4 Corners Trip (USA)
by Gary Wilson
Day 1 - April 5th 2007
I had only as far as Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado to go on this first day of my ride, so I didn’t leave the house that morning till about 9:00am. I was going to meet Olav at a specified campground near the entrance to the park that evening. Olav was coming up from his adopted home down in Alamogordo New Mexico. This was going to be our first ride together since meeting him up in Canada back on my Artic Circle ride in 2004!
The ride for the first part of the day was pretty uneventful, getting on highway 25 in Salt Lake then taking the Spanish Fork exit east to Price and then down to Green River Utah.
Once near Moab Utah the scenery change to a red sand stone and very picturesque area. Moab is famous for it’s off road vehicle and mountain biking trails, and has become a real party and cruse route lately. My friend Richard from work was already down in Moab doing some jeeping in the back country, I was to call him for lunch when I arrived that afternoon, but the cell phone reception in the canyons was poor so I never made connected with him and proceeded south out of town to the turn off at Monticello.
Heading southeast now on highway 666 (a real devil of a road) I pasted through the small town of Dove Creek, Colorado. At the end of this town rested an old airstrip with a Quonset hut hanger. I slowed down to take a closer look at the hanger and noticed an old yellow crop duster parked just inside the open hanger doors. The plane was hiding in the dark almost ashamed to be seen. I parked the bike just inside the gate for the airfield and walked with camera in hand over to the hanger. The picture could not have been more perfect if it had been staged, an old engineless crashed crop duster in a silver metal hanger under a blue sky with white clouds above. The hanger was the plane’s crip and final resting place, never to fly again. The windsock above the roof had been beaten almost into shreds by years of hard Colorado winds. I stayed for about an hour shooting the hanger from ever angle, hoping to get “The money shot”.
I continued on to the town of Cortez and highway 160 that would take me to the campground. I arrived at the campground about 5pm and asked at the campground office if anyone on a bike had already checked in, the lady behind the counter said no, so I went ahead and reserved a site near the back of the campground and started to put up my tent. About an hour later the unmistakable sound of a BMW 650 came thumping up the road, it was Olav! I waved him over to the campsite and before he could get his helmet off I shook his hand and started asking him how his trip had been.
Later that evening just before the sun stated to go down, we built a fire and started to catch up on things. Dinner was not fancy, I had a “just add hot water” freeze dried dinner and Olav had a service issued MRE.
Unfortunately I’m in the habit of turning in early and getting up early, so I headed to my tent way too early that evening, but I was looking forward to a great days ride starting tomorrow morning through southern Utah with Olav.
