We grabbed a quick bite from the hotel and then headed for Carbondale and up to McClure Pass. The canyons up to Redstone and Marble, I hate to repeat this all the time, was beautiful. The rivers are running extremely high. The pass and Somerset behind us, we headed toward Paonia. We came up behind a suburban, Rob in position 1, Nick followed a bit further than normal and Jeff in the tail gunner position. At one point, Rob caught out of the corner of his eye what looked like a mounted deer's head in the bushes on the side of the road. He realized that it was a real deer and it was moving....toward him....fast. He thought he was going to get blind sided and gave it a bit of gas. The deer passed behind him. From Nick and Jeff's point of view, they thought the deer hit Rob or visa-versa. The deer came down from higher up the hill rather than on than the road; it twisted in mid-air to miss Rob; it went down on its hind haunches; she popped back on all four feet and headed for the other side of the road. If Nick had been closer he likely would've hit the deer. Both guys were looking for other deer coming from the hill. Rob's heart was pounding fairly rapidly for a while.
After the excitement settled down, we got to Hotchkiss and headed south
. After going south for a couple of miles, Rob saw a pheasant wander onto the highway and just as Rob got up to the bird, instead of going back off the road it decided to take flight. Rob ducked and saw the bird fly right over his head. Another narrow miss.
We need gas so we stopped at a little restaurant in Crawford. There was only an older woman and her daughter in there. The older lady started a conversation with us by asking Jeff where he went (bathroom). We were guessing her to be in her mid to upper eighties. They asked where we were from and we asked where she was from and she said "Penn-tucky." She referred to herself as the class clown. We heard all about their comings and goings.
Back on the road we noticed a lot of cow piles on the road. The further we went the fresher they seemed. Finally, in the distance we came on as small herd of cows. Cowboys and cowgirls were pushing the herd off the road, finally
.
We made it to the north rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison with roads with steep drop offs with no guard rails, Rob's phobia come to fruition. With only minor anxiety attacks, on Rob's part, we stopped at a couple of pull outs to enjoy the view. Again the descriptor, beautiful, is offered up. When we came to the dam at Blue Mesa Reservoir, Rob's double phobia raised it's ugly head. 1500 feet to the right nothing but a steep drop into the canyon and on the left 1500 feet of water. Repeating "loosey goosey" to keep himself from white knuckling the crossing Rob made it across without too much panicking.
We stopped at a gas station to make plans for eating, gassing, and cooling off. It was too close to dinner to eat a large lunch so we decided on light fast food. Jeff suggested Taco Johns. Rob said he loved the memories of Taco Johns from his youth but he did not know where one was. Jeff said behind you. Rob turned around and sure enough, there it was. The ride from Montrose to Grand Junction was the hottest sixty miles, ever!
We arrive at Rob's parents house where we unloaded the motorcycles and used one of their cars to drive over to Rob's sister's house where we were staying and dining. The motorcycles stay in the garage safe and out of the sun.
239 miles today
2637 miles to date
The hottest day, ever!
Saturday, June 25, 2016
Black Canyon Of The Gunnison National Park, Colorado, United States
Other Entries
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1Background
Jun 1411 days priorMonument, United Statesphoto_camera7videocam 0comment 0 -
2Jeff and Nick leaving Corvallis
Jun 1510 days priorCorvallis, United Statesphoto_camera7videocam 0comment 0 -
3Rob and Dave, Denver to Edwards
Jun 1510 days priorEdwards, United Statesphoto_camera7videocam 0comment 1 -
4Rob and Dave, Edwards to Heber City Utah
Jun 169 days priorHeber City, United Statesphoto_camera1videocam 0comment 0 -
5Jeff, Nick, Dave and Rob join forces
Jun 178 days priorPocatello, United Statesphoto_camera9videocam 0comment 3 -
6Yellowstone Park
Jun 187 days priorWest Yellowstone, United Statesphoto_camera15videocam 0comment 3 -
7West Yellowstone, day two.
Jun 196 days priorWest Yellowstone, United Statesphoto_camera19videocam 0comment 0 -
8Red Lodge Montana
Jun 205 days priorRed Lodge, United Statesphoto_camera29videocam 3comment 0 -
9Teton National Park
Jun 214 days priorTeton Village, United Statesphoto_camera27videocam 0comment 3 -
10Transition day
Jun 223 days priorVernal, United Statesphoto_camera11videocam 0comment 0 -
11Transition day two
Jun 232 days priorSteamboat Springs, United Statesphoto_camera13videocam 0comment 1 -
12Ended up in Glennwood
Jun 241 day priorGlenwood Springs, United Statesphoto_camera18videocam 0comment 1 -
13The hottest day, ever!
Jun 25Black Canyon Of The Gunnison National Park, United Statesphoto_camera20videocam 0comment 1 -
14Nick's Birthday
Jun 261 day laterGrand Junction, United Statesphoto_camera9videocam 0comment 1 -
15A day of diverse scenery
Jun 272 days laterDolores, United Statesphoto_camera25videocam 0comment 1 -
16Epic's Last Stand
Jun 283 days laterMoab, United Statesphoto_camera24videocam 0comment 3 -
17Touring the Moab area
Jun 294 days laterMoab, United Statesphoto_camera32videocam 0comment 0 -
18Headed to GJ/ Spanish Forks
Jun 305 days laterGrand Junction, United Statesphoto_camera2videocam 0comment 0 -
19Nick and Jeff's continued trip home
Jul 016 days laterOntario, United Statesphoto_camera9videocam 0comment 0 -
20Epilogue
Jul 0611 days laterMonument, United Statesphoto_camera1videocam 0comment 0
Comments

2025-02-10
Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank
Mark Ferguson
2016-06-28
Sounds like a close call with the deer - wow!