OCR Text |
Show t ,, . ! 1 : ' ' 1i i : . ;i : -t v. v. . . ..- .. , :i ' " ' . 1 ... . . 4 : i 1 , '- ' . ; ; -V , : " ' J i -UT - - c"-.;-:, ' - J , r ' , :. .. 1 i yoW" . , . ... ' . , : , ., V; . j f " s-- v " v - : ii - , ' " : , .... " ' -i I ' . i CORONA ARCH A bike expedition to the brink of Bootlegger Boot-legger Canyon was enjoyed this past weekend by Don and John Rowe and Jules Hansel of Dubuque, Iowa. From the end of the road on Poison Spider Mesa west of Moab to Corona Arch is a rewarding hike or trail bike ride of approximately ap-proximately two' mSles. From the brink of Bootlegger Cafi-yon Cafi-yon can be seen Corona Arch. (T-I Staff Photos) . Slickrock Mesa Approach Piwfifes Backdoor Entrance to Certus Isxii By Dick Wilson One of my favorite hikes around Moab is the one to Corona Arch from the Potash Pot-ash Highway. This is an easy adventure and partaken of by many travelers along the scenic road downriver from i Moab. But there's a bigger adventure adven-ture awaiting the person who seeks that arch from the 'plateau above. This was the pleasure of four of us young men this past Sunday. The winter sun was warming the slickrock considerably after last week's White Christmas. Little riv: erlets were Eowing from the melting snow it was a good time to try out new trail bikes on the slickrock. Such was the case with John Rowe, one of my companions for this week's outdoor edventure. His new bright and shiny trail motorcycle motor-cycle was raring to go. The rest of us had slightly-older machines, but all equipped to cover rough territory. Don Rowe was another one on the trip this weekend as was Jules Hansel, a 51-year-young trail-bike enthusiast from Iowa. Hansel plans his vava-tion vava-tion time at this season of the year and returns home with considerable footage of the unusual Moab country to astonish his friends. Seeking New Route Our objective this weekend was to find a route from the end of the new seismograph road on Poison Spider Mesa over to Bootlegger Canyon. Poison Spider Mesa, regular readers will recall, is the name for the high rampart directly west of Moab across the Colorado River. The east face of this cliff is usually all that tourists and even local people ever see. Except for those who like to see the country in the rough by means of walking or by using us-ing vehicles equipped for the purpose. Poison Spider Mesa is a delight in the wintertime.. And this is the first winter that you can make it onto the top of this mesa in ease for the trail was only blazed this past summer. The point of origin for this jeep adventure, or in our case, trail bike adventure, is at the Dinosaur Tracks, ten miles downriver from Moab. Following along closely behind be-hind us was Daryl Rowe in his four-wheel-drive pick-up who went as far as he cou?3 with us for the fun of seeing Poison Spider Mesa in the garb of winter. The outstanding views of this season on this trail are mainly in the southeast direction di-rection where the LaSals seem to be breeding storm-clouds. storm-clouds. The white slopes o the LaSals stand out as a striking contrast to the crags known as the Behind the Rocks. It is this trail on Poison Pois-on Spider Mesa that presents perhaps the best view of those crags. It is from here that one can see the forbidding forbid-ding nature of the country just over, the hill from Moab. Some folks, I imagine, would consider crags there a very, fearful place to be, and that could be true. Someday, however, how-ever, some enterprising person per-son or .organization will seek to open a tourist operation, in that region, and by saying, that I mean something like a chair lift. Addiiional Bonus There's another awe-inspiring sight to be seen from this trail and that is the Little Lit-tle Window. This arch was formed pot-hole fashion right on the brink of the cliff above the Potash Road and is easily seen by automobile travelers from the south side of the river before gtting to Millers Mill-ers Egg Farm. The seismograph crews ended end-ed the road shortly beyond this point. From there to the north is pure undisturbed wilderness, hiking or trail-bike trail-bike country. We four on bikes made our way gingerly from the end of the road into a region known formerly only by cowboys, cow-boys, and before them, by Indians of some eight centuries cen-turies ago. The dangers of slickrocking in the winter are apparent. The snow on the rocks increases in-creases the chances of skidding skid-ding into places not intended. intend-ed. Like Jules Manscl said, it's bad enough in the sum- v. ,' LOOK OUT! Cycling around the slickrock slick-rock knobs on Poison Spider Mesa was fun but tricky for the party of four as they mads their vay to the brink of Eocvlegger Canyon for a backdoor glimpse cf striking Corona Arch. mer let alone in the winter. All four of us had our share of falling in the snow With our bikes this past Sunday, Sun-day, some- of us more than once. But we were careful not to get ourselves in the predicament of a deer that we came across a few hours before. A doe had been trying to walk across a snow-covered ledge, slipped and fell to her death. We came across the scene only a few minutes later, noting that, the body was still warm. We read the story oilier fate in Jbe.. snow. Only. Two Miles '.From the end of the seismograph seis-mograph road on Poison Spider. Spi-der. Mesa over to Bootlegger Canyon 'is a little more than two miles, and there's a' box canyon . in between which is necessary to negotiate. In a large cave in the box canyon we found signs of ancient Indians In-dians and the more-recent cowboys. . As we neared the brink of Bootlegger Canyon we heard a plane. This was a previously-planned rendezvous. Jules Hansel's wife, Helen, and my wife . Breven were being flown to our meeting place in the middle of the wilderness wilder-ness by Wendell Schlup of Moab. Corona Arch was the place. We viewed it from high above our gals in the plane from higher yet. Cornoa is located about one mile up Bootlegger Canyon Can-yon from the Potash Road, and is a very easy hike from there. Known also as Little Rainbow. Bridge (as it's la-bled la-bled on topo maps) this feature fea-ture is impressive whichever which-ever way you look at it. And hiking or trail biking over to the brink on Poison Spider Spi-der Mesa is one of those delightful de-lightful new things you can do in this area. |