Most of the pictures I took happened in the first 30 miles...after that, the heat started climbing and we both noted that we weren't making as good of time as we had hoped. It was 83 degrees when we first entered the canyon and it was rapidly ascending through the 90s as the morning went on. Somewhere around the 40 mile mark, Michael asked me if I was having fun.
I told him, "It's not that I'm not having fun, it's just that this is challenging and the heat isn't making things easier." By this point, we had navigated a few tricky climbs and descents and I had dropped my bike at least once on a rocky climb. Somewhere around the 50 mile mark, the trail descended down close to the Green River.
Which meant more sand...
Let me tell you, a fully loaded Africa Twin is a HANDFUL in sand. Add 100+ degree heat and things started getting interesting. I probably dropped the bike three or four more times AFTER that last pic was taken and got pinned under the bike a couple of those times. We were close to the 60 mile point and now counting down the miles. We were both hot and tired, having each dropped our bikes several times.
Then we came upon this giant cottonwood(?) tree and both agreed it was time for a break. There was a nice breeze under the tree and the shade was a Godsend! It was also the first bit of shad we'd seen all day.
After taking a break for a bit, we remounted and continued on, albeit much more sluggishly. Maybe a mile later, we entered a sandy wash and that did us in. I went down hard in the sand and walked away from the bike, leaving it on the ground and flopped under another cottonwood tree to my front. Michael tried to press on a little bit further; there was a sharp left turn in the sand, then a shorty sandy climb that was obscured to me by rocks. I heard Michael mumble an expletive in his Cardo and I saw a large cloud of sand billowing up into the air. A few moments later, Michael came stumbling out from behind those rocks--his bike also left lying on its side on that sandy climb. We were both cooked.
Michael activated the S.O.S. on his InReach and established contact with the Park Service. We had passed some overlanders a few miles back and sure enough, about 30 minutes later, they rolled by and stopped to check on us. We were both almost out of water, but they graciously filled our Camelbaks and gave us a gallon jug from their own water supply. A little while later, two park rangers pulled up to check on us. They had cold water and gatorade in a cooler for us! The rangers helped get Michael get both of our bikes to the top of the sandy climb--I was in no condition to do anything but lay in the shade and re-hydrate. One of the rangers mentioned we only had 8.5 miles to go before the climb out of the canyon at Mineral Bottom with only a few sandy sections, and then it's just a straight, flat dirt road back to the highway...that was a HUGE morale boost because we were both very much concerned about trying to navigate another 30 miles of this sandy stuff.
At this point, we had no choice but to wait out the heat in our little shady oasis and re-hydrate and re-energize. We got out of our riding gear to cool off and just relaxed for the next 4 1/2 hours waiting for the heat to abate, just a little.
Around 6:30, we split a Mountain House fettuccine alfredo meal...after eating, we both felt like we were ready to get back on the bikes and by the time we got our stuff collected and strapped back to the bikes and ready to roll, it was almost 7:30 and it was starting to cool down.
We rode onward, counting down the miles on our odometers and duck paddling through the remaining sandy patches. I helped Michael get his bike back up in one of the sandy spots, until FINALLY, we got the the Mineral Bottom junction! The climb back out of the canyon was a wide, graded dirt road with switchbacks that was easy-peasy after the day we'd had.
And then we got to the top...and rolled on open dirt roads in 4th gear, watching the desert sunset, cool air filling the vents in our riding gear...we had made it! And it was glorious!
We got back into Moab around 9:30 pm and got a room at the same hotel as the night before...
