Day 39 – Blanding to Caineville

(Editor’s Note – For those of you who might visit here twice I had the staring city wrong originally.  We were in Blanding last night, not Dolores.)

Sometimes this ride gets a bit odd. Today was one of those days. A few weeks ago in Kansas, I changed our route a bit to put us through towns that actually had hotels and to provide a little softer landing into the Rockies. Because of that change, we ended up a day behind where we needed to be to make it to Vegas and ultimately San Francisco on time. At some point we needed to “make up a day”… ie, drive a leg of the route we would have otherwise ridden.

Well, today was that day. Leaving Blanding, the next realistic place to stop was the Hite Recreational Area… which is a national park on the Colorado river. There’s no lodging there and it’s hotter than all hell most of the summer. So the goal for the day was to ride to Hite and then SAG up to Caineville. Armed with that knowledge, let’s see how the day went…

We rode out of Blanding about 7:30. There was rain nearby but we managed to avoid it all day. The route started with a few climbs and then had a serious climb about 20 miles in… 2.1k’. Not the highest climb on the route, but one that will still get your attention. After that it’s a slight downhill all the way to the Colorado.

The landscape around here is nothing if not stunning.

Within 10 miles, we were basically out of cell service so we went in to “no cell mode”… which basically means Art and Heidi stay closer to us while we’re riding and are usually tailing (rather than leading) us on the route. Sometimes, it seems like they’re stalking us.

The push up the hill was interesting. We already had quite a bit of climbing before we hit the hill itself, but thankfully we were at a relatively low elevation. JP put up a good fight and made it up ~1k’. I pushed on, and after 2 stops (one of them lengthened by an unexpected call during unexpected cell reception) I managed to hit the summit. The grade on the climb was very polite, which helped quite a bit. Here’s the view from the top looking back in to the distance at the valley floor.

Once we reached the top, we put the throttle down and started down towards the Colorado… well, mostly down. At the macro level it was downhill, but there were still some climbing.

Around 11:30, we broke for lunch. The temps were coming up fast and honestly I was a bit wiped out from the climb (and the previous week of riding). Both JP and I called it a day after that and started the long ride to Caineville.

So… uh.. the following pictures don’t do the drive justice. The landscape around here is amazing. And brutal. It was in the 100’s most of the day and there is literally nothing out here. We would drive for miles and miles without seeing another car, let alone a permanent structure of any kind.

Seriously.. I’m not sure how many square miles are covered in this photo, but I can assure you there’s not a single human in this frame.

This is one of the few shots that starts to convey how awesome the Glen Canyon area is.

We ran in to some rain just outside of Caineville. Here’s a shot where we’re dry, the mountain is dry, but there’s a sheet of rain about a halfway in between us making everything look hazy. The wind was hammering when Heidi took this.. she was actually having a hard time standing still.

While we were taking pictures, JP and Art were meeting other riders on the road. We had passed a few riders and asked if they needed anything (they declined). JP had a much better approach… they’d roll up, he’d hold a cold water bottle out the window and ask if they wanted cold water. It turns out, yes they did want cold water.  😉

They also met a guy who was stopped on the side of the road and needed a new cleat. And in particular he needed the old style Look cleats that JP uses. The rider’s cleat was so worn that it wouldn’t even clip in anymore. After some effort the were able to get the old cleat off and JP hooked him up with a new set. JP and Art definitely made that rider’s day.

So here’s the Rodeway in Caineville. And, to be clear, this hotel is the only thing in Caineville. I’m not sure why there’s even a town name given to this place. There is literally nothing else here. The closest town is 20 miles away… as is the closest restaurant.

Luckily we knew that in advance and planned ahead. We picked up food last night so we could make dinner in the MCC instead of driving to the “nearby” town. Hotdogs, chili, chips, and brownies. Not exotic, but easy to do in the MCC. Dax decided to be the chip courier and brought chips one at a time to everyone.

The hotel is geared up for people that weren’t as well prepared as us, it seems. They’re stocked up with frozen dinners you can buy. All evening long while we were hanging out outside, we could hear the “ding” of the microwaves in the rooms as families warmed up dinner after dinner for everyone to eat.

So tomorrow we ride to Boulder… Utah, not Colorado. It’s bigger than Caineville, but not much. We’re spending our rest day there in an extremely small motel. Should be another interesting adventure.

Oh… and I broke my sunglasses today. I’m riding with my backup sunglasses now. Hopefully I don’t have another sunglass failure before I can hit an Oakley store.