Today is finally the day to go play in Moab's famous trails, sites, and canyons. Because of some rain in the morning, we had a late start. The road we chose goes all the way south for 100 miles next to the Canyonlands National Park. Incredible road. Through canyons, hill climbs and descents, next to the winding Colorado river ... truly enjoyable ... lots of pictures.
We eventually got to a place on the road called Chicken Pass ... now we know where the name comes from ... very hard going, up hill off camber rocks, big rocks everywhere, impassable river beds, vertical steps as high as 4 feet, sand ... this is when trouble started.
The next 8 hours were a mental and physical beating like no other. The bikes have suffered ... lights, crash bars, mirrors, turn signals, cylinder heads ... destroyed and/or damaged.
We finally gave up at around 6pm, after our brains and bodies could no longer make sense of what we were doing, and decided to camp to regain our strength and mojo. The setting was incredible. Completely surrounded by canyon walls on one side and a view that goes on the canyon lands forever.
Short on water, we set up camp, cooked some food, and waited for darkness. Sleep and food never felt so good ... we slept for 10 hours! ... the desert is so quiet ... no birds, no animals, no wind or vegetation moving ... and the stars! ... so many. We are nothing ... or maybe we are everything?
Tomorrow, 40 more miles to go ... we should be out of the canyons by nightfall ... unless we find some more insurmountable obstacles ... we hope not ... we have had enough to last a lifetime.
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