Not all trips are great trips but this one may not have been great for reasons more personal than indicative of the ride itself. I got a late start but left within minutes of first thinking of going. I had a general destination in mind but the route remained undecided when I left the house. On the way from Cedaredge to Delta via back roads, I decided to ride mostly unpaved roads south to Dolores, then west on limited-travel paved roads into Utah at Hovenweep. I had packed my lunch, had wine and coffee for the evening camp but not much food. I planned to stop at the Twin Rocks Cafe in Bluff for Dinner.

It was fun riding the unpaved Delta-Nucla road up onto the Uncompahgre Plateau where I saw only 1 car in twenty-five miles. Twenty miles south on unpaved Divide Road was fun, again with very little traffic, then fun was rudely interrupted by a large clear-cut logging operation and subsequent road work, presumably for the logging trucks. Not only was the immense, naked scar—within what was only recently pristine forest—jarring but trucks and pickups were now everywhere. The dust was terrible. For several miles the road was spread with deep, soft, rutted and ridged sand. A grader was working it for a road base. Later there was gravel on sand but not yet packed. Later still it was well packed new gravel on sand. This continued to Dave Woods Road.

Fun resumed once I headed west on unpaved Dave woods Road with good riding and pretty scenery on to Norwood Hill. It was lunch time. I wanted shade and a table. I knew there was a picnic area along the San Miguel River a couple miles south of Norwood Hill on CO145. I ate my lunch there, sharing the area with no one at all.

Back-tracking on CO145 to Norwood Hill, up out of the canyon and west towards Norwood, I turned south onto Lone Cone Road, a nice 70-mile alternative route to Dolores, Colorado, about half unpaved. In the past, I had found this road devoid of traffic, except near the paved portions where people live on the north end and National Forest where people play on the south end. It had been a couple years since I last traveled this road and I now found it disappointing because of increased activity and traffic related to new homes (or summer cottages) in remote areas and the pervasive, ever-increasing, ever disruptive energy exploitation. There are rumors this road will soon be paved. Everything changes.

A fuel stop in Dolores was an unpleasant experience. I had begun this trip intending to pay cash for gasoline. Most service stations require prepayment before you can pump gasoline. My first stop in Delta had been painfully slow due to one lone employee not much interested in taking my money (preferring the usual SUVs and giant pickups, I suppose.) At the stop in Dolores, I went in to leave a $20 bill and get the pump turned on. The person at the cash register would not wait on me, said he was "closing out." Another employee was engaged in the immensely difficult task of getting cartons of cigarettes for a customer. The employee first couldn't find the correct key to the locked cigarette cabinet, then couldn't find the right cigarettes after finally unlocking the cabinet and, finally after 5 minutes or so, came to the cash register but couldn't seem to ring up the price correctly. I gave up, went outside, used my credit card and said to myself, "No more cash for gasoline in this world we now live in."

I was among people now, too many people, and in no mood for balky traffic. A couple miles south of Dolores I turned west on CO184, a shortcut west to US491. Open highway, gentle curves but double-yellow, oncoming traffic and a Subaru driver who wouldn't go over 40MPH. It was a mile or so before I finally got around, no doubt passing on double-yellow. US491 took me north towards Pleasant View and back-roads west into Utah.

The ride across back country on paved county roads was a continuing disappointment because of frequent energy related traffic where there used to be nothing but an occasional farmer. That part of the Navajo Reservation I crossed southwest of Hovenweep requires caution. This bleak, naked, arid land was given to the Navajo's more or less recently in trade for better land we wanted. If I were them, I would resent this even more than they seem to. Nevertheless, it can be a little scary for a lone motorcyclist. Aware I'm traveling in the domain of a different culture, I'm especially careful of animals on the road, of which there are many in this unfenced land, even horses on the highway. Perhaps some motorcyclists make a bad impression. Forty years ago I was harassed by a Navajo cop in a police van. Minor incidents have occurred since. This time a pickup driver moved over into my lane portending a head on collision. We had approached each other across a mile of naked desert so I don't see how it could have been anything other than intentional. Ready for a sudden unintended trip off-road, I didn't move or slow and he yanked it back with room to spare. Not fun.

Despite a late start, round-about route, bad roads and surly people, I still got to Bluff too early for dinner. The temperature was a desert-hot 100 degrees or more. My continuing disappointment extends to the Twin Rock Cafe. Once a favorite of mine, my last couple visits have been less pleasant. It appears there have been a couple management changes in recent months. Prices have gone up and the food is not as good. Everything changes. Killing time, I used their computer to email my wife, telling her all was well (except that I was irritated and unprepared for the desert heat after a cool spell in Colorado) and where I was headed (turns out I changed my mind once again after leaving the Twin Rocks Cafe). Computer time previously was 20 minutes for $2, now it's 5 minutes for $2. Four hundred percent increase for what reason? It's the same old computer, same old Wi-Fi they had before. Given my mood, a greasy hamburger and salad wrecked my stomach. At least the young Navajo waitress was attentive and polite. (NOTE: subsequent visits indicate the food is good again.)

I had intended to camp at Comb Wash, vaguely remembering cottonwood trees along the stream. I misremembered. There were no trees in sight. It seemed even hotter than Bluff. A recent gully-washer rain had caused washouts across the sand-packed road every 100 yards or so. The crossings were sometimes rough with rocks. After a few washouts with still no trees in sight and ever deeper sand, I did an abrupt turnaround, rode back to the highway, then on west and up Moki Dugway to the higher altitude of Cedar Mesa. Found a very private place with Pinon shade just off a sand road, not recently used, marked "Bullet Canyon Trail Head 1 mile." The temperature was tolerable there, downright cool the next morning. I enjoyed the evening despite cheap wine and bad coffee worsening my already damaged stomach. The moon was so bright I got up a 2:30 A.M. thinking it was getting light out. I went back to bed.

For breakfast, I had an apple with dried fruit and nuts (tasted pretty good) and boiled some fresh bad coffee. Disgusted with much of the previous day's roads, not wanting to chance the once desirable breakfast at the Twin Rocks Cafe, I decided to return by a more northerly, familiar route, a route I had ridden recently, a route that might surprise me less with change. I made good time, leaving camp at 7:15 A.M., stopping for fuel in Blanding, riding through Monticello, Dove Creek, Naturita and getting to Gateway Outpost at 10:20 A.M. for coffee and a scone.

Imagine this fantasy where in Dolores Canyon I'm making a 100MPH pass on a white RV, which in turn is following a car. As I pass the RV I notice the word "Sheriff" stretched along the side (this story, if true, would be in Montrose County). In this story, I pass both, enter a fast right-hander and soon disappear. Imagine a second fantasy where later, in Unaweep Canyon, I'm cruising at 100MPH and realize the approaching plain, late-model Ford sedan looks suspicious. It's a Sheriff car. Damn these law enforcement vehicles without light bars! (This story, if true, would be in Mesa County.) In this story I get lucky, catching traffic at just the right place for passing without slowing. If this were not fantasy, there might have been a road block at Whitewater.

After the 30 or 40 minute stop at Gateway Canyons, I made it home by 12:10. Over 600 miles for the trip. Lots of potential for disaster on this trip. Can't say it was worth it. Still, I wouldn't say I'm sorry I went either.

— Verle Nelson, Cedaredge Colorado