COLORADO CACHING - PART 4

I didn’t get on the road this Monday morning until about 7:00 am so I was dreading the rush hour traffic.  Following Kelly’s (Yancey’s wife) recommendation I headed south on Washington which parallels the Interstate.  I had to contend with quite a few traffic lights but at least I wasn’t stuck in slow traffic.  I moved over to the Interstate a bit sooner than she had recommended (I was really getting tired of the lights) but it turned out fine.  It was cool this morning and getting cooler as I was approaching the Continental Divide.  I believe it got down to 36 degrees but at least it was sunny.  I stopped in Summit County and picked up a couple of caches just a few hundred feet apart and this allowed me to walk around and get warmed up a bit.

Bubbles

More bubbles

I traveled quite a distance before leaving the Interstate at Rifle.  I had lunch (my usual sardines) at a big Rest Stop there on the river that I had visited on a previous trip.  After lunch I crossed the Colorado River and picked up a cache at a boat launch.  Before leaving Colorado I found a really neat cache called “Bubbles”.  You can see from the pictures how it got its name. I stopped at the state line and hiked down a little hill to get “Welcome to Utah”.

I cut across the northeast corner of Utah on Hwy 40 and then north on Hwy 191 along the east side of the Flaming Gorge before entering Wyoming.  I love riding through the Flaming Gorge although the west side is longer.  I believe this was the first time I’d done the east side.  I rode Hwy 191 to I-80 between Rock Springs and Green River.  I decided to stay in Green River since it was closer and in the direction toward home.  As it was I traveled 467 miles this day.  

Flaming Gorge Motel

My smokey room

Some places are white collar communities and some blue collar.  Green River is black collar.  It’s much smaller than Rock Springs and I believe most of the residents work in the oil fields (hence black collar).  I got a room at the very cheap Flaming Gorge Motel.

 
I really didn’t mind except it was obviously a smoking room which I didn’t realize until too late.  It was an efficient arrangement with the refrigerator actually outside the building and the door flush with the inside wall.  A tall person may have had a problem with the toilet because their knees would have hit the wall.  I ate my dinner and breakfast the next morning at a Subway there.

I was at the Subway when they opened at 7:00 am and shortly thereafter I headed west on I-70 for about 25 miles before exiting northwest on Hwy 30 toward Kemmerer.  This is desert country and I stopped along the way for a cache called “hidden cove”.  It was about 50 yards off the highway near a horseshoe shaped hole about 50’ across.  At the closed end of the horseshoe was a cliff about 20’ high.  This cache literally added insult to injury.  Not only did I not find the cache but while climbing the cliff a soccer sized rock I was using as a handgrip broke loose and fell on my other hand below.  I sustained one bruised and one cut finger.  To add to my disgruntlement I had another DNF just west of Kemmerer.

Rendezvous State Park

 

I finally found one just a short distance from the DNF.  My next stop was at Rendezvous State Park on the shore of Bear Lake.  The cache was  just in front of the park entrance kiosk which was closed this morning located in a decorative rock display.  It was an ammo box and so well done that I left a Travel Bug there. 

About 10 miles past the park I turned southwest toward Logan, UT.  This was another great ride through Logan Canyon.  I very quickly ascended a twisty road to the top of a mountain and then a very long descent through the beautiful canyon.  I reached Logan (home to Utah State University) about midday and it was getting really warm.  I stopped to get gas and strip off some clothes.  I also picked up a cache in Logan.  From Logan I continued west to where Hwy 30 intersected I-15.  I had to go back south on I-15 a short way before turning north on I-84 to retrace my route back to Clint’s.

I stopped for a cache at an exit that required about a ¼ mile hike and found a bunny resting in the sage bush next to the cache.  I stopped again for one called “Restful” located at a Rest Area.  I appreciated the stop because it was really hot.

I arrived at Clint’s around 4:30 pm having traveled 369 miles.  This time Clint was expecting me.  He loaned me his mountain bike and I got in a much needed 45 minute bike ride in and around the Gooding area.  After supper we took a walk around the neighborhood and he showed me some turkey vultures that regularly roost in some tall cedar trees right in someone’s front yard.  I couldn’t believe it.  In fact, I didn’t even know there were turkey vultures in Idaho.  I hadn’t seen any since I left the south.

I left Clint’s early the next morning and took the Interstate to Boise which wasn’t too bad.  I made a stop at the motorcycle shop where I purchased my bike to discuss a problem I thought I had but didn’t (another story).  I traveled home the same route I had taken down and stopped for several caches along the way.  I arrived home a little after 3:00 pm having traveled about 380 miles that day.  My total motorcycle mileage was 3,143 which came to an average of 349 miles per day. My new bike's mileage averaged just shy on 61 mpg which I thought was great considering a lot of my trip was on the Interstate traveling 80 mph.  I look back on this trip with many pleasant memories but in reality there were some pretty uncomfortable moments as well.  I don’t plan to go this late in the year next time to hopefully avoid some of the low temperatures.  M/W