utah 2011 part three/ revenge of the mud!

here's part three of the utah loop that i did in may
i know i should be posting some photos of the epic that i just returned from, but if i dont get these up first, they may never go up at all.
these photos are from the rainy start of day 7 from sunset pass out to hite, up through the mud and crud to dark canyon over look camp. after a very wet and cold night i awoke to a break in the weather, my hopes were high for good riding but i was quickly shut down and had to turn back and head out to the pavement near fry canyon. camped that night in comb wash and had my first real fire of the tour. day 9 started with a great dirt road climb push out to blanding and finished with pavement slog up to my car in the blue mnts. where thad and i had started almost two weeks earlier.
mud pie for breakfast

32 miles of this stuff.

the weather eased around noon and i had some great riding near hite, and at the beginning of fort knocker rd.

the respite didn't last for long, as storm after storm pounded and soaked the road ahead of me turning things into cow shit soup.



jackpot!! dark canyon overlook, and double rainbow welcome mat!!
snapped a few shots here before darkness and storm after pounding storm blew through.


note to self.... boats make bad rain shelters!!
a morning sucker hole appeared over my camp just long enough for me to dry my soaked everything, and get my hopes of mud free riding up.



my planned route(and the only dirt route) to the blue mnts, would keep me at this elevation(9,000) for the next 45 miles. it had snowed down to 8,500ft the night before and everything ahead was going to be like this.....

i left the bike behind and trudged up to the next high point to get some perspective on the situation. this old radio tower gave me a great vantage point of what lay ahead.
1/2mile an hour for 45 miles was what i was looking at, with impending bad weather.
there was only one way to go from here, and that was back a few miles where i could exit the mud dead grip.



this is all the dried mud that i banged off my bike prior to pulling onto the pavement.



this is the tail end of another super intense storm that passed through.


hammering out the road miles, wearing every piece of clothing i had.





that's that.

stay tuned for some photos and stories from alaska!