Early the next day I was rolling down 550 through Ouray, Silverton, and Durango. Light traffic, good weather, what more could a rider ask for! For some reason the camera just stayed put away. I have no pictures to share from that ride. Since the day before had me traveling until after 7:00 I resolved to make this a short day. Stopped for a late lunch in Chama at High Country Restaurant. Visited the train yard.
And decided to knock off early with a quick stop at the grocery store for dinner and breakfast food followed by camp at Heron Lake State Park.
Took an afternoon walk and got treated later to a great sunset.
The next morning I rode out via NM112 which is unpaved for a bit.
As I crossed the dam at El Vado Lake an Osprey flew alongside checking me out. He was off my right shoulder over the water only a few feet out and up. Cool experience.
Homesickness was getting serious at this point. At Cuba I considered going left on 550, straight shot to interstate and a beeline home. I stayed with my plan of going NM197 through small towns and Navajo country. My reward was seeing red rock canyons, wild mustangs, clay draws, sage covered steppes, rocky buttes, and small towns like Torreon, Pueblo Pintado, White Horse, and Seven Lakes.
After gassing up in Grants I cut down through El Malpais. These roads cut back and forth across the divide and I met a group from Canada riding the divide northbound. I took their picture with their camera, but forgot to use mine. DOH!
The only picture I took all day was of the arch in El Malpais.
Got a room in Glenwood NM, too tired to continue way too early in the day.
My plan for the next day was to visit with friends in Kingston after enjoying the best of NM152 over Emory Pass. the plan came together with one hitch.
Rains the night before had washed mud over the road. Blind left curve about 3 miles west of the pass. I was going slow and chopped the throttle when the mud came in sight. Throttle was still off when I got on the mud so the front pushed very badly. This stuff was slick as grease on the asphalt. With the hard surface below the mud there was just nothing for the tires to grip. The bike lowsided hard enough to dislodge the handlebars. A crew from NMDOT was the first vehicle coming the other way. Their morning assignment was to see if a sweeper truck was needed for that highway. Obvious answer was YES the sweeper was needed.
We got the bike upright and I fixed the handlebar. A plastic bolt on the windshield broke away as designed so I put a zip tie in its place. Off to visit with Tom and Satomi. We rinsed the mud off the bike and my gear, found another missing bolt on the fairing. Another zip tie, then we all visited a while letting my gear dry.
Satomi snapped this picture as I geared up to continue. I covered almost 400 more miles that day after the wreck.
That was the last big day of the trip. I snapped this odometer poker shot later.
Made it to Pecos TX that day and on to Terlingua the next. Back where I started....
Trip mileage from the GPS...
Until next time. I started the trip with new tires, just about polished off that back one so I ordered a new one yesterday.