This is being written utilizing a phone, thumbs, and no spellcheck; please bear with me…
Last night I was attacked by flying ants. They like my hair a lot, but at least I got to sleep on a Futon!
I awoke about 7:30, grabbed a much needed shower, and then chatted with my brother about life. Boulder is a pretty cool place and I need to spend more than two days there. Especially since Loch made Dave and I waffles and I got to have some deliscious agave syrup on mine!
We had a nice morning at the Wade compound. Our bellies were full, Mud was thuroughly humped by Loch’s dog Ralph, and it was time to push on.
We got back on SR-12 and headed North this time. The first leg of today’s journey was going over Boulder Mountain. The trucks didn’t have much oomph this morning but after an hour we cleared the highest summit of our trip to date at 9600ft. The view from the top was spectacular (as to be expected). The drive down was quicker and at the bottom we turned East onto SR-24. This road is beautiful. We descended through Capitol Reef National Park and the reds exploded all over the place. Narrow Canyons, red rivers, lush trees; a sight to behold. The only issue were the terrible drivers towing boats back from Lake Powell. They like to drive in both lanes.
As we exited Capitol Reef, we entered the Moon! Erie gray mounds of eroded soil. No vegitation or signs of life save for the road we were on. Eventually we came to a really rad ghost stone building. I don’t know why it was there or what it had been used for, but it was nice to look at.
We went through Hanksville where we crossed Dirt Devil Creek and headed North through the San Rafael Desert. After the landscape we just saw everything was just boring… And hot.
We got to I-70 and went East into Colorado where the temperature was 99 degrees. Mud was quite the panter. About 50 miles into Colorado US50 splits off into Grand Junction. I had heard things about the disgusting sprawl that is Grand Junction. Those rumors were not fair. Grand Junction is much worse. If I could give an award for the shittiest, most poorly planned city in America the award would be called “The Grand Junction Award for Never Meeting a Stripmall We Didn’t Like.”
Why on Earth did my hometown of Bainbridge Island hire as our city planner the former planner for Grand Junction? Was the planner for Houston, TX or Stockton, CA not available?
Outside of that shithole we drove through some more thundershowers and entered the Rockies. A restful stop at Blue Mesa Lake where Mud chased sticks and stones into the water we climbed all 11,300ft of Monarch Pass (what may be the highest pass of the entire trip). After Monarch we made our last push to our campsite outside of Canon City, CO.
Tonight I am sleeping in my truck because of lightning. I still have flying ants ambushing my head. I dislike flying ants.
