Posts Tagged ‘tar snakes’

Bending Toward Home

Monday, August 8th, 2016
Colorado-Utah state line

The Colorado-Utah state line west of Naturita.

Moab is not the town we once knew. Since about 40 years ago we have been going over there en route to Canyonlands National Park or Arches National Park, on a spring camping trip in March. We used to leave after work on a Friday night, drive all night, and roll into Moab around dawn. Sometimes we would have to wait a bit for the City Market to open so we could get our supplies, and then it was off to the canyons. It was a small town, with not much there.

The night the OFMC spent in Moab this year emphasized the changes. The main drag is totally built out with hotels, restaurants, and all kinds of shops. After dark, when the temperature was down to a more bearable 88, the street was swarming with tourists, with very little English being spoken. This place is now an international destination.

So we got off reasonably early the next morning, before the heat could build too much. Rather than take the usual route to the northeast, toward Grand Junction, we headed back south on US 191 to La Sal Junction where he turned east on Utah 46, which becomes Colorado 90 when it crosses the state line on its way toward Naturita. What a nice road! I’m pretty sure I’ve never been on this road before. How have I missed it?

The road runs up on the shoulder of the Manti-La Sal range and then drops down into Paradox Canyon. It’s full of curves and good scenery and then the drop into the canyon is abrupt. Basically, the road just goes over the edge of the cliff and a series of switchbacks carries you to the bottom. Posted speed is 15 mph and they mean it. Plus, we had been running over tar snakes for quite awhile and now the road was covered with them as we made these tight turns. Plus, by now the temperature had climbed a bit, so they were oozy. OK, we’re taking this nice and easy.

The canyon itself was green and beautiful. I stopped at the state line to shoot photos as I always try to do when crossing the line at a new point. I’ll get these shots up on the website soon but for now, that’s the one looking into Colorado above. It was striking because what I have found in almost every case is that at the state line, the beauty of Colorado rarely shows. It’s almost always prairie or barren. This one was an exception.

We followed CO 90 almost all the way to Naturita but then hit CO 141 and turned north toward Uravan and ultimately up to Gateway. This put us on the Unaweep Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway, which is always a really nice road to ride. Plus, I’m not sure I’ve ever ridden it in this direction before.

It was blazing hot again by now so we were glad to stop in Gateway for some lunch. The Gateway Canyons Resort used to be a good place for bikers to stop, and had a good many purpose-built motorcycle parking spaces, complete with a concrete pad in each one for your kickstand. Not any more. There is no longer a turn-off from the highway that gets you directly to the restaurant, the old parking area is now grass and fountains and sculpture, and you have to know it is there because there’s no sign. But we turned in the main entrance to the resort and after wandering around and then talking to an employee, found our way to a parking lot and walked to the restaurant. John tells us that while this place used to charge $180 a night, that rate is now up to $500 a night, so that tells you the kind of folks they are catering to. What that also means is that the restaurant serves very good food, and the prices are not exorbitant.

Lunch eaten, we headed east through the Unaweep Canyon and picked up US 50 at Whitewater, jogged north a short distance to CO 141 to Clifton and then on to Palisade for the night. Here we were putting up at the Wine Country Inn where John said they offer wine tasting and live music on Friday nights, which is the day it was. This was another of our pricey stops on the “First OFMC Luxury Trip” and we were very disappointed to learn that they only offer the music every other Friday, and this was not one of those. Heck, that was the main reason we went there. We could have stayed at plenty of other nice places for less than $180 per night if we’d known. Again, though, the food was good and it did offer an included buffet in the morning.

And in the morning it was time to head home. Randy and Bret took off first, being inclined to blast on home. John, of course, had the shortest ride, only going to Montrose, so he took his time. The rest of us were not looking to blast, me especially, because my front tire was running very thin. I had looked at it before the trip and knew it was thin but figured it easily had another 1,500 plus miles on it and I’d get a new one when I got home. I had watched it every day and was comfortable but this last day I was a little nervous. It helped that Dennis looked at it and said he was sure it had plenty of rubber for the day’s ride. But I didn’t want to blast like the younger guys had, just in case. We took our time and made several stops. I got home fine.

And that was that. The OFMC 2016 trip was another in the history books.

Biker Quote for Today

You start a car, but you bring a motorcycle to life.

Tar Snakes By The Score

Thursday, July 30th, 2015
The OFMC at Glen Canyon

The OFMC at Glen Canyon.

There was one point on this recent OFMC trip where I think everyone would agree the riding was more than memorable.

We had just come through the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and were somewhere in the vicinity of Natural Bridges National Monument and we came upon a series of tight turns. This is normally something we who ride find delightful: tucking in, leaning first this way and then that and then back this way, maybe even scraping some hard parts if you’re on that type of bike. But in these very same turns we also encountered something we were not thrilled about: tar snakes.

Not just a few; they were like a spider web, going everywhere in every direction. Totally impossible to avoid. And right there on these tight turns where we were already leaned over, with not a lot of traction to spare.

Holy crap! Nothing to do but ride it through.

Of course that’s a lot easier to say than to do when you feel your front tire sliding out from under you only to then feel your rear tire going, while the front has stabilized. But stabilized only for a second because as soon as you’re past one there are three more in your path. And sometimes your front and back tires are sliding at the same time.

So we got through a series of turns like that and breathed a sigh of relief but just a minute later here was another series of turns with just as many snakes as the last time. Yow!

Of course, it was a hot day, so they were soft and oozing. There was not a single one of us who had encountered tar snakes that bad ever before. No one went down and no one got hurt but every one of us had a memorable experience that came up in conversation more than once in the next couple days.

Here’s a bit of advice I found on how to deal with them: Once on the tar snakes and leaned over go loose on the bars and don’t chop the throttle. Look for pavement areas that look to have less tar and try to alter your line/lean to get the front tire there. If possible cross the tar snakes at 90° or at angles never ride along the length of a tar snake.

Thanks to dirtrider for that bit of advice. And yes, that seems to be the consensus, don’t over-react, stay loose and ride it through.

Then of course, later in the day we ran into about 10 miles of new chip seal. Brand new chip seal. Not our favorite day of the trip.

Biker Quote for Today

Tar Snakes. Their bite is painful. Their laughter is silent. — RedWings