A New Favorite Riding Road and a Tale of Two Lost Dogs

 

Rex visiting some equine friends.

I have often told my riding friends that Route 85 from Four Corners, Wyoming, to Lead, South Dakota, was my favorite riding experience. Well, after finding Utah's Route 128 from Moab to Cisco, I have a new "all-time favorite." This road follows the Colorado River through some of the most beautiful river canyons I have ever seen. Don't fret, Route 85; you still are a very close second.

It is a tough life but someone has to ride these roads,
US Route 128 near Moab, UT.

This and the next two photographs were taken within fifty yards of each other and the road.

Within Castle Valley there is a spectacular rock spire called Castleton Point. This formation can be seen from our RV spot. As the crow flies it is about six to eight miles away. To reach it via the roads is about 35 miles and is well worth the beautiful trip.

Utah style skyscraper, Castleton Point.

After reaching Castle Valley my riding friend Wanda and I were on the LaSal Mountain Loop Road (the second-highest peak and youngest range in Utah). Traversing the steep grade and twisty turns was fun. The landscape changed from desert to mountain scrub brush then to some form of scrubby oak and pine trees, which was unexpected by me in this climate.  Fresh signs on the road (droppings) indicated free-range cattle so I slowed my speed down in the turns. This turned out to be fortuitous.

After rounding one turn, there in front of us were two medium size black lab mix dogs. Looking warily at me they stood their ground. Slowing to a crawl, I inched forward until past them and then began to accelerate. I looked in my mirror and saw the smaller one (about 30 pounds) was chasing me. Fearing that the pup wanted a piece of my leg, I turned more throttle but she kept pace.

The lack of ferocity on her face told me that my fear was unfounded and maybe this dog was lost or, worse, abandoned. I slowed to a stop and she jumped all over me with affection. Fearing she would burn herself on the hot pipes, I dismounted quickly and walked a few steps away from Rex. This dog was all over us as if we were about to feed her and she hadn’t eaten in a month. She reminded me SO MUCH of my Dear Josie (my canine partner before Riley).

But there were two dogs, so where was her partner? Walking back down the hill a bit to find the other dog I glanced back and saw an amazing thing. The friendly female was sitting on Rex’s seat, looking as if she was ready to ride. Damn, and my cameras were in the tour pack. As quickly as she got up she bounded back off and came running towards me for some more affection.

I noticed she was wearing a collar with one of those ID chip tags so I asked Wanda to see if there was a cell signal and amazingly there was. While she was on hold with the lost dog people a car stopped alongside us and the female jumped in immediately. Fickle females, I thought. It turned out that it was the dog’s owner and he was looking for them. I told him where I last saw the other one and then it came out of the brush just a few feet from us and also jumped in the car. Apparently, the second dog was watching from safety while the female degraded herself by cavorting with me.

Once again the creator has blessed me with a canine encounter of the great kind. Oh, and did I ever get the sniff-out examination when I got home to my boy Riley.