13th September 2013 - Where were all the Gang Going Leaving Telluride and heading home.

We all had breakfast together at Maggies and I was first in the restaurant and ended up with my name on the bill.  This meant I had to pay for everyone, which Steve pointed out with great glee.  I figured that Alan and I had a fair bit of credit on the meals expenses register, so I was happy to pay.  I decided to eat fruit and porridge as I was mildly constipated and later in the morning it did the trick, luckily before we checked out of the hotel.

Steve and Rafe make their goodbyes

Joe and Barry decided to leave the group here and head home.  Steve and Jake decided to split as well as well as Don and Sean.  Next we heard that Dan was heading off to do his own thing.  That left Rafe, Mark, Alan and I on the tour.  The plan had been to head to Mesa Verde but that was ditched and it seemed to be a case of head for home as fast as possible.  There were 3 days left on the itinerary that Rafe had drawn up, but a week on the road seemed to be enough for this group of guys.  They all had busy lives and businesses to run and maybe the weather was getting them down.  They had probably seen all the places before anyway.   Alan and I were up for doing the full tour as we had shelled out big bucks for our Harleys, but Rafe was also keen to get home.

We retraced our route over the mountains to Dolores in clear blue skies.  Other parts of Colorado had had severe flooding with rivers swollen and homes washed away.  We fuelled up and headed back towards Monticello and south to Blanding.  Rafe suggested lunch at Hanksville, but my heart sank when I saw the road sign 122 miles to Hanksville, so lunch would be late and we had had a very early breakfast.  However I soon forgot my stomach as we rode through the most spectacular canyon scenery of our whole trip, on the way to a crossing of the Colorado River.  There were Buttes, Mesas, cliffs and gorges galore all with varied coloured rocks.  Eventually we descended down to the mighty Colorado River and crossed the bowstring arch bridge emblazoned with the graffiti Hayduke Lives.  Rafe explained the significance of this but I forgot to write it down.

Colorado River Bridge

Rafe Alan and Colin on the Colorado Bridge



We spotted a bunch of rafts floating down the river and Rafe told us that Lake Powell just down stream from here usually flooded this valley, but the long drought had dropped the lake level so much the river was flowing.  The recent heavy rains meant that the river water was like liquid mud.

Bunch of rafters relaxing on the river of mud.

I stayed at the river to take some photos while Mark and the others went on to a look out.  I followed and thought a turn-off down to the river was the right place.  It was a steep track with a loose gravel surface and I soon realised that the Harley was going to be impossible to handle.  I just managed to get the bike turned around before it was too late.  I found the guys at the right spot and it gave us a magnificent view along the deep valley and sort of made up for missing the Grand Canyon and this day was probably the most enjoyable of the trip- scenery wise.

 

Rafe, Alan and Mark with the Colorado River spread out below them.

We did have lunch at a roadhouse in Hanksville as Rafe promised.  Over our meal Mark started to talk about his investments.  He had made so much in one investment 10 years ago he was able to retire.  He described it as "his aircraft carrier came in"!  He told us about his latest hot stock in a tech start-up.  He was checking his stock price during the trip and was about to sell.  Rafe suggested we stop to look at the Petroglyphs  just down the road to Torrey.  Petroglyphs are what we call rock art and these were much more recent than the ones that abound in Australia, but interesting none the less.

Petroglyphs at Torrey - look like space men!

Just as we got ready to leave we were hit by a heavy thunderstorm.  I suggested that we stop at the Best Western in Torrey and said I would sit in the hot tub with Rafe, but he decided with Mark to head on for Beaver in Utah.  Utah has north south mountain ridges and riding west  is difficult. we planned a route over the mountains that was most direct called Route 153.  After 10 miles we saw a sign that it was dirt for the next 50 miles and not suitable for traffic in wet weather.  Given the high chance of more rain we doubled back and took a longer Route 21 and arrived in Beaver pretty tired after another 500 mile day.    The motel was cheap and we used the nearby restaurant.  Rafe asked the waitress what her pay rate was and it was only $2.20/hr and she relied on tips to make a decent wage.  Different States have different minimum wages for example California was much higher than Utah.  You need to know this when working out how much to tip in each State.  Makes working at a restaurant a precarious existence.

Mark was going to leave us the next day and Rafe was keen to get home in one day even though it was over 500 miles again.  He seemed to have lost interest in the trip which wasn't surprising as all his friends had gone home.  Alan and I said we were happy to travel on our own and were interested in the Bonneville Salt Flats north of here, but Rafe said he could not leave us as he was our host and felt responsible for our welfare.  So we agreed with the promise of a nice ride around Tahoe the day after we got home.  We were going to stop at the Great Basin NP to have a look at the Lehman Caves.