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Day 5: Graham Cabin to Gateway We get an earlier start today (6:45) – having to “back track” just a few miles on our way to Gateway. Our buts are starting to get “saddle sore”, but outside of that, everyone is feeling pretty good. Stopped and talked to some ATV folks (which we see a fair number of over the course of 6 days in the mountains). They are scouting for Elk. We load up on water at Divide Forks Campground (good, cold well water). We begin to see completely different terrain than we have seen up to this point. We begin to see the La Sal peaks in the distance, we will climb those tomorrow. While each day has been very different, there was a common aspect of wild flowers, aspens and lush valleys and mountains. Now we begin to see red rock canyons and buttes. We make our way through some really cool switchback descents and climbs. The scenery keeps stopping us in our tracks – this trip just keeps getting better and better. I remark to Bill that the coolest thing about riding for 7 straight days is… RIDING 7 STRAIGHT DAYS! Yeehaa! We are having a blast. Just when we thought it couldn’t get much better, we hit the top of the canyons looking down about 4,000 feet into Gateway, CO. This view was unexpected to most of us – it is as such a massive, grand scale, we can’t really “take it in”. Expressions of “WOW” just don’t make it – it almost doesn’t seem real it is so big, and you can see so far. The beauty will undoubtedly not be able to be captured by either still photos or video. We all marvel at God’s incredible handiwork. We get to Gateway, and the rock formations that “frame” this little town are nothing short of awesome and monumental. Try to ride through this town without taking your eyes off the road – it won’t happen. This town, by the way, is the only place where we are supposed to be able to buy a hot meal during this entire 7 day trip, a place where the food is purported to be genuinely excellent. The guys have been “salivating” for a juicy cheeseburger since before the trip even began. Well, we get to town, and the restaurant is closed for business – closed down just 3 days prior to our arrival. Ouch!! We get to the post office to retrieve fresh clothes and snacks that we sent to our selves a couple of weeks ago, and as we are there, a young man comes in to ask Donna (the only mail person at this one window post office) if she is “going to open the bar tonight”. She says yes, if someone will come. She tell us she doesn’t have “real food”, but she has microwave pizzas and beer. After asking if we can buy any “real meat” in the town, another towns person comes in and they agree to sell us some deer meat. As the guys are outside, they ask an older man where we can buy some WD40 – our gears are really getting “gunked up”. Since there is not one single store of any kind for more than 50 miles, he tells us he has some at his house he can give us. When he returns with a FULL can, we ask how much we can give him for it. He tells us it is $1,000 if we insist on paying – otherwise, we can have it for free if we just accept it. We are starting to see a very helpful and friendly community here. As we are getting our stuff, and sending back as much as we can ( less weight for the big climb tomorrow ), Tam’s grandmother comes in and notices we are on a bike trip. She introduces herself as the “grandma Graham” – owner of cabin #4 we stayed in last night. Ray and Paul negotiate (actually beg) with her husband for a ride up the brutal mountain pass tomorrow. Tam told us that 60% of the riders get shuttled up to the top of that climb because it is so very brutal. He refuses at first, but Ray’s sales talents kick in, and he agrees to take them at 5am. We finally finish all our various “business” at the post office, and head to the hut – less than 1 mile away. As usual, we begin looking for the “hide a key”. This time, there is NONE. After 30 minutes of everyone looking, we ride back to Graham’s house to see if they might have a key since they “own” one of the huts at their ranch. They do not. We also go to the “WD40 Guy’s” house – his name is VIC. We use his phone to try and call anyone I know connected with the huts, but it’s Sunday, and I get no one. We go back to the hut dejected, and without a plan. By this time now, we have been “on the road” with only cliff bars and small snacks since 7am (it’s now about 3pm). Everyone is “starved” as we normally are after a long ride. Much to our delight, Vic comes to visit us at the hut and offers to take us up to the next hut to get the hide a key there. We hate to impose on him, but there is no other solution we can think of. Paul and Ray go with Vic, and Todd, Jim and I go back to the post office to “shower” in the parking lot via the hose that Donna said we can use – it is the “best water in town” by everyone’s account. Bill washes off in the River instead. While at the post office, seeing how we will not get into the hut for quite a while, we ask Donna (who is still there processing all of our junk) to REALLY open up for us tonight – beer and pizza is sounding pretty good right now. She agrees, but says she might be a little late. Ray and Paul return with the key about 1.5 hrs later, we change and head directly to the bar – due to open in 5 minutes… supposedly. After about 30 minutes past the time it was supposed to open, the young man who asked her to open originally comes to join us waiting outside a building that, to pass by, you would certainly say had to be condemned. We wait another 15 min (45 total now), and one of the local “frequent visitors” of the bar comes by in a “beater wagon” with two dogs – the two local tell us they will “go get her”, and they drive off together to “do their share” in getting the night started. Donna finally shows up about 65 minutes after the original estimate, and we are ecstatic. We not only get to eat hot food (we thought it was awesome – but you have to remember how hungry we were J ), but we also get to make a phone call on the bar’s office phone (since we each have calling cards). The way the folks in this town helped us out, and trusted us has just been incredible. After we eat almost a whole pizza each, we head back to the cabin. There won’t be any devotion tonight, things are a little too crazy, and we will be leaving before daybreak tomorrow. So we hike to the small butte behind the cabin to get a better, closer view of some of the rock formations we have been marveling at. While we are on this “high point” over looking the cabin and river, we are treated to a double rainbow!! It was the brightest, most clear rainbow I have ever seen – even considering all the rainbows I have seen in Hawaii. It gives us “chills” and we pray for God to bless the town of Gateway, as they have been such a blessing to us. This night, I do sleep outside. I see another shooting star, and the most amazing sky I have ever seen. The temperature outside on the picnic table (where I slept – Paul slept on the ground, on his bed pad), was perfect. I get my first REAL good night’s sleep. Today’s Stats:
More pictures for this day can be seen by clicking the button at the top of this page. A sheet of "thumbnails" will be displayed, and you can click on them to see the full size/full picture.
We traveled WEST or Right to Left looking at the map, but the profile below reads left to right.
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