The Ride Of Shame
After the rather cold ending of the ride the week before I decided to head out into the desert where it would definitely be warmer. And it was. One of my favourite loops is to go down through Capitol Reef NP and take the Caineville Wash out to Cathedral Valley then climb up Thousand Lake Mountain and go over the top to UT 72 and home. At this time of year the mountain is buried under several feet of snow but I knew there was a dirt road from Cathedral Valley north to I70 and that it didn't get too high so that was my plan. That is in fact exactly what I did, but it didn't go exactly how I expected it to... The wash meets the road just south of Capitol Reef National Park and this time it actually had water in it, that should have been a warning to me. Caineville Wash is desert with sparse vegetation but Thousand Lake Mountain is visible to the west to provide picturesque scenery. Entering Cathedral Valley from the Middle Desert, the large monument in the c...