Day 7 - Who says Electra-Glides arent Mountain Bikes
We left Moab at 5:30 am for a short ride to the Hyatt resort north of
Albuquerque, NM. We had our last beers at the Moab Brewery, The night before...and yes we patted each other on the back......Sometimes the grins just don’t stop on this trip.
We drove past Wilson’s Arch and took a picture since we had missed it on the way in. It was cold, and I mean cold....my face was frozen at times.
We rode south on 191 to Monticello, UT and took a left on 491 which took us into Colorado. The farms and pastures in this area were beautiful. Horses and cattle as well as sheep grazed and paid little attention to the early morning thunder of the Harley’s. We had seen many signs warning of deer and in fact have seen scores of deer in the pastures, but when I rounded a turn I was still surprised. There, standing in the middle of the road was the biggest deer I had ever seen...horns and all. I let go of the throttle.....he looked at us and then couldn't make up his mind which way to go....finally he made the right decision...he went to our left and kicked up the dust and then stood and watched us leave....(I know this because we were now going 10 miles an hour and I was looking at him) (Oh yea, Quinn informed me later it was an elk) We were close enough to see the velvet on the horns...a serious bike killer. Quinn says he was at least 300 pounds and then some.
Off we rode.... another story to remember, and I'm glad it happened and who cares? No one was hurt and we were up close with nature.
So we continued on 491 into Shiprock, NM and hung a left on 64 towards
Farmington and turned onto 550 south towards Bernalillo, NM home of the HYATT. We knew the weather was going to suck possibly the rest of the week. So we decide to for-go luxury and keep going straight on what was Hwy 550 but turned into 165 going towards 536. The maps do not tell all........about 7 miles up the road we see a sign....."Warning road ahead is unmaintained and is closed in the winter". What does that mean? Potholes? We found out soon. It means dirt and gravel, ruts, valleys etc in the road.
I turned to my partner, me amigo, my piasan...Well? What you want to do? Quinn looks me dead in the eye and says..."Lets go, I'm not turning around. So that's what I did. I went forward into the unknown (andI do mean unknown).
I catch up to a 4 wheel drive a mile or so up the road. He tells me that the road to highway 40 was about 10 miles ahead...on we go..(Oh yea Quinn was poking behind and didn't hear this)
Anyway the road got worse. We kept going up and up.... potholes 2,000 foot drop offs.... I kept wondering about the bears and mountain lions...(yea, we were in a dense forest) We are alone on this mountain. We have not seen anyone since we passed those two 4 wheel drives, no one. Was that kid lying to this old man? Were we riding into the deep woods never to be seen again? Why did I listen to my sidekick? That dumb-ass…what has he gotten me into?
We round a bend at about mile 7 and the view was incredible. I stopped to take a picture of the view and the dirt road for posterity. I know if we survive it will be the best story of the trip. That's when my friend Quinn looks at me and says. “Why did we go this way? We should have turned around.” WHAT,??????,
About a half-mile up the road we came to a sign on the side of the road…1/2 mile to pavement…that was a great sign to see. We had made the side trip and lived to talk about it.. We still have almost 200 miles to go to get to our stop in Tucumcari, NM but I loved that ride.
We got onto the pavement, and I even made the correct turn to take us towards Highway 40. I know this is a segment of this journey I will never forget…. And dang the view was great.
520 mile or more day...it was great.
Jon has decided he wants to tell his side of the story. So here ya go (See the other column)
Friar John
Day 7 - The Mountain Adventure According to Quinn
(Written the evening of the adventure)
Ok...its important to understand I have not read Gallow’s version of the mountain trip. So mine is as follows.....
We left the hotel to continue on for another 160 or so miles to get in front of some weather. We had decided on a short cut to get us to highway 40 we pressed on and set out down 165, which should save us many miles. 10 minutes down the road we hit the end of pavement. Now I should have known this, as there was a sign I had caught out of the corner of my eye that said.... End of maintained road, a mile or so behind us. At this point we stop and decide what to do, Gallow asks and I say we press on. I don't want to go backwards and this can't be but a mile or two to pavement, well...as we press on Gallow is getting further ahead and I'm thinking to myself "this is the guy who waxes his bike two times a week and has more money in the thing than anyone I know. But, he catches up with a 4-wheel drive truck and stops him. As Gallow is talking to this guy I'm behind the truck waiting to hear what the story is. Well I didn't get the chance due to Gallow just takes off and I follow. Mistake 2.
As my bike is depreciating quickly due to the bumps and pot holes a foot deep, Gallow is plowing forward in what looks like third gear. Now I'm in first most of the time. After I catch up to Gallow a few times due to his waiting on me, we decide to stop and talk about this situation. It is at this point Gallow informs me of the conversation he had much earlier with the guy who stated pavement starts in 10 miles. "10 miles” I say with a curious tone to my voice. Gallow replies..."Your the one that said you didn't want to turn back". Now I'm saying to myself, "I thought I was speaking to a reasonable person", Who goes forward 10 miles on a dirt road that I would have second thoughts about taking my car on. Well, Gallow does. At this point we are 4.5 miles into it and pretty much at the point of no return. So.........we press on...upward. As we do, there are many turns of which on one side has a wonderful view. Nice view, but if you’re the one on the bike, screw the view..........if my bike goes of this road WE won't stop for about 1,000 feet. Now up to this point I'm trying to explain, in my head, to Kristi (my wife) how I screwed up the bike so bad only after 5 weeks of owning it. But after the visions of rolling down a 2,000-foot cliff...screw the story; just get me off this mountain...alive. We'll to make a longer story shorter...we finally see a sign saying half mile to pavement. "Thank god, I'm going back to church for sure" I'm saying to myself. Well we made it. But when you see a ski resort on the way down a mountain you know you ended up somewhere you shouldn't have been. We looked it up later and ended up at 10,600 feet. Know if you thought that was good...earlier in the trip I was telling Gallow how much I wanted to ride the forests of the west. Well, in a way I can say I have now.
Hope you enjoyed our adventure.... I have to go clean my shorts now.
QUINN