Cartoon-lands!

My preference would be to climb in the cool of morning and descend in the afternoon but that's not always how the land lies and there is much to be said for starting the day with an exhilarating downhill - three times in the last section, wahoo!  The long slog up Mingus Mountain in the heat of the day is not easy to forget especially the discovery that it was far from over at the road summit.  Another 3kms of even steeper, rough dirt track to camp seemed unnecessary.  A quietly beautiful site with huge, aromatic Ponderosa pine trees soothed our indignation and the prospect of hurtling out of camp and snaking down for seven miles in the morning positively cheering!

Down it goes...

As far as the eye could see in the low morning light.

Bike trails tend to wander so we've ridden very few but an exception this week was through an ancient granite landscape with features called 'dells', strongly reminiscent of the tors on Dartmoor and well worth a bit of traffic-free dalliance.  The trail eventually delivered us on to a highway across the Arizona desert and that's where things turned cartoonish.

The dells 

I must report that Roadrunner is disappointingly smaller than I'd imagined and extremely camera-shy but Wile E Coyote is indeed prone to disaster and sadly most often seen squashed on the road.  The Saguaro cacti are weirdly wonderful and apparently it's about seventy-five years before they put out a second finger - no wonder they point defiantly skywards!  The classic three-finger image would be approximately two-hundred years old and inside that green, prickly, juicy-looking exterior I'm told there's a skeleton as hard as a regular tree trunk.  It took a bit of time to get my eye in for the desert but gradually I could pick out and enjoy the amazing variety of cacti and grasses, the beautiful range of subtle, soft colours and stark, weird shapes.

Seguara cactus

Other roadside cacti

Statement entrance...

We have a rest day in Yuma when we'll be rejoined by Isabelle, hurrah, this time with her partner Pascale, taking the French Connection to a noisy six, and five guys variously from the U.S., Australia and Germany.  We then continue south to cross the Mexican border, the U.S. done and dusted and just three thousand kilometres to go.  I'm looking forward to hanging close to the coast down the Baja California - it's been a long time since we saw the sea.

Next post from Mexico!

So long

Viv x

Rocking on....

So many amazing rocks - The Canyonlands, Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon!  Not many words this time but I hope the pictures tell the story....

This one literally.  The petroglyphs are roughly 2000 years old, of Navajo origin and called 'The rock that tells a story' and now popularly known as 'Newspaper Rock' 

Green River Canyon has been carved by millions of years of erosion and the unusual pale rim is a layer of hard sandstone formed from ancient coastal dunes.

Canyonlands of Utah

Shy but perky.

This colourful floral display was unique along the road and lifted our spirits no end!

One of the impressive natural arches near Moab.

Another one!

The twins.

Monument Valley was magnificent.  It was unfortunate that we fell into a horrible tourist trap where a firm called 'Gouldings' have sewn up every aspect of the visitor 'experience' in the most exploitative way.  Although a rest day we had to camp in a hot and desolate sand pit at the top of a steep climb; the only place to eat was expensive, the food unpalatable and the final straw, it was dry!  Biking in a hot place requires at least the occasional cold beer, especially on a rest day!

Yep, that's John Wayne...

So many layers, so many colours...

We took an early tour to catch the morning light on the extraordinary sculptural forms; this is 'The Thumb'

Mexican Hat

Elephant Feet 

I've tried to resist 'awesome' but 'The Grand Canyon' truly is!  We rode all round the southern trail, stopping at the major viewpoints and each revealed new topographic wonders under the huge skies; groups of raptors displayed serenely, drifting in the thermals; pairs of Ravens tumbled and gossiped.  

Happy day!

I've struggled a bit to comment positively on American culture but the National Parks are brilliant.  Staff are friendly, enthusiastic, seem genuinely pleased to share information and facilities are scrupulously maintained including immaculate compost toilets.  Best of all, signs are discreet, their tone expecting compliance, not loud and authoritarian assuming misbehaviour.  With few exceptions people are respectful.

I had a reverie as I rode yesterday about why I find this often arduous trip so rewarding.  It is a mirror of the school holidays of my fifties childhood.  So long as I stay out to play on my bike all day with friends, appear on time with clean hands at stated mealtimes, look after my own stuff and behave respectfully, it's pretty straightforward!  There's even the occasional tricky adult to negotiate like the camp ground marshal that made us move our tents from the shade at the edge on to a small scorched patch of earth in the middle of a deserted four acre campground 'in case we put other people off'....

Time to stop.  So long until the Arizona Desert!

Love

Viv

Getting warmer

If this post is a touch haphazard it is because we have just completed an eight day stretch, riding more than a thousand kilometres over the Teton Mountains, in and out of Flaming Gorge and a dizzying amount of climb and descent, much of it in gusting headwinds; the brain has been alternately frozen and fried.  We're now in Utah and since we left Montana we've zipped through Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado with ever changing landscapes of high dessert, mountain, forest and now the spectacular canyon lands.

Yellowstone National Park was a fabulous highlight and four of us hired a car to make the most of our day there.  Francine is a wonderful organiser and had us breakfasted, equipped with a fine picnic and on the road by seven.  We did the recommended circuit backwards, starting at an almost deserted 'Paintpot', a heaving, bubbling volcanic area of hot pools, steaming vents and beautifully coloured salt crusts.  It was magical in the morning light and looking across to the mountains beyond we could see herds of bison grazing peacefully. 

Next the Yellowstone Grand Canyon with spectacular falls and extraordinary rock formations showing the ancient folds and striations, all the different layers eroded irregularly over millennia.  In a ramshackle nest on top of a central pinnacle an osprey preened, apparently oblivious to a fascinated audience and eventually swooped effortlessly away towards the falls.

The Osprey

The finale was 'Old Faithful', a geyser that erupts generously, predictably and frequently, the perfect feature for a tourist attraction!  The whole of Yellowstone is an ancient caldera with geysers, acidic pools, seething  mud and all the lively characteristics of an active volcanic area.  It was mildly unnerving to learn that the entire floor heaves up and down measurably every year. 

We liked some of the smaller geysers performing modestly away from the crowds

The 'Morning Glory' pool 

Speaking of volcanoes, I recall almost daily a moment from the Africa ride.  About halfway through Ethiopia, a normally affable Dutchman became ominously quiet, his expression suggesting a dark interior dialogue.  At the routine rider meeting one evening our leader once again described the next day's route as having 'rolling hills'.  The Dutchman erupted.  'Rollink hillz - zeez are not rollink hillz, zeez are bloody mountainz' and in a wonderfully John Cleese moment said it for us all!

Back in the USA!  Wildlife sightings have included a caribou bathing, a fluffy caramel-coloured baby bison and otherwise humbler critters - three indeterminate snakes, many prairie dogs outnumbered only by rabbits, a few skunk, a bald eagle, pairs of softly spoken grey jays, several ospreys; I remain utterly moose-less.  We went through the village of Dinosaur, so called because it is in the centre of an area where some of the earliest fossil remains and prints have been found.  In true American style they've maxed out on the dinosaur theme and malevolent looking plastic replicas lurk everywhere dwarfing gardens and forecourts.

Caribou  

Here in Moab the temperature is in the thirties and it's hard to credit that less than a week ago I crushed ice as I stuffed my tent in the morning and we were all frozen to the marrow for the first couple of hours riding despite layers and hotshots.  Heat is now going to be the biggest challenge and early starts and ample fluids essential as we head on south to Monument Valley.  I'll return to the canyon lands in my next post when I've sorted yesterday's photographs.

Millimetres matter on a bike.  I'd had a few odd twinges in my back and neck and the other evening realised that the cleat on my left shoe had slid backwards.  I picked and scraped the hard encrusted mud out of the Allen key sockets sufficiently to get purchase but to no avail and in the morning asked Liam, our good-natured mechanic, if he could have a go.  Before 6am, still on his first cup of coffee, he not only solved the problem but lent me a 'courtesy' shoe while he did so!

Bit rowdy but very comfy...

And that must be all for now.  Once again, posting was delayed for technical reasons but our next stop is in Flagstaff, in a hotel so with luck Canyonlands and Monument Valley will be up soon.

So long

Viv x