TOP: The road gets a little bit nicer, if you LIKE STONES!
2nd: Finally rid of the stones...if you LIKE DIRT!!
3rd: The long and winding road...looking downslope from LaSalle Pass
4th: View from the pass into LaSalle Valley..priceless.
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We left early morning from Blanding, a bit wetter for the wear but happy to finally be out of the heat of the deserts of Arizona and Utah. Now, on to our first set of mountains, the LaSalle's. They straddle the border between Utah and Colorado, and while not technically part of the Continental Divide, they were certainly formidable in their own right.
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The am crew quickly knocked off the miles to the start of the climb, and luckily, they didn't loose Marco Polo early this day. Luckily I say, because Marco got the start of the climb...and the middle of the climb...and most of the top of the climb. It was in fact a masterful assault on the Pass, and John deserves kudos for knocking it off. Of course, then he was a bag of shit for about 2 days following.
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In possibly the worst luck of the entire trip, Tom "A rolling stone gathers no speed" Gallagher got the massive downhill coming off the pass. It consisted of about 20 switchbacks, at 9-15% grade. In fact, there were places where Tom actually exceeded 15mph...a huge reach for him on a downhill. As I came over in the RV hours later, I was in tears...truly, if a downhill was ever made for me, this was it!
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As Tom leveled off in the valley below, (and about 30 minutes before he could physically remove his grip from the brake levers), he then came upon a lovely road construction project...lovely if you're a geologist that is. First a couple of miles of stone. Then, a couple more miles of dirt. If not for the semi-cute, barely literate flagman that gill had the opportunity to, let's call it "date", that whole section of road would have been a total loss.
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The am crew cut through the looping valley, and we finally caught them alonside the dolores river. Rivers good; if you're heading downstream, which we were. More in next post.
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"Downhill paradise lost" Lumpy out
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