We had gotten into the pattern of having breakfast at Denny's in town. Now I, as well as Tom had injuries to discuss. Tom's injuries had settled down to the point of only the long term stuff remaining.
He swore that he couldn't tell his wife or he would never be allowed to go again. And after a couple days his back and kidney area showed no signs of black and blue. He might just get away with it.
My wrist was already showing purple on the underside. It wasn't as sore today as last night. I could pull the clutch lever in for stopping and starting.
I've learned over the years that clutch cables on dirt bikes are a weak point. I never had one on a street bike, so I don't know about that. But I have broken two on my DR. Old Man Bud told me to quit using the clutch, dummy.
I read a trip report last month of a 4 bike dualsport ride down to Mexico. I think three of the guys lost a clutch cable. Well prepared guys have a spare cable strapped to the cable being used in order to do a quick fix.
Anyway clutchless shifting can cut your clutch usage down about 95 percent. Which means it will prolly last the life of the bike. It takes a little practice, but it doesn't take long to get onto it.
So today we decide to go out to some ATV/jeep trails northeast of town. The above picture is of a slickrock area. Not 'THE' slickrock area. There is another just east of Moab. Much bigger and red and famous with the bicyclers.
They seem to think that these area were sand dunes that solidified for some reason. We rolled up on this one and couldn't see where the trail went from there. So we rode out on it until we spied a 2-track leading away off to the left. There was a bit of an abrupt hill Leaving that slickrock that I was the only one to screw up on.
It was short and steep. I hit it a little too fast (I think), and was
thrown off balance.....that led me to a rock ledge that I didn't want
to hit. Oh....I don't know....it got kinda confusing after that. The
sore wrist wasn't helping any. The bike fell over. My wash detergent
gas cap (lost the real gas cap in Alaska) came off, I lost about a
gallon of gas before I could get the bike up.
The rest of the guys just rode right up. All the rest of my over confidence was gone by now. Pretty much was just fighting for survival at this point. :)
Speaking of over confidance. A little earlier we had all rode up to a dead end, above pic. We were having a powwow. I got off my bike on the right side, so I was trying to get the kickstand down, then found out that it wouldn't prop the bike up in the sand. So....whatever....I had to take a step backward, and got my foot tangled in a weed. Me and the bike fell on my ass right there.
So the above picture is me and Bruce straightening my freshly bent handle bar. Scheesh. Two days ago I was a star, and today I needed to be retrained.
We went another mile and Tom got caught on a short rutted climb in the wrong gear. The bike stalled, Tom need support on the long side, his leg didn't reach the ground. WHAM, or BANG.
So here is that hill. We got Tom's mess all cleaned up and I decided to get Bruce to take my bike up. He made it look so easy that I was embarrassed.
We had been out in this area for nearly 2 hours, fighting a bunch of deep sand and trails that weren't well marked. We decide to go back to town for a burger, and then go do the La Sal Mtn Loop which was Southeast of town.
That's Mt Peale (Part of the La Sal Mtns)up there, 12xxx ft or so. We set out on the paved La Sal Mtn loop. It's only 50 miles or so....but local maps showed that there was a La Sal Mtn Pass. A dirt road that went across the hill to Paradox.
The dirt bikes are a blast on the tight twisties. We stopped at a tourist pull out with a large area sign map. We learned where the La Sal pass road was. There was an old gal there in a late model sedan. Like a grandmother waiting to pick up kids. I figure she might be a bit nervous with a biker gang pulled up next to her.
I started a conversation. She was 75 or 80 years old if she was a day. I asked if the La Sal pass was advisable. She said she wouldn't advise it as we could get bogged down in the mud. They had had a lot of rain in October....and she didn't know if we could get through the snow at the top. I thought yeah, yeah what did she know.
We found the road, and the kids talked us into trying to make it. Up an up we went. Beautifully clear scenes were in every direction that we looked. In just a few miles we were picking up snow on the shadow side of the hills.
Not long afer that we were seeing snow on the road. It was packed down and looked a bit like slush. Tom misread one of these packed ice areas.
WHAM or POW was appropriate there. He went down and slid about 20 ft. Oh....and that 3rd mirror was history. Although Tom saved the glass, and we thought he could glue it back in the housing, so all was not lost. Tom packed the mirror away for safe keeping.
We made it another 1/4 of a mile. The going was slippery, and together with what a jeeper, coming down the hill, said, we decided to give up on the La Sal Pass. Turns out the old lady was spot on in her estimation. One for the old lady, biker gang zero.
So Back to carving up the paved road. We really enjoyed that, truthfully we didn't really need any more dirt bumpy roads. As the sun was setting, we got a few more great photos on the way through Castle valley.
Night was closing in on us as we hit the Colorado River Road. We had 10 mile to go. The kids lit out like scalded dogs. Tom wanted to take it easy, and enjoy the shadows on the cliffs. I followed, We were pretty much at peace with the world. As we toodled along something fell off of Tom's bike and shattered into a thousand pieces.....so much for saving that third mirror.
Tomorrow is the last day.............
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