La Sal - Bedrock
Time Traveled: 3 hrs 20 mins
Distance: 33.10 miles
Food Eaten: coffee w/hot cocoa, orange juice, banana, Thai food, oranges, ice cream sandwich, iced tea, beer, burritos (pinto beans, brown rice, salsa, chilies, corn, tortillas)
After packing up at the church, we spent some time back at the store having breakfast. A local told us there was a restaurant about 5 miles away and I had read about it being at mile marker 14 in a travel brochure. We left the store eagerly awaiting the food there and started off on our 4 mile climb.
It took us almost 2 hours to reach the top of the hill and we found ourself in the very small community of Old La Sal. At mile marker 14 we didn't find the restaurant, but we did find Mt. Peale, a Bed & Breakfast Lodge. Our grumbling tummies told us to look a bit more closely and I went up to the door to knock.
A sign told me that we were closed for a few hours, but before I could turn to go back to my bike, a butch looking woman came out of a side door and asked me if we needed help. I told her we were looking for a restaurant and she said the closest ones were in Moab. When she realized we were heading the opposite way, she offered us some leftover Thai food from the night before and we graciously accepted.
We ate our lunch in the beautiful dining room which was part of a huge living area that had been added on to the original A-Frame. The woman told us that she and her partner had been running the lodge for the past 14 years and her nephew had also been coming there for most of his life to work.
It was the nephew who fixed our food for us and he came out to talk once we had eaten most of our meal. He had dark, olive skin and brilliant blue eyes and when he spoke, he had a very comfortable, peaceful way about him. We learned of a beautiful meadow 5 miles up into the mountains that him and the rest of the crew enjoyed visiting. He spoke a little of the the spiritual retreats that were hosted at the lodge, and I immediately thought of our own plans to host retreats in Costa Rica.
When we tried to pay for our food, the young man insisted on taking no money and we left the quiet, beautiful lodge feeling refreshed, renewed and relaxed. Joe and I vowed to come back in the winter and rent a cabin with some friends to go snowshoeing.
I didn't want leave that wonderful, peaceful place nor all the sweet, generous people who lived there, but time was ticking and we needed to push on. Bedrock was still over 20 miles away and who knows what we had ahead of us.
The first 7 miles went by in a stunning flurry, all downhill with a few switchbacks into some of the most gorgeous country I have ever seen. It was almost like a Grand Canyon blanketed in lush, green forest. We soon passed into Colorado and the day grew very hot as we began another extended climb out of the canyon floor.
It was while we were on this stretch that Joe and I both decided that our bodies were growing weary of this journey and our home in Utah was calling to us. We took a short break at the day's final summit and at and ate oranges as we dreamed of our bed far away.
The next 7 miles into Bedrock was nice and easy being downhill with a flat section at the end. I almost kissed the woman who owned Bedrock's only store when she told us there was a camping area only 3/4 of a mile away at the Dolores River Boat Ramp. We made our way over there and enjoyed some well earned rest.
