Finishing up

Alright... Leaving Amarillo, TX riding my ditch proven road warrior I continued west. Well, being Texas, I soon found myself hot and uncomfortable. So I headed north to get into the mountains along the Continental Divide. So far north I made it all the way to Las Vegas... Las Vegas, NM that is. Kind of a let down. I kept heading north deeper into the mountains. After leaving a gas station I noticed big thunderheads to the north so i added some westness in to try and skirt the storm. Operating without a map has its advantages. For one, you're never lost because you don't have a specified destination. You may not know where you are, but that is more just something you come to accept. But it also had disadvantages and we'll get to that in a bit. Anyways, I was now riding through increasingly heavy storm. I have finally learned at the first sign of rain to put on my windbreaker. Still haven't broken all the way down and put rain pants on at this time though. dont know why. now its coming down hard and its about 5 ish. After the long night last night, I just want to camp and get out of this brewing storm. I take a road to the west. It looks good... enough. 20 miles later i come to another fork in the road and head north. This takes me towards a town as it starts winding west. Just before i catch a road that is heading north because the one that is headed into town looks as though it may go no further by the looks of the looming peaks surrounding the town (I later found this to be true). This fork winds along a creek for a ways through some beautiful cattle ranches. Real cowboy area. Well this road comes to a "town" and as I look dismally around I realize that this road does not lead to any pass as I was hoping. Instead it goes the quarter mile through the 20 odd residences and spits me out at a fork. The right fork is a gated catlle ranch. The left, however, is a steep unmaintained gravel road with a bullet riddled rusty sign that read "unmaintained road, private property, no trespassing." Luckily half the letters are missing so I rationalize to myself that I will plead negligence should the oppurtunity arise. Left it is. But first I wait for the car who found themsleves in the same predicament as me to turn around. They leave and I head up this road. Becuase of the altitude and pitch of the road my bike can hardly make it up. I put it in first and give it some choke just so i can hobble up at 5 mph. Finally the grade eases up and my bike can handle it. After passing a few more ranch entrances to the left I come to my final dead end about 2 miles down this road. This is the end of the line. The ranch has an automatic gate and clrearly states no trespassing with a newish looking sign. Disheartening to say the least. The thought of riding back the 40 minutes or more through the storm just to get back to a road that will continue through the mountains is the last thing i want to do at this point. Just to the left of this dead end is a big tree so i pull my bike under it out of the rain while i assess the situation. That's when I noticed across the road there is a 10 foot gap in the ranch fences that seems to continue on as far as I can see. I decided to hike down and check it out. After crossing two good flowing creeks I found a clearing just big enough for me to pitch my tarp. Perfect. Turns out this passage between ranches is some county imminent domain issue which worked out great for me. So I got back to my bike, got my camping gear and covered my bike. Then I wrote a quick note along the lines of "please dont tow my bike... Happy labor day!" That's the best i could come up with. So i pitched my tarp tent and layed out my gear and ducked under it to relax, read, and listen to the rain coming down above me. Then the thunder started. It was close too, my favorite. The thunder is so powerful, I tried to record it on my phone but it just doesnt do it justice. With the rain pouring down I started to get hungry. Not wanting to leave my dry haven i put the stove at the edge and boiled the rest of my water from the camelbak bladder. After i put in my pastat I realized I had left my fork on the bike. No way in hell was I going to go the quarter mile back to my bike barefoot in my boxers. so I decided to whittle a... fork! Not really. But I did come come up with some pretty good chopsticks. Ate my meal, enjoyed the storm and slept well.

Woke up to good weather so I packed up and moved out. My bike was still there, as was the note in the ziploc back. Warmed up the bike and headed down the road which was now a bit more washed out from the rain that formed creeks down it during the storm last night. I got to the fork to the previous fork and tried going north and when I came into the town I slowed down because now the road had turned into a one laner. Coming around a corner a dog saw me and immediately sprinted towards me barking and snarling. He chased me for a while I reminisced of the time riding scooters around Koh Tao when Kiel and I ventured down a steep gravel driveway only to find rabid dogs at the bottom. That was funny because i turned around in time, but kiel having waited up the driveway a bit (apparently to avoid the dogs) took longer to turn around, so when I came flying back up the driveway with a dog litterally nipping my heels Kiel was just getting moving and without the momentum neede to get up the steep drive, well.. he didnt fair as well. funny stuff. for me. anyways back to the first dog, he eventualy got tired just before the road dead ended so i turned around and this time took the road faster hoping to find that dof in the middle of the road and run him down. not really. anyways never saw it again. musta been gathering a posse to await my return. musta. back on the road. blah blah blah. oh that's right. I decided to by my heroic stomach breakfast for its glorious work two nights earlier so I stopped at the first hole in the wall joint i saw. Hung up my tarp on a nearby fence to sun dry and went in. Definitely cowboy town. I could tell by the look of their 'staches. The bigger the handlebar the bigger the cowboy. Luckily mine could hang. Ate, talked, whatever. But as i was packing my things two gentleman approached me. Local pastors. Nice guys. I told em my story, and they told me theirs of working in guatemala and one even got a malaria souvenir. He said it almost killed him. then he told me he was from granit bay and ended up knowing my roommate from freshman year. small world. I left, dont remember what else. Got to Bryce Canyon and the Monument Valley for sunset which was amazing. I wanted to get to Zion that night so I could camp there but no such luck. I was sleepy. So after nightfall I was on a relatively busy interstate and wanted to camp. Surrounded by desert/ ranch land I knew there would be some place I could lay my head unbothered. As I rode down the freeway at 70mph I kept seeing ranch driveways fly by at the last second. After missing the first 30 I finally timed it right so I could slow down enough to stop in time for the driveway and not get hit by the car behind me. And of course there was a gate. but... no lock. just a wire latch. So i waited until there were no cars within a quarter mile each direction and swung the gate open. Waited again and brought my bike in. closed the gate. waited again and rode down this cattle road. Lot of washouts, all overgrown, and a few sleeping cattle. After a ways I pulled off into the bushes and made camp. That night as I slept uder the stars my mind kept wandering to the thoughts of cows grazing my face. but i lucked out. good full moon too. Packed up in the morning and headed to Zion.

Zion is awesome. Too many people but it is amazing. Hiked a bit, decided against taking the bus through the more of the park with 50 tourists, caught an imax movie on preserving the African coast and the sardine run, and headed on my way. Next stop Vegas. Real Vegas.

Before I got to Vegas, I stopped at my favorite spot, The tribal fireworks store. Loaded up on bottle rockets and ice cream sandwhiches started riding again. It was so hot I changed my course to upper lake powell so I could swim and escape the heat. Then i noticed a sign saying fee area. Looked in my wallet to find the usual 2 bucks and turned around. Vegas it is. Figured I'd play poker to escape the heat and either win a bunch of money or... i guess i just planned on winning a bunch of money. got to vegas. rode down the strip baking in the sun, by that point i was in no moood to be gamble. I was hot and sweaty and just wanted to swim. So i headed east. forget vegas. about 10 minutes out i saw a sign for a hotel/ casino so i stopped. and they had a pool! for hotel residents. But you could get in no prob though a subtle entrance. Got my suit on and swam. so nice. getting out is when i realized that you need the hotel key to get out of the pool area. being the only one in the pool area, i swam some more. finally someone came. As the door was closing I jumped out, lodged a croc in it. Dried off and made my way to the casino to drop some cash. Played some crap with some fun people and just before the sunset Iheaded out of there with empty pockets. Timing it just right, I caught the glare of the setting sun in my eyes for the ten minutes before sunset. It was a long ten minutes on the highway filled with semis and oncoming traffic. 40 miles down or so I came to a pseudo pass through the mountains. Not really a pass just high desert (4,000') at its highest point. I took an exit called summit road which led into the hills to the north. As soon as I exited I saw a cattle grate over the road I wanted and I sign saying "end road maintained by... anybody" or something like that. It was exactly what I wanted to see. It was a sandy road covered with sharp rocks and the occasional downed joshua tree. If you've ever touched one of this tree/cactus hybrids its not hard to imagine them fallen on the ground. They can barely support their own weight as it is. Camped a ways down the road after passing some impromptu fire pits laden with spent shotgun shells. Practiced my slingshot aim for a bit and hit the sack.

The next morning I woke before the sun so I could get some miles out of the way before the real heat began. After a while I got to a 50's diner I had seen ( and I'm sure you have too) advertised on billboards for miles. Turned out to be pretty good. Met a couple other guys at the bar who liked hearing some of my stories about this trip. One was a fly fishing guide from Montana, while the other drove BMWs (car) and wanted to go fly fishing in Montana. Kind of a snob but offered to buy my breakfast after he saw me put down the entree and the better part of a peanut butter creme pie. Normally I would have but this would be my last breakfast purchased (also, one of the first) of the trip so I put up the bill for it. Hit the road and headed towards Ca, the 21st state of the trip. I didnt feel like taking I-10 so I headed north on some highway at the advice the flyfisherman and found my way through Apple Valley. When I got to 101 in Carpinteria I pulled off and went for a swim in the cold ocean. Very refreshing. After a bit of body surfing I was ready to get back on the road. Got to SLO, saw some friends, went to Morro Bay for dinner, stashed some fireworks in a bar for some of my rugby friends coming into town over the weekend and slept a bit. The next day I went and checked on the wheelchair ramp I built earlier this spring for the Post family. Ended up hangning out there for a bit as I told them some tales as Shirley kept serving me more and more breakfast. I kept eating but was still full from the Frank's breakfast burrito I had eaten earlier. Frank's is great because they still remember me and the same order i get everytime. After leaving the Post's place I stopped by my mom's rental place to check on the roofs and do a bit of repair. nothing but one missing shingle. Then coming back by my old apartment I saw my old landlord outside so i turned around and talked to him for a bit. He was blown away I had done the whole trip without gloves. "wasn't it cold?" he kept asking. "hell yeah it was cold!" anyways, it was nice to see a bunch of my friends still in slo and later in the day i left for the bay to see my roommates from last summer.

Got there at dusk just as Erin was leaving for a trip to Tahoe. Erich told me some stories from Burning Man. And yeah that's about it for the trip. Next morning I rode off towards home...