We broke camp early and were on the road by 8ish. The morning was cool – maybe cold. We headed south on route 40. We knew some of the road today would be gravel so we got an early start. We made tracks on the pavement and were just flying along down the straight and smooth pavement. The Air was crisp and we were feeling good…
After the road turn to gravel we came upon this canyon with a cool green river in the bottom. It was shortly there after that John’s day went bad.… All of the sudden a big grinding noise came from the rear end. So I stopped and found the chain guard had come loose. Then it caught on the tire and got jammed between the tire and the swing arm. I tried in vain to get it loose but in the end I had to remove the rear tire to get it free. With the rear tire reinstalled I took off to try to catch up to the others… After another 30 miles of gravel I got caught out by a big patch of silt. I mean this stuff was deep and about 200 feet long. I was going about 40 mph when I hit it. After hitting the steering lock both to the left and the right, The back wheel slid out from under me and I was down…. I was sooo covered in silt/dust i could not see. I also had plenty of silt in my mouth. I tried picking up the bike but it was angled down hill and just too heavy for me to pick up. After taking off the bags, I was able to right the rig and get it out of the middle of the road. After a quick inspection I found just a broken turn signal and some dented pride. I reinstalled the bags and got going again. After getting going, I was pretty pissed off about falling… Then I reminded myself what the guy we met in Mexico had said,”when times get tough remember you are the luckiest SOB’s he’s met in some time” Thanks Jim!!
Another 40 miles off gravel and I arrived at the pavement where Wes and Dan were waiting. After a little ripping on me for crashing we cruised the rest of the way into Zapala without any more trouble. Found a cheap place and called it a night…
Tomorrow we ride south…
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