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  GATEWAY CANYONS CLASSIC BIKE RACE By Julian Smith
Series competitors have two choices. The 85-mile Pro Course runs from Gateway to Whitewater and back, climbing and descending 5,000 feet over the Unaweep Divide. A shorter course (45 miles) runs "just" to the top of the divide and back. There are also shorter juniors courses, 20- and 40-kilometer time trials and the timed but non-competitive Citizen's Tour over both the short and long courses. "King and Queen of the Mountain" prizes are awarded in each group after the first 11 miles of climbing. If all these displays of strength and stamina leave you eager to improve your technique, sign up for the cycling clinic. Taught by national champions and Olympic competitors, this three-day regimen includes training rides, lectures, meals and entry fees for the time trial and road race. The course itself follows the Unaweep/Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway along Unaweep Canyon. This geological oddity is a canyon with no river, leaving it with two ends but no beginning. (In the language of the Ute Indians, Unaweep means "canyon with two mouths.") It's not clear whether the canyon was cut
The entire 133-mile byway follows Highway 141 from Whitewater to Dolores and south to Placerville via Highway 145. Along the way it traverses many chapters of Colorado's geologic and human history as it passes from desert to canyon to the foothills of the San Juan Mountains. From Whitewater, which offers boaters access to the Gunnison River, Highway 141 traces the "Uranium Road." Radium ore and supplies were hauled along this route from Gateway to Grand Junction during the radium boom of the early 1900s. Countless stock animals were worn out on the 18-percent grade of notorious Nine-Mile Hill near Whitewater. Along the way are numerous access points to great hiking, biking and 4x4 trails in the Uncompahgre National Forest and BLM lands. Waterfalls spill from red sandstone cliffs. Tiny Gateway, one of Colorado's westernmost communities, offers river access for the Dolores River. The sleepy town wakes up in May, when the local fire department sponsors a Dynamite Shoot fundraiser, which is exactly what it sounds like: competitors take aim at targets loaded with explosives, all in the name
The surrounding area, a complex and beautiful slick-rock landscape of canyons and mesas, bumps up and over the Utah border. (Moab is just over 100 miles away by car.) It's full of remnants of native tribes who once lived here, including petroglyphs and stone ruins. While you're in Gateway, spoil yourself at the Gateway Canyons Resort, founded by Discovery Channel founder John S. Hendricks. This high-end Southwest-style getaway blends with the scenery at the junction of two canyons. It's home to the 30,000-square-foot Gateway Colorado Auto Museum, with over 40 historic vehicles. Heading south from Gateway, you'll pass the turn-off for Sinbad Valley. The sparkling salt deposits that line the valley along Salt Creek may have reminded early miners of tales of Sinbad the Sailor and the valley of diamonds in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. Keep going to the Hanging Flume Turnout, where the remains of a seven-mile wooden flume built in the late 19th century still cling to the sheer cliffs of Wingate sandstone above the Dolores River. When it was operating, the flume carried tens of millions of gallons of water every day to operate the machinery at the Lone Tree placer mining site. The project was so expensive, the company that built it soon went bankrupt. More mining history awaits father south in the ghost town of Uravan, named after two elements – uranium and vanadium – that were mined here in the mid-20th century, including some of the uranium that went into the first atomic bombs. For more information on the Gateway Canyons Classic Bike Race, call 970-931-2458 or visit www.gatewaycanyonsbikerace.com. |
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