Location: T or C
Occasion: why not? Really, it was to support NMOHVA
Purpose: Riding!!!
This was the first time I’ve gotten to attend one of NMOHA events. I was supposed to attend last year, but it was right after my cervical fusion, so riding was out of the question. There was Sipapu this year, but ended up having to work. Since this time around I was fit and not working, I was going!!! I was looking forward to doing some more riding on the Husky, since I hadn’t really been out on it since the end of July.
I had no idea until I arrived what the history around TorC was, I have to say I love the hot spring fed tubs in the rooms.
I had given Brian over at Speedin Motorsports the Husky to lower the suspension on it. Carrying around a step ladder to get on and off the bike wasn’t convenient. He was able to get the forks shortened up but was shipped the wrong parts for the shock, so it still had the lowering link on it. I can’t wait to get that off there and see just how much better the bike handles. I met Brian in Cuba to pick up the bike, he and I had breakfast. It was nice getting to chat with him, at the track he’s too busy to chat. Once we move the bike from his truck to mine it was off to TorC.
The first night was just getting settled into the room, sitting around on the patio telling stories. This group is really great at stories.
Our first day of riding we did Palomas Gap, or at least I think we did… We ended up back tracking so many times; I’m not sure where we were. There was a section of the trail that had been completely washed out. We spend a fair amount of time trying to find a way across the cut, but it was just too steep of a drop on both sides and too narrow to cross but wide enough that we weren’t going to just cross it. So we back track some more to a road that took us out to the main road, after a side trip up to the top where the radio towers were. We stopped at a gate, once most of us got though it GS noticed mikrow had a flat front tire. So while we waited for the capt and selaznog, Mik tried putting some air into the tire, it wasn’t holding so it was time for a trailside repair. GS decided to go back to look for the other two, since they hadn’t shown up yet. Never a good sign, bout the time Mik was half way done with his tire, the three showed up. Selaznog had hit one of the banks wrong and hurt his shoulder, he and the capt kept heading back to the hotel so they could take him to the ER.
Amazing views!!
Then back to the motel just in time for more stories, beer, and snacks before heading to dinner. Turns out that selaznog had just sprain/separated his should a bit and was planning on riding the next day. Hard core.
We timed dinner just right too. Or at least I did.. J I called the restaurant for a reservation; I figured with 10 of us we would need one. We ended dinner with 16 at the table; the local ADVRider group is friendly and very social. Good thing we had all showered and cleaned up. It was pretty cozy at the table. The Latitude 33 restaurant was very great about us shuffling around all their tables and chairs. The place was on the small side, but it was great food.
The second/last day we did Chloride Creek, I love water crossing since this was basically riding up a creek bed, there were loads of them. It was really rocky and rough, but it was a great deal of fun. There was one really tricky section, but it really wasn’t that bad. Of course, the sections were they expected me to have issues I breezed through, but the ones they didn’t give second thought to are the ones I had issues with… typical. I only had one tip over, as usual, it was a dozy. I really need to get some tech spec for that bike. I slipped going up a hill lost my balance for a second and rolled on the throttle a bit. This caused the bike to stand straight up, I then tipped to one side, and the bike stayed up right but turned to the left. This meant I was aim to go over the edge of the trail. It was a nice lil 10 foot long down slope to some trees and a nice high drop off. I saw the trees and the ledge, and decided it was much better to lock the front wheel and crash then to go down the slope, hit the tree, and possibly off the cliff.
It was one of those falls that really hurt, even through the hard armor I was wearing. DownHill was right behind me for the whole thing. He said, when he saw me going toward the drop off, he kept thinking … crash, crash… opps, well it was nice knowing her. LOL. It took a few minutes to get the bike back on the trail. Then we had to straighten out my hand guards it was bent up at a strange angle. Once that was done, I set off a head of the DH, Capt and selaznog . I knew they’d catch up just fine, as I was going to be back to riding rather slow for a bit. It took about another 15 min for us to catch up to GS and Mikrow. Who instead of coming back to help, stopped and ate their lunch…
After that I’d like to say there wasn’t anything else, but that wasn’t the case. Next time I’ve got to make sure I get the bike back with enough time to go over it. We were heading up to a forest service lookout, my bike just died. The Capt tried to kick start it, but no luck so we took the seat off to get at the battery to find out that the negative connection had come undone Capt to the rescue with a zip tie. From here out there wasn’t an ything exciting except the great scenery.