurant and headed for Ouray. Robert and Beth, Gilbert and Elizabeth were homeward bound this morning and we had bid them goodbye the night before. Mike and I had a day remaining to soak up more cool Colorado air.

Sunday 16th, headed for Lake City to catch up with Robert and Beth arriving by car, and Mike arriving on his R1150RT.  Gilbert and Elizabeth were headed there from Fort Collins. Nice ride down the Black Canyon of the Gunnison road. Enjoyed seeing Blue Mesa Reservoir as usual, and that's when the valve stem failed.

Having laid out yesterday, the crisp morning air told me this was a day to ride. After a quick breakfast at the rally site I hit the magic green button and was gone in a flash at about 7a.m.  I knew my destination and eagerly anticipated it as I had been there before.  No stranger, this "Black Canyon of the Gunnison Road" and I.

It's about 9:26 local (Mountain) time. I've had a shower, breakfast and coffee. I've also uploaded all of the rest of the photos from the morning of the 11th when I departed the Flaming Gorge area and including Moab, Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon NP, Zion NP, Glen Canyon dam, Monument Valley, Telluride and finally to the rally site at Paonia.

The heat won and I've stopped for the night in Page, AZ in a motel with a wonderful air conditioner.

But prior to that, I woke up to a crisp morning at the Cannonville KOA. Was up and off by 9 local time and had a good breakfast at the Hungry Coyote Cafe in Tropica. Now I have to tell you, I was a little concerned about there being a hungry coyote there! After the Hell's Backbone ride the night before I could imagine anything.

Tuesday was an interesting day. It turned out to be long, too long, due to the dallying at Arches National Park and some poor planning on my part. The morning dawned on the mountain top where I was camped with a brisk temperature of about 40. It quickly rose as the sun began to peek through the huge pines surrounding me. These are "biguns" here.  

Attached is the planned major portion of travel for today and tomorrow. It's a PDF file of the map. Utah is exciting.

Date of this writing: Monday, July 10, 2006  9:11 PM
Photo Gallery: click link at left
Riding date:  July 10   Day No.  8
From:  National Forest near Palisades Reservoir, ID
To:  Flaming Gorge, wWY
Via: 
Stayed at:  National Forest
Stops and Sights:

Miles today: GPS -      324   
Cumulative:  3859

Weather: Beautiful. Cool all day.

The roads: Good to excellent

Observations and musings:  The travel versus stopped time is proving interesting. I start the timing (via the GPS) when I first crank the motor in the morning and run it until the final stop at night, EXCEPT: I stop it for breakfast and supper because I don't consider that part of the travel time, and I stop it for major sight-seeing or recreational excursions off of the bike. But if I'm driving through, for example, Arches National Park then the timing runs. If I stop the motor to get off and take a photo, the timing runs but if I get off to go into a museum (which is a more extended sight-seeing event) then it stops. Gas stops, it runs.