TELLuride... Well I'll TELL you what!
June 24, 2008
Well plans change and change they do, My initial plan was to head to Boulder for just the day then make my way to Vail to visit Dan and Katie, However I never made it to Vail that evening and Boulder was just calling me. Turns out Boulder, home of the University of Colorado is just a hop skip and a jump from Denver so the ride was pretty quick and easy. However before I could depart I had to make a stop at the local Kawa dealer to give Mav some much needed TLC. Lately when I had been shifting from first to second I would hear a knocking sound and it was making me a little concerned, I suspected that with all the hard riding I had been doing I had stretched out my chain a little and I would need to tighten it up, a simple task none the less as described in the manual. Well that simple task took all of an hour and a half! Luckily there was a motorcycle safety class going on in the parking lot adjacent to the dealership and the instructors saw my distress and they offered any assistance I needed, which basically was some bigger tools. So with new tools and a shady spot next to the service garage I continued to work my magic with Mav. Around noonish I got on the road and I headed to Golden Colorado home of Coors Brewing for a free tour and some more delicious free samples! But much to my surprise they were not offering tours and I was bummed, no booze and no tour. Onward I move, I make my way further north up awesome hwy 72 to Boulder. On my arrival my hunger pains were too much so I go to the first burger place I could find, The Sink which is on ‘The Hill’ in Boulder.
I get a bacon cheese buffalo burger and one of their micro brews…. Mmmm good just want I needed after an arduous morning working on Mav. Now Boulder is a fun town, I really enjoy visiting college campuses on this trip and mountain towns and well Boulder is both of those! It was also a welcomed relief to see more motorcyclists in Boulder, I saw more dual sports loaded down for some adventure akin to mine than any other place I’d been in the US. I walked all over boulder, from the campus to the downtown mall on Pearl street which oddly enough is exactly like the downtown mall in Charlottesville. On my walk I also got a gigantic bowl which I can’t remember the name of it but it’s basically a smoothie you eat with a spoon from a bowl, I saw a lot of people walking around with them and they looked so good I had to stop, another $6 well spent. So more walking and exploring and dodging of the bicycles. If you’ve never been to Boulder you should know that it is such a crazy bicycle friendly town. So there are lanes for cars, then a lane for walking then two lanes for bikes, and everyone rides. It’s a shame more US towns don’t follow in Boulder’s footsteps because their bicycling facilities and parks are really top notch. At this point I realized that I would not be making it to Vail for the evening so I checked into the International Hostel in Boulder and dropped off my things and headed back out, this time to the Walrus, a local watering hole. On my way there I made a stop into a Margaret Ann favorite, the Patagonia store. Although I did not purchase anything, because A.) I spent all my money on my crazy expensive $6 smoothie, and B.) I have barely enough room on my bike for a stick of gum. After some more exploring I headed back to the Hill where I visited Half Fast Subs which my tour book Let’s Go recommended and my old roommate Joe. 
They have ridiculous subs, mine was a crab meat, guacamole, tomatoes, lettuce and some other stuff concoction, and it was as good as it was ridiculous. They also sell pitchers of long island ice teas, something I did not need giving the altitude I was at, but I had to since I was only in boulder once. After a relaxing evening at Half Fast Subs and some more exploring I headed back to my Hostel where I proceeded to crash.June 25, 2008
I got kind of an early start from Boulder, the hostel told me I had to be out by 10 so I was up and gone in the AM. I was excited for my ride today since I stayed an extra day in Boulder I had shortened the distance between me and Vail so I had to kill some time exploring Colorado. I checked my map and what do I see but Rocky Mountain National Park. But before I could depart Boulder Mav needed some more TLC and I stopped at a gas station and gave Mav a much needed oil change. Ever since my first oil change, just outside Camp Lejune, Mav had been leaking oil due to the threads on the oil plug being stripped. I had my engine re-drilled and a new screw put in for a hefty penny in Charleston however he continued to leak slowly. My good friend and former VMI roommate Greg recommended that I put some Teflon tape on the screw to help with the slow drip and magic it worked! Because I checked this morning and there was not a spot of oil on the ground. Ok so back to riding, I was headed through the Rocky Mountain National Park which climbs a good 12,000 feet.
The air was cold and going back to my hair dryer analogy with the face mask opened in the desert well when I opened my face mask in the mountains it felt like a freezer blowing on my face. I donned my full riding gear pants, jacket gloves and all and I climbed in elevation. The park is something to see, there is one road through it which runs the ridge line of the Rockies and I followed it for a good 30 miles switchbacking my way up into the clouds. As I climbed I saw more and more snow, and by the time I got to the top the snow drifts were over my head, even taller than most of the RVs driving through the park. I made a ton of stops along the way to take pictures which turned my quick 30 miles into a 2 hour long crawl, but it was well worth it. As I told Dan Katie and Tom that evening over some frosty beverages, today had to of been one of the top rides of the trip! So I got to the top of the Rockies, I played in the snow a little, threw some snowballs at Mav took a good bazillion pictures and it was back on the road. 
There was a lot of wildlife in the park and I saw a ton of moose, or swamp donkeys as they are sometimes referred to as because they basically chill in the swamp all day long. After leaving the park camera and Mav and me exhausted from the massive amounts of pictures and the lack of oxygen at 12,000 feet I headed to friendlier elevations. I found some awesome forest roads that would cut their way through to the Vail Valley which was my final destination, and more good riding ensued. Again thoughts of Chico Road haunted my brain but the manicured trails through the Rockies and along the Colorado River were something of a dream! They were well marked easily understood and my Garmin recognized all of them! Driving through the Rockies on single track dirt roads up and out of the valleys and along rivers was the kind of riding I had been dreaming about ever since I got a dual sport. I rode for a good 20 miles through stream crossings and gravel switch backs to a town called Radium Colorado which is a rafting outpost in the middle of nowhere on the Colorado River.Actually there is nothing in this town but a rafting outfitter. I followed the Garmin to a dirt road labeled county road 111 however posted at the junction was a sign that said ‘NO OUTLET’ and I wasn’t going to mess around with any fence cutting and private land, so I looked around for a bit for another road out, none what so ever… I went into the Rafting outfitter and again no one there, I yell out still no one, and I was having thoughts of driving the 20 miles back through the national forest to get to a highway, finally one of the people from the rafting company pops their head out and in a puzzled look asks if I want to go rafting. No but I do want to get to the Vail Valley. Luckily Bria was helpful and she said that just an hour before me there were two guys on mountain bikes who were on their way from Alaska to the southernmost tip of South America, an epic ride none the less! Bria pointed out a small dirt road out of town and luck have it I was just a good 10 miles from Dan and Katie’s. I got the message from Dan that he and Katie were meeting up after work with a friend of theirs to get some more frosty beverages, exactly what I wanted after a long day on the trails.
I meet up with them at the Riverwalk in Edwards a town just outside of Vail. I met their friend Tom and Katie brought Isla the coolest most well behaved chocolate lab retriever mix I have ever met. Tom like Katie and Dan is also Architecting in Vail, an incestuous industry as they refer to it as, since they all work for different companies yet all seem to know each other. Good company and good beer, is exactly what I was in need of after being on the road for so long. One drink turned into couple more and the altitude started setting in, so we left my bike at Tom’s office and I headed back to Katie and Dan’s and crashed. Tomorrow starts my adventure to Telluride, and more mountain riding!June 26, 2008
Let me first start off by saying I was awoken this morning to a lady banging pots and pans together, and no it wasn’t the town crazy making her morning music, apparently a lone bear stumbled into the camp and was rummaging around for some deliciousness in the trunk of my neighbor John’s car. In any rate I did not have any food in my tent so no bear bothered me, that and I was completely and utterly exhausted, and no not even a bear could get me out of my sleeping bag. So that is this morning, yesterday though was another epic riding day. I am convinced that the whole national scenic highway and byway thing is completely and utterly useless in Colorado because every road you drive on here is the most scenic road yet. I have yet to find a bad road to drive down in Colorado. It used to be when I was rolling through new Mexico and parts of Texas and Mississippi you would see nothing for hours and hours and it was pretty boring, but here my hand and foot never get a rest from the clutch gas brake combination. In and out of the turns up and down hills its awesome I have so much fun here. So now I’m in telluride and another great town I might add, I have met so many people here who basically came here for vacation and just picked up and stayed here, and I would too, that is if I didn’t have a great job waiting for me back home.
So I rode from Vail valley on highway 24 which eventually becomes highway 82 and I went through Independence Pass which takes you to Aspen. Usually Independence Pass is closed due to snow but it was open however there was still a massive amount of snow. I crossed through the pass at about 12,000 + feet and in doing so I crossed the continental divide… again… I might have forgot to mention that I crossed it when I was going through Rocky Mountain National Park a few days before. I stopped in Aspen for a bit, drove around explored the town, its a lot different than Vail however the money is still there. I spotted a couple Ferraris, and I parked good ole Mav next to some of them to take pictures, because of course we all know Mav is just as great as a $500,000 sports car. So more riding, when I left Aspen I really dropped in elevation and I was getting a little tired, I guess it was due to my very early start which I don’t normally get. As I dropped in elevation it got warmer and I had to shed the full riding gear that I was wearing. I made it to town just at the foothills of the mountains leading up to Telluride called Montrose and I stocked up on some necessary provisions, I was running out of my main course of Ramen and tuna fish and beef jerky. With the necessary provisions I was ready to take on more mountains, the ride up into Telluride was as amazing as everyone has told me it would be, and to add to its amusingness my camera battery decided to die on me right as I was getting to the good stuff. 
Approaching Telluride I was getting pretty excited, well let me TELL you about TELLuride, it’s a town of towns, I used this description and analogy to describe the people and atmosphere to Margaret Ann last night. Now if you don’t know bars in Charlottesville then this description will do you no good. Ok so the Telluride atmosphere can best be described in the tipsy text message I sent to MA, which goes like this “It’s very mountainy, chill like Virginian on a Sunday night, mature like Zyde Co when it first opened, but with some class like Michael’s Bistro. Now people I wish I could continue my raving review of Telluride however there are mountains and waterfalls and dirt roads to be explored. I will have to continue this at a later date. But I must say, everyone deserves a visit to Telluride!
posted by Nick @ 8:52 PM
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Now one thing I have come to realization is that anywhere you drive in Colorado is awesome, whether you’re driving to a welding shop or the next town over. I followed highway 50 for about 60 miles or so and it was a good ride along a river, I think it was the Arkansas River, lots of twisties and lots of fun accelerating and declaring through the turns! Another fun part of the ride was all the rafting and kayakers out taking on the white water. I had to stop a bunch of times to take pictures, and finally I realized that I would never make it to Denver that day if I didn’t stop taking so many pictures. I got into Canon City and I was hungry so I found a spot with a bunch of other motorcycles and I parked in the mix of them. Turns out the group of bikers I happened to park by were on their way to Sturgis which didn’t begin until August so needless to say they were just out exploring the US as I was. After chatting it up with some of the biker gang they suggested I take an undeveloped road called highway 67 over the mountains to get to Colorado springs. This particular highway was just the kind of dual sporting I was looking for, it was a well marked out gravel road about 30 miles long which snaked its way through the Rockies. Tons of switchbacks and no guard rails what so ever. There were also a lot of very cool one lane bridges. Riding continued like this for an hour or so, and I finally arrived at the end of the dirt road in a mining town just outside of Colorado Springs. However as I got to the town I began to fell little drops of rain so I pulled over and donned my full rain gear, except for the waterproof liners to my pants which resulted in a very cold and a very wet ride the rest of the day. They are just such a hassle to put on and I didn’t think it would have rained as much as it did. I continued on to ride to the summit of Pikes Peak because I really wanted to drive up it but when I got there they park ranger said that it was snowing and hailing at the top and they wouldn’t let me drive my bike up there. So I had to nix that idea, oh well I will just have to find another fourteener to go up! Since the rain was getting worse I decided to just bypass Colorado Springs and head to Denver where I would be staying with my friend Amy from UVA. 
As soon as I got within Denver city limits the rain completely stopped and it actually got pretty warm. Denver, another very cool city to go to, I am sad though I did not get to spend as much time here but I must move on. Amy took me too a really cool pizza place, which has a very distinctive evil theme. Instead of numbers to know when your pizza is ready they give you some sort of space craft toy which basically took up the entire table, the pizza was really good and they had Coors Original on tap which my friend Becca got me absolutely hooked on however they don’t serve it very many places. Well tomorrow its off to more Colorado exploring. I’ll be heading to Boulder and I may even check out the Coors Factory. 
The one downside to White Sands is that part of the park is on unpaved roads which are basically just sand, and one thing with motorcycles and sand is that they do not mix well. Mav liked the sand so much in one parking lot that he laid down in it on my ankle. So white sands national monument was pretty nice to drive though, I did one hike into the desert but the heat was just too much and I abbreviated it slightly. The rest of the day I spent riding north along the Rio Grande which was a welcome relief from the desert heat again. All along the river is tons of chili pepper farms, tons of them, and a good number of onion farms, and for those of you who know me next to motorcycles in the sand I hate onions just as much! The chili farms were pretty cool to see they were just acres and acres of perfectly aligned trees which looked like they were in a lake because here the farmers basically flood the fields to irrigate their trees. I made camp tonight along the Rio Grande at a park called something something starting with a P on the dam. It’s another New Mexico State park which is obviously next to a dam. Tomorrow morning I’m getting up early to make my way further north. My first stop is a town called, get this… Truth or Consequences, yes I didn’t believe it myself, but I will surely take a picture for proof!
Ok don’t panic I’ve been in worse situations this week. After inspecting the damage some more I come to the realization that I must have damaged the weld from the multiple incidents that Mav had been laid down in the past week. So I think about what my options are. I recently got a new towing company so I could always get them to tow me to a motorcycle supply shop, but where and I only have a limited range on how far I can be towed. I could have the part over nighted to me and I could stay at the campground again. I could use the JB weld I brought, glue the shifter back together and hope it gets me to the next town, or I could put everything I have in a bag and start walking home. Ok no to that last idea, so I call my new motorcycle towing company, and the guy on the other line actually knows what he’s talking about albeit he talks a lot but he was helpful. So he finds me a towing company that will pick me up and take me to the next town which get this, the name of the town is ‘Truth or Consequences’ So I get on the blackberry and I start to look for motorcycle supply stores in Truth or Consequences, and there is one, its called Crazy Richards Motorcycle Supply, and well this crazy fella keeps some crazy hours because he didn’t show up to open up shop until two hours after his recorded message says the open. So I think to myself ok I could put all my eggs in the basket for this Richard dude or I could possibly find a place that could weld my shifter back together. Meanwhile I must add, the parking lot I pull into is none other than an onion packaging warehouse, so I’m waiting there over an hour next to tons and tons of onions, my worst nightmare had come true. So the towing company arrives, and I tell him my story he’s helpful and he says that the Richard fella is not the most reliable kind of guy, and he suggest a welding place that he passed on his way out which just opened. So we get into T&C, that’s what the locals call the town for short, and the towing guy drops me off at John’s welding shop, and a fine shop indeed. I take my shifter to John and he just smiles at me and says sure I can fix this all my boys used to ride dirt bikes. I said all I need is to get me to the next town and he replied with a ‘son this isn’t just going to get you to the next town its going to get you around the world’ and with that I placed rest of my trip into John’s hands and before the towing guy got the paperwork all finished for me to sign john had made me a like new shifter, and all for just eight bucks! So what could have been a two day disaster and cost me hundreds of dollars turned into a minor glitch in my ride for the day. The rest of the day was flawless infact it was some of the best riding I had done in a while. I was heading north towards Santa Fe where I would be staying the night and I passed through a town called Socorro, and I found the first authentic Mexican place I could find and I had the most amazing burrito ever at Sophia’s Cafe! In no time I was back on the road I followed hwy 60 for a good long while and it ran along side two paralle Burlington Northern Santa Fe train tracks. Let me tell you there was TONS of trains out today too, I saw double stacked trains, liquit cars, some sort of dry heap cars, everything and anything and it was cool to see them all and how long they were, it was rediculious. Since I was in the middle of no where i could see the beginning and end of each train and they stretched for miles! The ride to santa fe was such a relief, I was at altitude now and it was much cooler, almost in the upper 60s. No santa fe is quite a town, it used to be where all the wealthy Californians would go to, to escape the summer heat. It’s a ski town and a desert town all in one. There are also a lot of religious influences there with the different churches and missions which began there. There are tons and tons of restaurants, art galleriers, and shops, touristy but not at the same time, it had a sense of class to it. I walked around Santa Fe for a good couple hours got some amazing dinner at this italina place and I headed to Hyde Memorial State Park in the Santa Fe National Forest, where I am now typing this by fireside, yup that’s right tonight I made my first camp fire. So far this is the only campground that has allowed firest due to all the desert camp grounds being under water restrictions and they have a big fear of forest fires. Tomorrow should be another good riding day in the mountains as I head further north and on into Colorado!
I was getting so high up into the mountains that it began resembling the alps or something, not what you would expect from New Mexico. There were acres and acres of green fields with creeks running through them back dropped with gigantic snowcapped mountains. I was half expecting the entire Von Trapp family to come running over the next ridge to the tune of doe a deer. As I was snaking my way through the Carson National Forest… yes I know this thing went on forever, I kept seeing signs for ‘Forest Road’ and they were very enticing dirt roads to say the least so I pulled over at one checked that it was on the Garmin I plotted out a loop that would bring me back to the highway and I headed into the woods for some good dual sport riding. This was must different than the Chico Road adventure I had the week earlier, although the thought of something happening lingered in my mind for a bit. The forest roads were soft dirt as opposed to jagged rocks, and it was much much cooler among the trees and furthermore I didn’t have to worry about a fence being locked or anything because this was all public property. Well the ride through the woods was everything and more, very relaxing, Mav only went down once on a steep descent with a lot of loose rocks. After about eight or so miles in the woods I met back up with the highway and I proceeded on my way. All through the morning and afternoon I kept seeing this blue Kawasaki Versys which was loaded down with tons of gear. So I kept bumping into this other adventurer and at one scenic overlook that I stopped at to take some pictures he stopped too, and turns out we had a lot in common. The guys name was Stew and he was from Alberta Canada. He had been on the road for about a month and a half now and had quit his job got a bike and had been touring around the southwestern American states since then. He told me about some good places to go around Colorado that had had been. It was ironic also because I was asking him how long he was going to be traveling for and he said that he had a wedding to go to in august so he was ending his trip at the wedding which is exactly what I am doing too. I’ve got a wedding in august that I have to be back for which seems like a convenient end date. So we exchanged some more stories, and it was interesting because Stew had one more piece of gear that I definitely did not have, strapped to back of his bike in a waterproof bag was a guitar! So back on the road, I passed through a town called Taos New Mexico, which I wish I could have stopped in but I had to get to my big destination for the day before the park closed, which was Great Sand Dunes National Park! So my ride to the park was quite a rough one, the weather had kicked in and the rain and wind was relentless. Luckily my Joe Rocket pants and Jacket kept me nice a dry. Great Sands was pretty different than White Sands. Great Sands lies at the base of snow capped mountains and in front of them is a huge river which to my surprise you actually have to walk through the river to get to the dunes; you’d think that the national park service would put a bridge over the river. The dunes were utterly gigantic, I wanted to walk to the top of them, but it was a good 2 hour hike to the top of the dunes. From the dunes I headed to further north to Monarch Colorado where I bedded down for the night. 
I was pretty amazing inside the caverns. They are absolutely huge, you can fit somewhere around ten 747's inside the main cave. Something I found interesting was that everywhere you looked it was incredibly colorful however the national park service uses no colored lights, it's merely the reflection off the stalactites and stalagmites. I got some really great pictures inside the caves which you may just see. Also the cave was a welcomed retreat from the desert heat; it stays a cool 56 degrees year round. So I tour around the cave for a bit, to walk the entire thing is about a mile and a half loop. Then the park rangers start to usher me out since they would be closing soon for the bats. The bats are an entirely different story, and a disappointing one at that.
I went to the International Alien Research Library and Museum. I did not take the tour just bought the postcards took my pictures and left. B.) Roswell has one of the largest motorcycle dealerships in New Mexico and low and behold they service and sell Kawasakis! So I make a stop in to get new CO2 and new riding gloves since my beloved Fox DirtPaws succumbed to the desolate Big Bend. Good people there, very helpful and one of the store girls recommended me to go to Sierra Blanca, an awesome mountain at about 11,000 feet from which you can see everything. So I get back out to the parking lot to pack up Mav and head to the mountains, I mount the bike put it in neutral press the ignition…. Nothing, no turn over, nothing. I try again, nothing; check all the necessarys, nothing. Thankfully though Mav decides to break down in the one place I know he can be all fixed up. I assume there must be some short with the battery or maybe the lights were left on who knows. So I go to the shop and ask for a battery tester, the guy comes out helps me take off the side panels and seat to get at the battery and wow this just goes to show you how smart I am. The screws on the battery had come loose, most likely from the intense riding I had been doing in the desert the past couple days. But the shop guy did a full check on my battery and everything looked good, I tightened the screws and Mav was back up and rolling. Wow was I happy. OK on with the adventure. I headed then up into the mountains to Lincoln New Mexico site of possibly some of the bloodiest fighting back in the Wild West. Same place Billy the Kid used to hang out with his band of outlaws.
At the top I stop in at Western's which is the only restaurant open but a good one at that, lots of character there, I see two other guys there on dual sports from Texas and Colorado just touring around for a couple days, we exchange stories over a couple frosty beverages and they tell me all the good places to ride. After a filling meal I hop back on my bike and head down the mountain a ways to a hostel I had read about in Let's Go (great guide by the way for those on a budget).
I fueled up since I knew there was oh say zero gas stations in the Big Bend backcountry, however I think in between when I fueled up and left my camp site I misplaced my beloved mountain bike turned motorcycle gloves! My grey Fox DirtPaws have seen some real stuff ad sadly they will spend the rest of their lives somewhere out in the desert of Texas. So the riding was rough and tough today lots of rocks lots of heat, lost of sand, but it was the kind of riding that I specifically got my mightily KLR for. In addition I had to pack a full gallon and a half of water with me because in the unlikely event that his mightiness may fail I would have to hike out, because obliviously cell phones don’t work in the backcountry and for the entire 800,000 acres there is maybe 6 visitors, plus or minus three illegal’s who may have crossed the border in the time that I was typing this.
So backcountry riding was fun, I had one trying part where I actually thought I may have to ditch the bike and start walking, there was one hill that was just a bit too rocky and sandy for the likes of the mighty and the front tire slipped out from under me and the bike leaned to the left in my despair to catch my balance bike and all went down. It wasn’t a bad fall and it was very low speed so nothing was broken. I got up picked the bike up and tried pushing it up the hill but that I came to find out is next to impossible to push a 400 pound bike with a full 6 gallons of fuel and over 100 pounds in gear. So I sat there for a while drank some water then I did the most reasonable thing I could do, I rolled it backwards down to a flat part moved the nuisance rocks from the hill and I rode up again with no problem. Lesson learned, if at first you don’t succeed start way from the beginning.
After my adventure in the backcountry I was getting hungry so I made camp, took a nap and headed back out again to explore the rest of the park. This time I took what is called an “auto road” which is basically a dirt road less treacherous than the backcountry roads, it was fun and I saw a lot of the park that I hadn’t seen in the morning. On my ride back I got caught in a freak rain storm and I didn’t have any of my rain gear with me but I actually did a little rain dance prior to my leaving because it was so ridiculously hot out that I really didn’t care if it rained. And that brings me to where I am now, sitting here with the coyote. Tomorrow I leave the desert and head to New Mexico to Carlsbad Caverns. Thankfully the caves stay a nice 56 degrees all year round, which will be a welcomed relief!
In any rate I left around a quarter after 8 and I took the main road Hwy 118 (another scenic Michelin drive might I add) out of Big Bend to a small town called Kent, well you couldn’t not even call it small it was just a gas station and grocery store off I-10, so I stop in fill up on some water and I head to Hwy 2424. 2424 was a good road for about 10 miles it was rolling hills in the middle of the desert with the occasional cow eating god knows what because I really didn’t see any grass. So my map tells me that some of the roads between Kent and Guadalupe Mountains national park are unpaved, just the kind of roads l like the good dual sport kind…. Well little did the map mention but these unpaved roads really were unpaved, I don’t think a car or even man on a horse has seen some of these roads in months! However my faithful Garmin told me to follow the pink line through the desert. One thing the good folks at Garmin forgot to do might I add was say if these roads were public or private, so I found myself at a couple gates the first 20 miles or so into the unpaved part and I would simply open the gate and keep on driving, well soon the roads start to dwindle in quality and identifiableness, and soon I found myself not on a road at all but like I said before following the little man on the motorcycle on the Garmin following the pink line. So follow I did I mean what’s a little adventure.
I press on, gate after gate, and road after road, none of which are marked. One particular road which I followed when 2424 ended was Chico road, and Chico road was not very Chico friendly. It disappeared on me oh say four or five times and I just sort of drove and bounced my way through the desert and cacti until my motorcycle man found his pink line again. All the while I was thinking to myself as I was going through these gates, what if one of them is locked. Because a good two summers ago I worked on a ranch and we locked all our gates, made sure of it, didn’t want any trespassers. So sure enough I was too far to turn back and I arrive at a barely visible road in the sweltering desert and the gate is pad locked hard and fast. I do not utter any explicative’s, I simply walk around the fence line for a bit to find an opening… no such opening. I look at the lock, I try some simple combinations, 1111, or 2222, or 1234, even a 0000. To no avail my lock picking skills were useless. I then look for a weak spot in the fence, its old and rusty but there are none, so I go against everything in my book and I get out my always faithful Leatherman, the best and most amazing graduation present ever, and I cut part of the barb wire and ride my bike through, however I do this will all good intentions, I mean I was in survivor mode, what would bear do in these situations!?!?! I was nice though and I left a note apologizing and I found some wire and patched up the fence as best as I could. No bovine would be getting through there any time soon! Ok so I ride on, 8 miles here 3 miles here, a turn here a wrong turn there, it goes on like this for a good 3 hours. So I’m rolling down this hill maybe a bit too fast and I hit some rocks and the front end gets real wobbly on me, and flat feeling… oh no flat feeling that’s not very good. I quickly shift down as fast as possible and come to a complete stop shut off the bike and to my surprise, or well shock yes my first flat, and on my new Avon Gripsters! Ok so I can fix this I got the AeroStitch tool kit complete with patches CO2 and all, I’m ready bring on your worst. So I look at it squeeze the tire, no air coming out, no rocks or punctures or anything… So what must be the problem? 
The explanation as to why my Gripsters went flat is too long and technical and if you wish to know you may email or ask me later. In any event I got out these cool little CO2 cartridges and I filled my tire right back up, easy as pie! And the ride continues… More gates, more LOCKED gates, and I do the same, cut hole, leave note, and patch up… I think total I had to go through five of these locked suckers. The last one was a real four letter word. I get all the way there meanwhile the tire went flat three more times I was down to my last two CO2 canisters, GPS says I have just 0.9 miles ok I can make this just slow and steady and I’ll get to the highway… and Highway I arrive at! Wow I was so happy however there lied in front of me the meanest of all gates that I saw that day, I wish now I had taken a picture of it, it was ugly looking I think it had a total of seventeen locks on it, this was the kind of gate that they use at fort Knox or something, I mean the cows that were behind this gate must make the kind of milk that’s not really milk at all but the stuff they use to make crystal with. Ok so gate is huge and foreboding and on either side I can’t just cut out a piece like I had been doing because it was a rock wall on both sides, I sit there for a minute oh I forgot to mention all the while I’m trying to out run the storm of all storms. The clouds are black the wind is gusting, you get the picture. So I walk around the gate some more I look at it I glare at it maybe my glare will make it open, no such luck. I then look back at the one side of the gate and the rocks look loose but movable and the fence deteriorated and crappy. So like all other gates I simply cut away but the problem was I was right on the highway and I didn’t want anyone to see me doing my dastardly yet necessary deeds. So I cut quickly and I move all these big rocks, it would be tough I would have to use all my motorcycle riding skills that I have yet attainted to get Maverick (fyi I gave my bike that name, it fits, the bike likes it) through. I don’t have a picture of this because I was trying to rush through and get out of there as quickly as possible. So I rev the engine throw it in mighty mountain climbing never fail first gear and I ride through the 2 foot opening with all the loose gravel, and I make it through! Success!! I have done it, however on the other side was not so good because it was a drop off into a drainage ditch and to keep my bike from plummeting to a sure grave where I know it would never come out from I rolled to the left the ground gave way and the bike and all toppled over, never fear to the people reading this who care for me health and safety, Maverick and I went down a good 5 plus times on this day alone, this was just one more, and after I got on the paved road Maverick went down another 2 times, more to come on these. So anyways Bike is down I’m on the side of the highway people driving by, oh great what a site this is, luckily I’m in the middle of the Guadalupe mountains so there is not as many people driving by mostly truckers and old people on vacation. So I’m down a nice man in his horse trailer passes and sees me circles back and I just tell him I was lost but I found the highway and I pointed to the ground. He just laughed and gave me a good luck thumbs up! Ok so Maverick is back up, a little dusty a little scratched, but still kicking, actually a lot dusty, and mostly the scratches were on me from riding through all the cacti. So I get on the highway, just 3 easy miles to the visitors center and then the campground, get to the visitors center, and luck have it huge storm is rolling in, I have been in big bend the past couple nights no showers I reek of everything, I don’t have any clean clothes so I decided to make the hour drive to Carlsbad and get a hotel. Yes I know I said I wasn’t going to stay in any this entire trip but I need a couple recharges you know.
None of whom stopped to help this time. In any event I am getting really great squat workout for the day picking my bike back up. Ok so maverick and I stumble into Carlsbad after a long and exhausting day, I pick the first hotel I see, a nice and quaint motel 6, with free wireless I might add. Get in, crank up the AC, get ice cold refreshing cherry coke, get back to the room…. No power, and the hotel doesn’t have power for the next 2 hours. Wow what a day, needless to say in that time with no power I wrote this extensive monologue about my adventures. Power is back on and I must make some phone calls now. I know this was long I promise though and I made this promise to maverick too, it will be an easy day tomorrow, I’m going caving!! But I know I mentioned a lot of very trying adventures but many good things happened as well. Chris who I met earlier in Big Bend who was riding the Triumph Tiger gave me a whole bag of MRE’s which were delicious; there was even a lemon seed pound cake in there, my favorite! I also saw a bunch of wild life today, lots of jack rabbits, coyotes, cows, deer, and I also saw two herds of antelope which was really awesome, I wasn’t quick enough though to get a picture of them.
