Utah & Colorado MTB Trip
Day 8 Uncompaghre Plateau

We had rain showers overnight. The sky cleared as I woke up. It made for a pretty sunrise. As usual, our guides were up early getting breakfast ready. The contingent from Seven Hills Wheelmen always pitched our tents close together. By this time our part of the campsite was known as "Little Worcester" (pronounced "Little Wustah" in an exaggerated New England accent).

Today's mileage was only 17. We planned to be at camp before lunch. We began with a long descent. As we descended the vegetation changed from aspens and pines to sage and other small scrub bushes. The area started looking more like the desert. We noticed an odor resembling burning marijuana. I don't know which plant caused the smell. But, it was very pungent.

After descending about 1,000 to 1,500 feet we began to climb. We climbed up about five or six miles to our campsite. Our campsite was located at the very edge of the Uncompaghre Plateau. We were near the top of a large canyon looking West into town of Gateway, Colorado and the LaSal mountains beyond.

We pitched our tents, as our guides prepared lunch. During lunch, a thunderstorm moved in. I was grateful, to be done riding for the day. The rain was heavy at times. We spent a good part of the afternoon reading in our tents and loafing around the campsite while waiting for the storm to clear.

My elk antler. Now that's a souvenir!

After a couple of hours the storm cleared. Dave and I went for a walk along the rim of the canyon. We bushwhacked along some game trails towards a large outcrop of Red rocks at the very edge of the canyon. While walking, I noticed a lot of deer and elk droppings. While wading through waist high brush, I noticed something white lying in the trail. I bent down and picked it up. I couldn't believe my eyes as I lifted it out of the brush. It was an elk antler.

Male elk (bulls) like deer, moose and other members of the deer family grow a new set of antlers every summer. The antlers fall off in winter after the rut (mating season). This antler was shed the previous winter. I couldn't believe my good luck to have found it.

The edge of the Uncompaghre.

We continued hiking and taking pictures. The clearing storm and our location presented a nice opportunity for photography.

After shooting a whole role of film, we returned to camp. Everyone ran over to look at my antler. We enjoyed a nice supper of stir-fry shrimp. I kept looking over at the antler leaning against my bike. It was like they say in that beer commercial, "It just doesn't get any better than this."

After dinner we walked back out to the edge of the canyon to watch the sunset. After sunset, we watched a thunderstorm pass way off to the Southwest. It turned out to be an ominous premonition of things to come.

Continue to Day 9

Introduction
Day 1 Porcupine Rim
Day 2 Slick Rock Trail, Gemini Bridges and Dead Horse Point S.P.
Day 3 Colorado National Monument
Day 4 Jughandle Loop
Day 5 Telluride Colorado to Last Dollar Pass
Day 6 Uncompaghre Plateau
Day 7 Uncompaghre Plateau
Day 8 Uncompaghre Plateau
Day 9 Gateway Colorado and John Brown Canyon
Day 10 Sand Flats Road to Moab
Day 11 Arches National Park