Day 16 – Green River, UT to Fruita, CO via I-70, 16 Jun 2014

Map and Pics:  Click Here for Map and Pics.

Miles 1061 to 1151, 90 miles, 3600 feet of climb, max speed: 44 mph, avg speed 16+ mph

Today was a fun day. Utah is now behind us. Most of the ride was in the brown sandy mesa land that looked remarkably similar mile after mile. Mirria, the wind that slapped us in the face yesterday, kissed us on the lips today. What Bonneville Salt Flats is to rocket cars, I-70 east of Green River is for bikes. The road is recently repaved in sections, and the 20 foot wide shoulder allows for maintaining speed over long distances. Al and I averaged over 23 mph through gentle grades up and down (less than 3 percent) and delicious flats across the 40 miles between SAG stops today. If it wasn’t for a very rude 4 mile hill to get out of the Green River Valley and three miles of repaving/milling operations we would have easily averaged better than 17 mph today. Today was a big day for flat tires too; almost everybody suffered at least one. Road litter on the side of the road is filled with microscopic wire from steel belted tires that do us in.

Now we are in Colorado, the reality is setting in that we are in for several tough days. As we descended into Fruita (the I sounds like an E) we were greeted by our first vista the Colorado River. Both the Green and the Colorado Rivers have tremendous currents. I would be very hesitant to put out in a boat in either of these rivers. I was surprised how I-70 is built right on the bank of the river, about a four foot drop to get into the water. I am so use to rivers that flood in Alabama. I think the rivers out here don’t flood, they flush – just get faster and swirl a lot.



Our first view of the Colorado River, Fruita, CO



There seems to be a building correlation between how well we are fed at night and how demanding the next day is, and we were stuffed tonight. All forecasts are predicting 20-25 mph head winds tomorrow as we climb all day. Longer range forecasts all agree we will ride over Monarch Pass in a snow storm. Several of the faithful have contacted Father Eddie, our rider-priest, to petition the Almighty for something more tolerable.

Bottom Line: I can’t believe it! Colorado already! Wow.