July 9-14: UT-95 to Hanksville: The morning we left Blanding started at the 5 AM sunrise. The red sky emerging from the east illuminated that of the the Sleeping Ute Mountain, which held Cortez, CO in its shadow. After roughly 3 miles of downhill on US 191, UT-95 appeared before us and as we turned onto the beginning of this desolate stretch of road, a sign read: Hanksville-122. It was very difficult for me to fathom this number; however, prior to departing on this walk, I knew that this day would eventually arrive. Loaded up with 7 gallons of water a piece, both Jake and myself put the carts to their intended use as fully loaded water reservoirs. It was not long after we set off down 95 that steep canyon walls surrounded us and 8-9% grades challenged both stamina and patience. At around 12PM on the 9th, we came upon an incredible feat of engineering that carved the road directly through a Mesa. In the shade of this man made canyon, we took lunch before ascending a pass that made me miss the cool air of Wolf Creek in Colorado. It is the climb to the summit of Salvation Knoll from Comb Wash and from the base of this monster, the road goes up for 10 miles over terrain that is graded at 9% in various areas. Elevation was not an issue here, but rather it was a combination between the heat, grade, and weighed down buggies that made it exceptionally difficult. Nonetheless, the beauty of this part of the country kept us from focusing too much on the brutality of the climb. Only about a mile up this pass, we were faced with a situation that slowly evolved over the next 2 days. The weld that was made on Jakes buggy in Blanding was beginning to crack and the front wheel started bending to the left...again; however, this time, we were in no place to fix it, so, I took some of his weight in water and transferred it to my own cart. There was another buggy awaiting him in Hanksville, but being over a hundred miles away, we had to be extremely careful until the time came that a permanent fix would be guaranteed. We pressed on cautiously and miraculously, the crack did not progress any more...today. About 3/4 of the way up the knoll, we stumbled onto the ruins of Mule Canyon left by the Anasazi natives. Shards of pottery still littered the ground and the shade of the ruins offered us a temporary haven as we waited for the afternoon sun to pass. After finally reaching the summit of Salvation Knoll, we set up camp on mile 96, indulged in the view of where we had walked from, and went to bed after a successful first day on this beautiful road. The next 2 days did not prove to be as difficult from a terrain standpoint; in fact, the entire day of July 10th was spent on a gradual downhill decent into a valley compiled of Mother Natures finest monuments. Yellow canyons sat beneath the red monoliths scattered throughout the valley. The Cheese Box Butte and Jacobs chair were but a few, and between these geological marvels stood walls of red sandstone overlooking the road. It was rather hypnotic looking and as I stared up at the walls of the canyons, I could often make out the faces of human beings in the rock. Some old and some young, but all standing watch over the valley for an eternity. Speaking of time, the faces in stone were not the only things on this route seems to be locked into eternity. Earlier in the day, I noticed a glint of sunlight reflect off of something shiny about 150 yards off the road. As I adjusted my eyes, I noticed that it was an old car hidden within the juniper and sagebrush. Of course, I wanted to investigate, so, Jake and I wandered over to it and the eeriness of its location and position on the ground was baffling. This old Chrysler Airflyte laying on its right side still had a license plate on it from 1960 and the paint was not in too bad of shape aside from the bullet holes embedded into it as well as the windows. I have no idea why it is there, where it came from, or who it belonged to, but its final resting place seemed to freeze its integrity in time. After we walked a solid 30 miles on the 10th, we arrived at mile 66 and were about to set up camp when a massive thunderstorm approached. It greeted us with a refreshing rain, but after an hour and a half of precipitation, the refreshing drops eventually became a nuisance since we could not yet set up camp; however, when we did, the sun came back out to say one last farewell before setting on day 2. A big thanks to a gentleman named Keith today. He saw us walking down the road and stopped to give us some sports drinks! As I mentioned earlier, the terrain was not too bad on the 10th or 11th; however, when the morning of the 11th arrived, hilly terrain was not necessary to make today difficult. As we left camp, the crack in Jakes cart creaked and then became slightly larger...The benefit of this happening today was that we were only about 17 miles from Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. In the actual Park, there is a specific location next to the Colorado River known as Hite and between Blanding and Hanksville, it is the only place with resources. As Jakes wheel tilted even further to the left, we strapped some bungee cords to the right wheel prong to try and offer a bit of extra support to the failing metal beam. It lasted until around 7 miles outside of Hite before the whole unit collapsed on the already scorching hot asphalt. After removing the bulk of Jakes gear and dividing it into my cart and his backpack, the broken buggy was used as a Rickshaw for the final 7 miles to Hite. Apparently on this final stretch, however, some of Jakes things fell out of the back of his cart, but I want to thank a kind gentleman named Phil from Jersey for seeing them in the road. Phil came driving up next to us to return the items which Jake had lost. When we arrived at Hite, we honestly had no idea what we were going to do about this issue, but as always, the kind folks of this great nation provided. In Hite, there is a small store and visitors center. As we were walking up to the store, a park ranger named Rosemary spotted us and warmly greeted us to the Oasis. We told her of the issue at hand and immediately she offered to try and help us out. She brought Jake down to a maintenance shed to try and find something to fix the broken piece, but without the ability to weld the broken pieces, nothing else seemed feasible. Thank you for all your help regardless, Rosemary! When we walked into the actual store at Hite, we met another woman by the name of Melissa. she is the manager of the facility and she too was informed of the issue at hand. Lime Rosemary, she immediately obliged to help us. First, she offered to drive Jake to Hanksville to pick up his new buggy at the post office, but sadly it would already be closed. After brainstorming a few ideas, Melissa said that we could leave her with a bunch of unnecessary items for the remainder of the walk to Hanksville, and come Monday, she would bring them to the motel we would be staying in. Telling us that she would be heading into town on Monday regardless made this plan sound even better! Also, if this was not kind of her enough, Melissa also offered to host us for the next 2 nights in her home! Having Melissa as our wonderful host in Hite, being given comfortable beds, shelter, and a shower facility by said person was more than enough to put this frustrating day at ease. Thank you for everything Melissa! After an amazon day off exploring a little bit of Glen Canyon, Jake and I left Melissas home in Hite at 5 AM and made way down the road with only the essentials for the next 2 days packed into good ol reliable, Tom Croozer. At first we thought switching off the buggy every 10 miles would be the way to go, but actually, we ended up devising something better! I stood on the left and Jake stood on the right of Tom and we shared in the labor of pushing this tank. If 2 men pushing their own strollers was not enough of a spectacle, then 2 men both pushing one stroller was definitely the key in turning some heads. We decided that this scene should be on one of those motivational posters describing teamwork. In a way we were both happy that the other buggy broke since we were able to share in pushing only 1 stroller through todays consistent uphill climb from the Colorado River Valley. By 2 PM, we had traveled 25 miles through an array of canyons and cliffs. Just when I thought the landscape could not become any more unique, we were enveloped in a setting that was fit for Wiley Coyote (even saw a roadrunner today!) or an Alien on the surface of Mars. As 2:00 approached, the heat of the day was out in full force. For this stretch, we have adjusted our sleep schedules to wake up early and break for a few hours during the time of day when the sun is at its strongest. Today we found a little gem at mile marker 25 that was perfect to take the daily siesta. An underpass filled with hardened dirt and sand made for surprisingly perfect conditions to take a nap. After we waited out the afternoon sun, we did a final 6 miles to equate a daily total of 31. In this final stretch, we also had the privilege to meet a wonderful woman named Joy, who pulled over to see if we needed anything. It has been challenging to spread the mission of this journey with people in the middle of the desert when there is a large lack of folks to share it with; however, it seems that meeting the right individuals at the right time is all too common on this trek. Joy, who before leaving gave us some fresh vegetables for dinner, is a psychologist who works over in Cortez, CO. As I shared the purpose of the walk with her, I noticed the ripple effect take hold. She said that she is going to give the information to a number of her clients so that they may find a means to connect with Ryans story. Thank you so much Joy! Walking into Hanksville today on the 14th was such an invigorating feeling. The first sign we saw was for a burger joint on the edge of town and before we even explored the rest of the community, we each ordered the biggest items on the menu! Nearly a pound of beef and a huge milkshake does wonders after nearly a weeks worth of living off of peanut butter and power bars! On a full stomach, we both headed down the road and picked up Jakes new cart at the post office before checking into a local motel.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 03:55:06 +0000
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