Castle Valley 42.37 in 3:35. July 3

I got out of bed with three rides in mind that might get me about 40 easy miles. When I got to the top of the campground driveway, I still had no idea which was I would go. When I saw the huge canyon walls across the street on Utah 128, which followed the Colorado River, northeast towards Grand Junction, Colorado. I decided it would be cool to check out the river, and the canyon walls may provide some shade. I made a great decision, because the ride was beautiful. The river was 16 miles of     quick moving 'still water' with lots of riffles. The river was wider than it is further downstream where we rafted, but it still had plenty of eddies, crazy currents, whirlpools, and undertows. There were places where it looked safe to swim, but there were more places that looked way too squirrelly for me. As I rode, I saw several people on the river in their own rafts, but I saw none of the companies whose buses went past me to get upstream. I saw two people paddle boarding, but I didn't see them in riffles. That would have been cool.

Heading out Utah 128

Turn for Castle Valley

Following the Colorado

Cool bird 

Someone on the Colorado with their paddle board.

     As I rode, the canyon walls became taller and taller, sheer cliffs, and I felt like I was in the Grand Canyon again with a road next to the river. It was awesome. There was some road construction in two places, but they were building a bike trail! There were six or seven campgrounds along the river, Bureau of Land Management places, for tents and small campers. They were beautiful, but very few people were there. There were areas for 'bouldering', which is climbing straight up to the cliffs through the rocks and boulders with no use of ropes and harnesses. There were side canyons to hike. About ten miles out I came across a beautiful ranch, with cabins, a winery with grapes growing in the field, and beautiful horses in the pen. The Red Canyon Lodge happens to be where the movie stars stay when they come here to make a movie. John Wayne, and who knows who else. Johnny Depp recently spent a month making The Lone Ranger. Did he stay there? Pam had her hair done today, and her stylist will be doing Joan Rivers soon. The lodge has a movie museum that I would like to check out to see who has been there. It was very private, and gorgeous. Our river guide on the Colorado trip, Greg Williams, told us he worked the Johnny Depp movie as a oarsman for camera boats when they were here. I'm sure they'll let ME in , you think!?

       Anyhow, on my little discovery tour I also came across a guy who was WALKING across country. He as a nice guy, from Georgia, who has already done the whole Appalachian Trail, and I guess it wasn't enough. He was going to try to make it to Delaware by December. Now THAT'S crazy. He really has to pack a lot of water! I came to a sign that told me to go right to go to a little community called  Castle Valley. I went about two miles, and of course climbed about 400 ft as I left the Colorado valley. When I came to the top of the hill, I decided it was time to turn around, rather than descend deeply into what would have been a beautiful valley. On the trip back, I headed into downtown Moab and signed up for a day raft trip through the West Water Canyon when Buddy gets here. It's supposed to be rated the best one day river run in the country, with BIG rapids. We will see.

     On another note, I dropped my bike off the other day at Poison Spider Bike Shop, and the tech, TJ did a great job fixing my gears,  rewrapping my handlebars with RED tape, and tuning things up in general. All for 77 bucks. It turns out that my gear shifter cable was fraying and jamming on my handlebars. He replaced the same thing that the guy at Kitty Hawk bikes replaced for 200 dollars, plus I got a 20 dollar handlebar tape. I knew that guy in Nags Head was a jerk. I hope I forget about it before I get back to the outer banks, but I'm thinking I won't.

     After my ride, I got cleaned up, and Pam, with her freshly done hair, and I headed twelve miles south to check out the Hole N the Rock house, a five thousand sq. ft. house carved into rock, and the accompanying tourist trap that went with it. (See pictures),

Josh, the guy walking across the country!  He's pushing his gear  on a golf bag cart!

On this bike route, you must ride single file!

At Hole n" the wall, they had all sorts of metal "art work".  This was a jeep - the body was all license plates.  The tail lights are bolts welded together!

Mike is thinking about driving it!  The tires are made of all sorts of metal - scissors, screwdrivers, bolts, all sorts of stuff!

This bull is made out of metal scraps too!

Pam on top of the mountain looking down on the "hole n' the wall"!  Just kidding!!

Somehow they put this jeep and dummy up above the whole place!  Lots of people were taking a picture of this!

The guy who built this house (with the help of his wife) carved this picture of Franklin D Roosevelt on his front wall!  The windows and doors are the white areas on the lower part of the rock.

Kinda looks like a tourist trap doesn't it??!!