I feel as I just crossed the line finishing a marathon, at the same time they were three incredibly pleasant days. I think Michael, Sandra and I felt like old souls. Sandra did most of the work by cooking every night… all we did was remove three wheels, drive to Las Vegas for new tires, come back… taught the fine art of using a Twin Max… wheels back on, took advantage by doing laundry and there went the three days. So I am wondering why I feel like it was a non stop schedule? Errands that a few months ago would have been all done in one day. I must be slowing down, falling into the nice groove of camping, where busy means… riding… taking pictures… cooking… and hiking with Spirit! Anything else… well, is an overload! We definitely overdid ourselves… what happened to my 100+ hours work week! Must be a thing of the past.

Meeting Michael and Sandra has made an incredible difference throughout this Journey. Set aside the friendships, Spirit having two new buddies… the fact of being shown the area physically and on maps is a real winning situation. I don’t think, actually I know so, that I would not be camping here today otherwise. I met a camper the other day, about a week ago, also camping at Mosquito Cove, also lives on the road most of the time, and his philosophy when learning about my Blog, was, do not tell anyone about the good campsites. I agree that him, like me, look for isolation.

Isolation meaning as here, BLM land or National Forest Land, nearest neighbor at least 500 feet, secluded and of course appealing to the senses.

After seeing what happened in Mosquito Cove, turning into a small city, I thought, yes… that might be a good idea. But I have changed my mind!!! It is not like I reach a million readers a day… and everyone is going to follow me into my footsteps… This road here, mild unpaved road… is one of the nicest place I have camped. I might even start rating them… So I will continue mapping them and even giving out the Lat and Long, hoping that someday you will enjoy the area as much as I do.

So we are at about 4500 feet, the weather, for me anyhow, as been great. Reminds me a bit of the Florida weather, without the torrential five minute rains and 1000% humidity… There is always some blue patches and once in a while a few sprinkles to cool things down. Cool night to make for some good sleep has been perfect… I think summer is almost here and we might have to wait for next year for more frost and snow.

All set up by early afternoon, and I still get a kick having my own Internet Dish with its high speed connection. I can just imagine the logistics posting this Blog without it. How long will I be here?… looking at the map and having a long list given to me by Michael… most likely at least ten days with many day trips planned. I am going to start calling him Mr Utah! He has the whole State mapped out for me… it will take me a few years I know to see it all. I do know that Torrey will be my next stop… someday!!! (soon)

The rig is again in harmony and I did regain quite a bit of confidence throughout our afternoon ride, some rocky sections, hairpin curves… I keep checking, over checking, some more strengthening will be done soon, in the meantime I am just putting it all in the past and looking forward to the many rides planned.

We took off once all set up for another loop going through Gunlock, then south to catch the entrance of the Snow Canyon, a State Park with only a 6 mile road, but with many side road attractions and two trails where Spirit would be allowed on. Dogs get such a bad rap… all due to irresponsible owners with Dogs causing much trouble as the Ranger was telling the story of fights even into the campground.

We did a bit of hiking, specially needing to shed some pounds from Sandra’s awesome cooking…

(It is truly such a treat for me to sit down and eat without cooking… this week will be my turn to invite then over… in my humble space!), and we will most likely go back to hike one trail called West Canyon, another Canyon parallel to the one we rode on.

Created in 1959, Snow Canyon as long history of human use. Anasazi Indians from A.D. 200 to 1250, then it was the turn of the Paiute Indians from A.D. 1200 to the mid 1800’s. The pioneers also discovered the Canyon in the 1850’s, looking for lost cattle… finally overtaken by the State of Utah.

It has been the site of many Hollywood movies, such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Electric Horseman and Jeremiah Johnson… Its Geology is interesting to the fact that being an ancient redirected waterway, it has also nearby cinder cones which erupted with lava flowing down these Canyon, making it very distinct between the site of lava from 2.5 millions of years ago and some from as new as 10000 years!

The sand dunes are 2500 feet deep and the petrified dunes are just a marvel of Mother Nature spanning thousands of years in the making.

We are beat tonight… from the previous days, I think Michael and Sandra are too… A good night sleep and will be back into the slower pace that has governed us these past month… I had never realized that Utah had such richness in its geology, history and of course… lets not forget great riding… on and off road!

Hope you all had a great Holiday as it is Easter today… that all your kids found all their eggs…

And I almost forgot my own luck today… almost set up, a pick up truck pulls in, and a man in waders was asking me directions for the lower lake. He had just caught an… 18″ trout in the upper lake. He turned out to be the Habitat Program manager for the Southern Region of the State of Utah… and as I introduced myself as Chef, ( sorry but I just have to when I see an 18″ trout!), he was kind enough to give it to me!!! Yes, that will be my next recipe on Micro Cooking… tomorrow as we are going food shopping. I saw him one more time as he was leaving and we were coming back… had caught two large mouth bass and some brims! I will be purchasing my out of state license most likely tomorrow… and some worms!… I did bring my pole!

You be well…

Ara & Spirit

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 8th, 2007 at 9:32 pm and is filed under travel, spirituality, pit bull, sidecar, motorcycle, cooking, photography, riding, homeless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.