Day 12: Cow Springs to colorful Colorado!

Posted by: Arin

It's one in the morning and I'm laying in the tent next to Brad. We're both still awake because we rode 120 miles today. That's the most either of us has ever ridden in a day, and it was on fully loaded touring bikes. It also puts us at 210 miles over the last two days.

We actually had a late start to the day. I showered, ate breakfast, and finished up the last couple posts on the blog before we got on the road around 10:45. Then we had a flat six or seven miles in! So we didn't really get moving until around 11:15.

Brad's knee was acting up in the morning, so we took it easy for a little while. With some ibuprofen and a little warming up we were able to pick up the pace and made it to Kayenta by 2. There we went to the grocery store Basha (a terrible place, but our only option) to pick up food for the next couple days. We ate a little there and were back on the road around 3. At this point we were a little less than 40 miles in, but we had a tailwind and we started jamming down the road. Somewhere between miles 75 and 80 we sat down on a big rock to eat some food. It was already 6, and we were running from storm clouds that had been chasing us all day with intermittent rain. 

After some peanut butter and dried fruit wraps, we felt some rain and continued on. Just a few miles later, we were surprised to see a gas station and stopped in for some chocolate milks. As we were there, it started getting dark so we had to pull out our bike lights.

We had seen a lot of tunnels under the road, so our plan was to find one soon. A few miles past the gas station, we had some luck: a perfect tunnel. We lifted our bikes over a short barbed wire fence (not as easy as it sounds when your bike weighs 90 pounds) and scoped out the tunnel. Other than some horse tracks it looked good. In the distance to one side we could see some lights, then one popped up and started moving... in our direction. If we could see their lights they could probably see ours too. A couple other lights started moving, so we decided to get out of there. We lifted our bikes back over the fence and got back up to the road. The lights didn't seem to get any closer, but we were still on the reservation and didn't want to have any trouble. We decided to keep going to find a safer place. After slogging our way through maybe thirteen more miles, we got to Red Mesa and stopped to get a candy bar and some donuts to lift our spirits. It was almost 10 and the lights from the gas station attracted hundreds of june bugs and moths that all hovered around the filling stations and entryway.

We got going again, soon passing the 100 mile marker for the day. We hit a good-sized downhill and Brad hit the gas. We were flying through the pitch-black night with only stars above us and an occasional car.

Finally we made it to Teec Nos Pos, where we made a left to stay on 160. Only five miles left to four corners! We though we could make it in to the park at night, but that was not the case.

A mile or two down the road we came across 2 signs. One of them said "camp➡️" and the other said "Welcome to colorful Colorado." We followed the sign for camping up a rocky, sandy dirt road for about a mile before we came upon a house. A young man came out and we asked him where we could camp. He told us to talk to his parents, who were just pulling up in their truck. They had just gotten back from the casino, and told us to go back down the road and find any spot that's flat off to the side. We started setting up camp just after midnight, ate anything we didn't have to prepare, and I crashed out midway through this post.

All in all, it was an epic day. The night riding we did was one of the most beautiful things I've ever experienced.