10-17-10

MC to Moab

As I was leaving headed south on hwy 59 I saw this sheep-shearing outfit along side the highway and thought it might be Ralph McWilliams that used to shear our sheep. It wasn’t Ralph’s outfit.

It was hair cut time for the girls.

First just grab one.

A little off the top…

A little more off the bottom…

Ready to go see the boys….

I stopped in Broadus and see it is harvest season for antelope.

That big new power plant that they have been working on for four years looks like it is ready to run.

There was a sign on the highway that said there was a Oil Museum down a side road about seven miles. The country around there is just thrashed with oil stuff so I thought I better go on down and check it out as there must be a good side to this story. After running through a maze of little streets, I finally found it. The guy that was running it said that the Real person wasn’t there but he would tell me what little he knew. Unfortunately that wasn’t much. These info charts are from the 100 year anniversary that they had a few years ago so they are a little dated he said.

The guy said that the main project now is going out and trying to find all the thousands of old oil wells so they can cap them off. Evidently they are piping CO2 gas from somewhere to put underground to help the oil recovery as well as get rid of the CO2 and need the old wells sealed off. I have heard of them pumping CO2 gas underground to save on carbon credits, so I guess this is where some of it is going. I thought they were just doing it to get rid of it but here it seems like they are using it to help extract the oil. Which will make more CO2……prolong the inevitable eh?

very rough sheep camp.

I pulled into Saratoga, WY and made a beeline to the hot springs. The big news is that they are tearing down some of the old buildings and are going to build new ones. I sure hope they don’t screw things up here. Behind this building is a big swimming pool and behind that is what they call the hobo pool. The hobo is wonderful pool and it is amazing how many locals use this place. It is open all day and night and free of charge. I rolled in and saw this R100 was leaking gas so I shut off the fuel. When I went down to the pool I asked who owned the BMW and told him what I had done. It turns out that he rode up from Fort Collins as it was a nice day and it is only two hours away. It turns out he is a tree farmer and with the economy in freefall he is not doing well. He said he sold 400 trees last year and only two this year and only got paid for one so far. Two other guys that ride BMW’s showed up at the spring that afternoon. Amazing how hot springs attract.

Those are big rattle snakes that little girl has looped around her neck. Must be 7+ footers.

A friendly sticker board. I had to add a dog sticker to it.

It is sure nice to be back in the red rock country.

A huge KTM ride happening in Moab. I saw fifty KTM”s on the road coming in and figured something must be happening.

Three hundred bucks?

These KTM guys can really add on the aftermarket stuff. This set of handle bars is made to pivot a little with cushions to help reduce the vibration of the motor.

I liked this guy’s plate. Not like some bikes that have never been off the pavement and never been down.

New KTM padding in their suits. The guy hit his finger hard with the mallet  with no effect on his finger. Neat stuff.

I went to the Gourd festival in Castle valley. Who wouldn’t?

Looking back down in the valley where the gourd festival was held.

The mountains are covered in Burr Oaks and Aspens.

I made a big loop and came back into town. I was sure surprised to see this amazing collection of old VW cars and busses. There are just lots of old hippie busses all painted up as they were back then.

The trail into the work area. Looks like he still works on a few now and then.

That is a lot of VWs missing and out of action.

I went into town on Sunday to use the wifi outside the library. Next door is the sun park and it was noon which is Free Meal time. This is an all volunteer thing that people pick up food that is left over from the school and restaurants in town and is offered free to anyone that comes buy. There was a nice group of people eating and I was invited to join them. 

The food was excellent and as one guy told me.. “:come for the food and stay for the people.”

I took what was going to be a nice easy ride and stopped to see the rock art along the road.

They liked sheep….

Impressive place to work on the rocks. Now young folks are climbing these rocks.

I took the Dinosaur Tracks road and ended up turning around here as I could see that there was about 17 different ways for me to get hurt going any further. This is Jeep 4x4 country and lots of little light dirt bikes. I am too damn old and on a heavy bike to do this sort of thing.

I had parked the bike down below while I came up to see if I could make it and the dog went to sleep on me. Fell off the side stand and taking a nap.

I went on down the road further and met about a dozen dirt bike guys that were just coming down the Dead Horse Point road. They said I could make it on my bike so I charged up that road. It was a nice mostly gravel road and this rock leaves just enough room to get a jeep under. A little ways up the road from here it got really tough. The road narrowed down between two rocks and there was a crevase in the middle. Sand was on both slick rock on the sides. When I tried to get up one side I fell in the crack and had a hell of a time getting it lifted out and headed back down for another try. I did the same crash but lucky for me there were a couple of jeep guys coming down that helped me pull and push the bike up through that and then just about that was another ‘Help’ spot. Jeez, too damn old and heavy bike. I just gotta get out of here before I hurt myself. 

I got to camp by myself in the overflow campsite. Nice to have NO neighbors.