2010 24-Hours of Moab Off-Road Bicycle Race - The Start

 

 

2010 24-Hours of Moab Off-Road Bicycle Race

- The Start - 

In October 2010, I attended the sixteenth annual “24 Hours of Moab” off-road bicycle race, held at Behind the Rocks, a few miles south of Moab, Utah. As usual, it was an exciting affair, with thousands in attendance. By Moab standards, the wind was calm and the cloudless sky promised a warm afternoon and a cool night ahead.

 

 

 

For the two previous years, I had covered Dax Massey in his quest to win his class at the Moab race. This year, I found Dax in the Scoring Tent, checking in only fifteen minutes before the 12:00 PM start time. Competing in the Men’s Duo Championship this year, Dax wore #89 and rode for the Honey Stinger/Trek team.

 

After leaving the Scoring Tent, I positioned myself to see Dax complete his Le Mans style, running start. As I watched, Dax made a quick getaway on his first lap. He and his partner, Nate Bird would complete nineteen laps during the following twenty-four hours.

 

In the 2010 race, Dax and Nate came in a close second to the Hammer Duo team of Ben Parsons and Clint Muhlfeld. Regardless of their placement, Dax Massey and his exciting style of off-road bike racing were a pleasure to see. In order to see for yourself, watch the accompanying video.

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24-Hours of Moab Live Pre-Race Festivities - 2010

 

24-Hours of Moab Live

2010 Pre-Race Festivities 

In October 2010, I attended the sixteenth annual 24 Hours of Moab off-road bicycle race. Each year, an overgrazed cattle pasture magically transforms into a racing venue known to bicycle racing enthusiasts worldwide. Some race for fun and others race for victory in the most prestigious event of its kind. This year, three hundred eighteen teams or individuals competed. Of those, two hundred eighteen were still pedaling at the finish, twenty-four hours later.

 

From the full-out run of the  Le Mans start, to the final rotation of a bicycle wheel one day later, it was an incomparable event. With a full view of the Sierra La Sal Range to the northeast, the Behind the Rocks venue is both spectacular and challenging. This year, we visited the site on Friday, as vendors and volunteers set up tents and equipment for the Saturday Noon start time.

 

On a warm Friday afternoon, the wind kicked up only an occasional dust devil. I watched as dedicated racers practiced along the entrance road. Later, there was time to take in scenes of family life unfolding before me. Out of nowhere, a young boy peddled past me, his winded father running just behind him. As I watched, that boy mastered the art of two-wheeling. As they disappeared around the bend, I could picture that young man competing for prizes in future years.

 

Join me now in reliving a beautiful pre-race afternoon and seeing the sights at that great venue. Enjoy our video tribute to Granny Gear Productions and the great energy that they bring to bicycle racing in Moab each autumn. I hope to see each of you there in October 2011.

 

 

 

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Snowstorms Continue in Canyonlands and Moab, Utah - 2011

In 2006, I began working and writing in Moab, Utah. Then, and for several years thereafter, conventional wisdom held that it rarely snowed in Moab. Most locals said that when it did snow, the weather would soon warm up, melting the snow within a few days.

 

Then, along came the winter of 2009 – 2010. It snowed often in December and again in January. Even with partial thawing between storms, there was still snow on the ground well into February. As 2010 drew to a close, our friend in Moab, Tiger Keogh offered hopeful reports. Her emails indicated dry weather and daily high temperatures above forty degrees. Between Christmas and New Year’s, her sunny reports ended. On December 30, 2010, it snowed in Moab and has snowed several times since.

 

One of the benefits of deploying webcams in several locations is that we can check the weather all around Moab every day. Since this winter’s snow began to fall, our Canyonlands Field webcam has shown whiteouts overnight, followed by snowplowing the following day. Our webcam, located at the Moab Rim Campark and Cabins has shown heavy snowfall in the La Sal Range. In early January 2010, during a respite from the storms, I observed a sublime alpenglow-sunset over the Spanish Valley.

 

While viewing different locations in Grand County, Utah, I sat 800 miles away, in Simi Valley, California. From my remote location, I captured a series of images from the two webcams. Since each webcam updates every three seconds, I saved several image sequences. Once I had a series of images saved, I open a “GIF Animator” program and then compiled the sequences into “digital filmstrips”. I then saved each filmstrip as an “animated GIF”.

 

In an age where we can stream high-definition video to mobile devices, the animated GIF image seems quaint. CompuServe first developed the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) in the 1980s. With the slow-speed modems and dial-up networks then available, creating motion online was quite a feat. In order to show animated images, CompuServe applied “lossless compression” to each image. Restricted to 256 colors, not the millions of colors available in a high-definition video, animated GIFs offer impressions, not details. Even so, an animated GIF that shows spectacular scenery and at least some action can have a charm all its own.

 

Illustrating this article are three animated GIFs. The first shows snowplows working on the tarmac at Canyonlands Field. The second shows the Spanish Valley and Sierra La Sal Range, ending with an alpenglow after sunset. The third shows nightfall at the airport on January 8, 2011. I hope you enjoy the action and the scenery as much I enjoyed compiling these animated slideshows.

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Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy night - 2011

 

Fasten your seat belts.

It's going to be a bumpy night.

As I look back on the first decade of the twenty-first century, I realize that it had no generally accepted name. From the Gay 90’s to the Roaring 20’s and then on to the Fabulous 50’s, we know that special decades receive special names. Perhaps the ultimate alchemical reduction was when we named the 1960s simply “the 60’s”.

 

I favor calling our recently lost “double-zero” decade. After all, we seem to be right back where we started on Millennium night 2000. The gloss and veneer might look better in high definition, but the underlying energies feel largely unchanged. Many pundits say that opposing energies are stronger than ever, thus leading us toward “energetic gridlock”. One needs to look no further than our formerly revered U.S. Senate for a prime example of gridlock thinking.

 

Appearances can be deceiving. Inside, we know that a profound shift in human energies occurred during the double-zero decade. It was a shift far larger than the global energy shift exemplified by the earthquake and tsunami of December 2005. Although the date is still unknown to most humans, on October 17, 2007 we all experienced a quantum leap in energy. Throughout the first two thirds of the decade, human energies dithered within a small range of the status quo. On 10/17/07, humanity began its inexorable movement toward a worldwide spiritual awakening. New Energy powers the new Now and thus the momentum of the unfolding shall continue of its own accord.

 

What, if anything, should we fear? We should fear nothing, as fear is not a natural part of our lives. When I think “back” to 1984, 2000-2001 and “forward” to 2012, I smile at the superstitions surrounding each of those dates.

 

In 1984, according to George Orwell’s 1949 predictive book by the same name, we faced the prospect of a nameless state taking over human destiny, disseminating false truths and thus controlling the populace. Did it happen? Some would say, “Yes”, that the world is controlled by a cabal of unseen, powerful corporations. Although that may have once been true, the world is now too complex and diverse a place for any group to dominate and control. I believe that no 1984-style person or group controls human destiny. Whether we like it or not, we are all in this together.

 

As we approached 2000-2001, collectively known as the “Millennium Year”, the Year Two-Thousand computer bug, known as Y2K was widely discussed in the media. Survivalists predicted an “end of the world” scenario and holed up in their bunkers. I wonder if all of that dehydrated food tasted good after the world did not end.

 

For those who do not know it, the ubiquitous term “computer bug” has literal meaning. In the era of vacuum tube computers, electromechanical relays controlled the logic gates. Patterned after mid-century telephone relays, the rapid-fire closing of any particular gate might crush an insect resting there, which then acted as an insulator. Loss of only one relay could crash the computer. Until operators could locate and remove the “bug”, the computer was useless. Thus, the pejorative term, “computer bug” entered our lexicon.

 

Since the Quantum Leap in October 2007, time no longer holds us as tightly to its old linear progression. Now we can look forward to 2012 as if it were already in our past. If nothing else, recent history has shown that world-ending events are not preordained. However, according to some, they are. In recent years, a cult has developed around the “ending” of the ancient Mayan calendar. When this occurs in December 2012, what form of logic dictates that the finite end of a calendar system also predicts the “end of the world”?

 

Perhaps it is time to start a new calendar, based on the ancient wisdom that created the original. I believe that the Maya truncated their calendar as a wake-up call to us. We are here in their future, ready to experience a new beginning. The message from the ancients to us is, “Wake up and live”.

 

When compared to the three tumultuous years mentioned above, 2011 appears benign. As an odd numbered year, 2011 seems less substantial or serious than 2010 or 2012. Luckily, the only predictions that the world will end in 2011 revolve around the recent unexplained deaths of a few thousand birds in Arkansas and Missouri.

 

In November 2011, we shall pass the date 11/11/11. In 1918, World War I ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Not ironically, more ordnance exploded in that final hour than in any other hour of the Great War. For those who died during the last minute shelling and small arms fire in 1918, we can all agree that they “went out with a bang”. At the end of World War II, utilizing nuclear fission, we witnessed a quantum leap in violence and destruction. Our misplaced attempts to rationalize the unthinkable led us to using explosives as entertainment.

 

In September 2011, we shall observe 9/11/11, which marks ten years since the shocking attacks on American military and financial institutions. In the time since those acts of violence, what have we learned?

 

While watching a contemporary Hollywood action movie, one finds corporate owned media pushing unhealthy and violent energies upon us. Most people say, “That's OK. The violence is not real, and by the way, it looks even better in 3-D”. From the ever-present pistol in the hero’s hand, to the outlandish and fiery explosions, traditional media keeps pushing our “fear-button”, all in the name of entertainment.

 

The more high-definition, surround-sound graphical violence that we feed to our individual and collective unconscious, the more we shall attract violence into our “real lives”. As long as we, both as individuals and as a culture, are addicted to violence, we shall continue to attract violence into our daily lives.

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Help Save Ken's Lake Moab, Utah - 2010

 

 

Help Save Ken's Lake

Moab, Utah 

After writing about Spanish Valley water issues during 2009, I realized that I had never seen Ken’s Lake up close. On a clear afternoon in October 2010, I set out to remedy that situation. Heading south from Moab on Spanish Valley Drive (The Old Spanish Trail), I turned left on San Juan County Road 175 (better known as Ken’s Lake Road). Soon, I could see the inside of the dam to my left, but could see no water impounded behind it.

 

 

Watch the Video - Ken's Lake, Moab, Utah

 

 

After arriving at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) parking lot on the south side of the lake, I finally spied Ken’s Lake itself. In the distance, and well below the level of a weed-choked gravel beach, I saw a large puddle, down near the base of the earthen dam. Although I had read about overuse of the Ken’s Lake Reservoir, I did not expect to see such a sorry sight. Other than as a curiosity, there was little to attract visitors or campers to Ken’s Lake that fall.

 

Who allowed Ken’s Lake to almost disappear and why? To answer that question one must look at two seminal issues that continue to shape politics on the Colorado Plateau – “water rights” and “grazing rights”. Although these are complex issues with no easy solutions, suffice to say that “entitlement thinking” on both issues has led to a long-term degradation of the environment in Southeastern Utah. With appropriate will, the greater community could reverse some of the damage done. In order to do so, all concerned must join to reevaluate and redistribute “water rights” and “grazing rights” under terms that our now drier environment can sustain.

 

Moab historian Faun McConkie Tanner exemplified the traditional view of cattle grazing in the area, both then and now. In her 1976 work, “The Far Country, - A Regional History of Moab and La Sal, Utah” she wrote, “The grazing of cattle and sheep has been a principal industry since the settlement of the region. Supervised and limited grazing under Forest Service regulation protects the plant growth and in some measure saves soil erosion caused by overgrazing.” Almost forty years later, her rosy picture of what is now a deeply degraded environment prevails.

 

In his 1994, “Coyote’s History of Moab”, Jose’ Knighton states that, “Corporate cattle operations abandoned Moab (in 1896) because the land could no longer support their huge herds. Hit-and-run exploitation of resources would eventually become an established pattern of abuse for Moab. But a century ago, decades of overgrazing took their toll. Flash floods roared down Mill Creek and Pack Creek, silting up dams, carving deep gullies and destroying homesteads.”

 

In 1981, after tireless promotion by Kenneth McDougald and others in Moab, engineers first filled Ken’s Lake with water diverted from Upper Mill Creek. From its inception, water use at Ken’s Lake reflected Faun McConkie’s old Moab, not the more environmentally aware approach of Jose’ Knighton. In my research, I could find no references to which agency decided who would receive shares of Ken’s Lake water. Today, however the Grand Water and Sewer Service Agency (GWSSA) delivers the vast majority of Ken’s Lake water to alfalfa farmers in the southern Spanish Valley.

 

Here we can see the grand circle that started with Moab’s cattle raising origins. Since the 1880s, the biodiversity and availability of natural forage in the area have steadily declined. One hundred and forty years after cattle first roamed the Moab Valley; current residents live in a significantly degraded environment. Making an emphatic point, McConkie Tanner states that, "All of those interviewed stated that sagebrush grew tall enough for a man on horseback to ride hidden through brush, and that grass grew to a horse's belly in Moab, but at La Sal this was almost reversed." No such microenvironment exists today in Grand or San Juan Counties, as every inch of usable land had at least once seen cattle hooves breaking through the crust of ancient soils.

 

Some would say that Moab exists in a desert, which has always been a desert and those who wish it to be otherwise should forget about it. Rather than a desert, early accounts tell us that the Spanish Valley resembled a Garden of Eden. I, for one believe that it can be so once again, but only if a portion of the available water supply goes toward reestablishment of native plants and natural habitats in what post cattle-boom settlers called Poverty Flat.

 

The source for all Spanish Valley aquifers, reservoirs such as Ken’s Lake and streams is the Sierra La Sal, southeast of Moab. Over the years, cattle and sheep ranching in Southern Utah and Northern Arizona have denuded much of the land. Now, each spring, dust storms arise on the Navajo Reservation, north of Kayenta, Arizona. Prevailing winds carry the dust north, through Bluff, Blanding and Monticello, Utah. As the storms intensify, their vortices vacuum the land of soil. As the storms lift into the cool air surrounding the La Sal Range, they dump their blanket of soil in muddy rainstorms reminiscent of biblical disasters.

 

In the spring of 2009, one such storm hit both the La Sal Range and Moab. Starting as a dust storm more powerful than any current resident of Moab could recall, the accompanying deluge of muddy rain painted every car in Moab with the red and brown colors of desert soil. After the storm, the remaining snowpack in the high country glowed pink in the afternoon light. With the pink snow having a higher albedo, solar energy rapidly melted what remained. This gave Ken’s Lake only a quick shot of water, which was not enough to satisfy the demand for irrigation water. During the resultant draining of the lake, recreational and environmental interests received no consideration at all.

 

Many streams in the La Sal Range converge at Upper Mill Creek, from which a 650-foot unlined tunnel diverts part of the natural flow to Ken’s Lake. In decades past, the inflow to the lake came gradually and continued throughout the spring and into the summer. In recent years, Ken’s Lake receives one rapid shot of water during spring snowmelt, and then must rely on rainfall for replenishment throughout the summer and fall. With a combination of decreased snowpack, rapid snowmelt and over-subscription of water rights, Ken’s Lake becomes another symbol of the degraded environment around Moab.

 

Officially, the Utah Department of Environmental Quality/Division of Water Quality has washed its hands of the environmental issues at Ken’s Lake. Their written statement is, “Temperature impairment is a result of natural causes. The energy input is a direct result of heating by the sun”. To anyone who visits Ken’s Lake in the fall or winter, it is obvious that a lack of stored water causes wild swings in lake water temperatures. Neglect, abuse and overuse of grazing lands and water sources upstream and upwind of Ken’s Lake have creating a mud puddle in the fall and a frozen ice sheet in the winter.

 

When first built, authorities assumed that Ken’s Lake would be a warm water fishery. In the days before agricultural interests routinely drained the lake dry each summer, a diverse cold-water fishery established itself there. While casting a blind eye toward the end of cold-water fisheries in the area, the Utah Division of Water Quality plans to designate the lake as a warm water fishery. To the state, it to be a question of, “Warm water, cold water; who cares?” Ironically, the minuscule size of the lake during fall and winter allows it to freeze solid. As the BLM puts on its blinders and looks the other way, some local residents use the frozen pond for ice-skating. How even the most callous bureaucrats could designate an oft frozen pond as a warm-water fishery defies my imagination.

 

The number of cattle in the Ken’s lake watershed and nearby dry areas such as Behind the Rocks is lower today than it was in the 1890s and perhaps even lower than in the 1990s. Still, damage done over more than a century of abuse will not repair itself while the trampling and overgrazing continue. Only by fencing off the most sensitive and degraded areas from all grazing will the land regenerate itself. On demonstration plots, volunteers could replant native species of ground cover. With permission from those who “own” shares, maybe a squirt or two of Ken’s Lake water would facilitate re-vegetation at those sites.

 

It is time for independent-minded farmers in the Spanish Valley to forgo a small portion of their Ken's Lake water allotments. Do farmers need up to six cuttings of alfalfa in a single season, or could they get by with three or four? In the summer, a trip south on Spanish Valley Drive is like an obstacle course. Each day, profligately wasted water showers vehicles at several places along the road. If you need a quick car wash, it only takes a few minutes for complete inundation. One needs to look no farther than the permanent water stains on the roadway to see who is at fault. In a better world, farmers would relinquish a small portion of their sacrosanct entitlements in favor of the greater good. If so, Ken’s Lake might live up to Ken McDougald’s vision of an agricultural reservoir that also provides year-round recreational opportunities to residents and visitors alike.

 

In their state of denial, the BLM, the state of Utah and the GWSSA cannot see or admit that Ken’s Lake is a serial disaster, which might fit easily into the plot of the movie, Groundhog Day. Only when ranchers, farmers and government officials admit that the environment can no longer sustain a mid-twentieth century approach to water and grazing entitlements, will there be change.

 

I see a day in the not too distant future when all the stakeholders in this environmental, economic and political conundrum will rise to the occasion. When they do, they shall discover a process whereby we can save Ken’s Lake from its current state of repetitive annual destruction.

Article updated 08/23/18

Comment from a friend: You are so right! One item not mentioned (DOG POLLUTION). No one picks up after their dog. THANKS - Scott Taylor

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By James McGillis at 03:34 PM | Environment | Comments (1) | Link

Canyonlands Field - Moab, Utah "UPS Air, Moab Style" - 2010

 

Canyonlands Field - Moab, Utah

"UPS Air, Moab Style"

On my way from Green River to Moab, Utah, I turned at Crescent Junction and then drove south on U.S. Hwy. 191. For the first ten miles, there was little to see except open sky and sparse desert vegetation. Four miles short of Canyonlands Field, better known as the Moab Airport, I spotted a landmark tower about one quarter mile from the highway.

 

As steel communications towers go, this one is not unique, but it does have character. The only similar towers I have seen were near Oildale, California in the 1950s. With latticework construction reminiscent of the Eiffel Tower, the Moab Tower is tall and sturdy. Between its struts and a catwalk near the top, it almost screams, “I am an old oil derrick”. As it turns out, the tower was once part of the AT&T microwave tower network.

 

Although the attached antennas and parabolic dishes bespeak of wireless communications, the tower’s oil patch looks left me wondering who specified such a robust structure and when. Internet searches yield nothing to indicate who owns the tower or its specific use. Since terrain in that area is relatively flat, it appears to be a transfer point for communications between Moab and Crescent Junction to the north.

 

After pondering the tower for a few moments, I traveled on to Canyonlands Field. There, I met with Mr. Chris Bracken a pilot and mechanic at Redtail Aviation. Chris’s easygoing nature belies the fact that he is adept at both flying and repairing complex aircraft. The day I was there, Chris was working on a tail-replacement for an old Cessna aircraft. With his thoroughness, Chris had noticed that a factory replacement part sent from Cessna, did not match the bent one he was replacing. His call to Cessna in Kansas got them scrambling on a potential recall of other similar faulty parts.

 

As Chris and I discussed the installation of a new webcam for Redtail Aviation, he was keeping a sharp eye out for the expected arrival of a United Parcel Service (UPS) truck. As soon as the brown van arrived, Chris swung into action. Although we did install a new webcam at Redtail Aviation a few days later, Chris’s duties as the Redtail Aviation designated “UPS Air” pilot took precedence.

 

On that October day, the package count was small, fitting easily in the Cessna 182 that Chris then flew to Carbon County Regional Airport, in Price, Utah. If the package count had been higher, a larger Cessna was available to make the daily flight. That day, Chris signed for the packages, jumped into his waiting Cessna and took off for Redtail Aviation’s headquarters in Price. There, in the late afternoon, Redtail flights converge. As soon as crews can transfer incoming packages to a larger plane, it departs for Salt Lake City. From there, a UPS cargo jet takes packages from all over Utah to the UPS hub in Louisville, Kentucky. After sorting and reloading, packages make their way to destination airports all over the country. As early as one business day after departing Moab, Utah, a UPS Air package might arrive for delivery in New York City.

 

 

 

In honor of Redtail Aviation and their role in facilitating commerce throughout Utah, I created the video that accompanies this article. In the video, I took liberty with Chris’s role. Rather than flying away in a Cessna 182, my video has Chris departing with his packages in a Grumman Gulfstream jet. We call that, “UPS Air, Moab style”.

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Crescent Junction, Utah - It isn't Brendel Anymore 2010

 

 

Crescent Junction, Utah

It isn't Brendel Anymore 

Traveling north on U.S. Highway 191, it is thirty-one miles from Moab to Crescent Junction, Utah. There the motorist can travel west or east on Interstate I-70. After passing the City of Green River, twenty miles to the west, it is over one hundred miles to the next town, which is Salina, Utah. From Crescent Junction to Salina is a distance of 127 miles. Traveling east from Crescent Junction, it is over eighty miles to the City of Grand Junction, Colorado. Traveling south on U.S. Highway 191, it is 106 miles and almost two hours of windshield time to Blanding, Utah. In any event, Crescent Junction is a remote outpost on the Interstate Highway System.

 

While researching Crescent Junction on the internet, I found that Wikipedia is the primary information source for that place. References to the Denver & Rio Grande Railway (now Union Pacific Railroad) mention the place, as well. That is where railroad history and automotive history diverge.

 

In 1882, the Denver & Rio Grande Railway (D&RGR) first laid tracks through there, on its way to nearby Green River, Utah. Later, the D&RGR added the Crescent Siding to the main line, northeast of present day Crescent Junction.  In 1930, highway builders straightened the Old Hwy. US 50 route between Green River and Thompson (now Thompson Springs). At that time, the new junction with U.S. Hwy. 450 (now U.S. Hwy. 191) received the name Crescent Junction. Valley City, which was the site of the previous junction, soon disappeared from most maps.

 

Trusting Wikipedia as an unimpeachable historical source can be problematic. The current Wikipedia listing for Crescent Junction, Utah is as follows: Crescent Junction or Brendel is a small,  within Grand County in the eastern part of the  of . The community is located at 4,900 feet (1,494 meters) above sea level. Most highway maps use the name Crescent Junction, as the name given to the junction of  and . Most railroad maps use the name Brendel, the name of the  and junction at the same location.

 

Wikipedia's error is in use of the phrase, “at the same location”. After additional research, I discovered that Crescent Junction and Brendel are unique, non-interchangeable places. Crescent Junction is a highway junction, with an adjacent gas station and mini-mart, plus a few other buildings. Brendel is a “ghost place” just northeast of Crescent Junction. Using separate map databases, both Google Maps and MapQuest locate their Brendel markers adjacent to an old rail spur to the northeast.

 

Although I have not yet visited there, a Google Maps Satellite View helped me to picture the general area. Directions from the Stop & Go at Crescent Junction to Brendel are as follows: Head east on Frontage Road (variously called Old Hwy. U.S. 6 & 50, Old Cisco Highway and Utah Hwy. 128). In 0.2 miles, turn left (North) on Railroad Road. There, just east of Railroad Road, south of Old Railroad Road and west of the rail spur once stood the place called Brendel. Like the former town of Valley City, five miles to the south, there are few clues to help us understand what Brendel was or why it carried that name. With only 0.4 miles separating the two places, it is easy to see why writers for Wikipedia blended Brendel and Crescent Junction together.

 

Other than its adjacency to a rail spur, I found no historical reference to human activity at Brendel. Even so, its status as a “named place” in the U.S. Census database indicates that at one time it hosted human activity. In 1917, Floy Station, to the west of Brendel served nearby Manganese mines. Today it is as vacant and empty as Brendel.

 

Well into the twentieth century, cattle exports were the economic lifeblood of Grand County, Utah. Conventional wisdom and published history indicate that Thompson was the only cattle loading station in the area. In the early days, communities along its tracks knew the D&RGR for its fast freight and customized service. Did early ranchers from Moab herd their cattle all the way to Thompson or the shorter distance to Brendel, for loading at the rail spur?  Did fruit growers in the Spanish Valley take wagonloads of apples, pears and peaches to Brendel, as well?

 

Whatever happened there, we know that Brendel and Crescent Junction are unique and different places. How long it will take for Wikipedia and its contributors to differentiate between the two? After all, Brendel is not “a small, unincorporated town within Grand County in the eastern part of Utah”, nor is it Crescent Junction.

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By James McGillis at 12:04 PM | Travel | Comments (0) | Link