Tales from the Road: MACH.19 - Saguaro Country, Day 17: Monumental

Saguaro Country, Day 17
Monumental
Tuesday May 14, 2019

Yesterday Kitty was firm that if at all possible, we should add Monument Valley into the itinerary, even at the the expense of some hard riding days ahead. And so with some modifications, I was able to generate a route that incorporated a good representation of the original plan. The two major components to be sacrificed were our third visit to the Grand Canyon, and wandering around in northern New Mexico before starting home in earnest.

There are lots of Internet discussion about the use of mapping software for trips. Some scoff, saying the best thing is to get on the bike and ride. I, on the other hand, am a meticulous trip planner, often down to scoping out a hotel or motel with a restaurant within walking distance. I use Garmin BaseCamp to plan my trips as well as to upload and download tracks, routes, and waypoints. This is a quick way to drag a route to new shaping waypoints and evaluate the results. For this spontaneous reroute, without mapping software, I wouldn't be able to evaluate cause and effect of including or including specific components, or how many miles we need to ride in how many days.

My head is spinning from all the types of desert topography we've seen, from the Sonoran desert along the Mexican border, the amazing saguaros and brilliant palo verde bushes, then creosote and sagebrush deserts.

North of Flagstaff AZ we encounter a bewildering variety of desert zones. At one point we are riding through purple sage, the air slightly tinged with the sweet sage odor. Today we are the New Riders of the Purple Sage. Then the sagebrush disappears to be replaced by vast expanses of Utah juniper trees, only to be replaced by red rocky formations with little vegetation. We ride through fractured rocks strewn helter skelter on the surface, and wonder how they got there.

Farther north, toward the Utah border, we start to see the classic mesa and butte formations that are famous in Utah but occur in Arizona and Colorado as well.

We fuel at Kayenta and turn north toward Monument Valley, my personal trip highlight and a bucket list item. These huge buttes tower a thousand feet above the level of the plain. It's partly cloudy, so I'm able to catch several different lighting and shadow environments as the clouds move over the plain. I can't (or won't) ride the 17-mile dirt road where the monuments are best visible, but there are amazing views from US 163 where we are riding. I take several dozen camera shots and have included a few representative ones, including the quintessential "Forrest Gump spot" when he was just running and running and running... It is so worth the reroute to have enabled us to visit this amazing place.

This pretty much fills my Spectacle Quota and I'm ready to declare this trip one of the best we have ever taken together. I'm thankful for Kitty's gentle encouragement and willingness to ride hard and long for numerous days so that I could re-incorporate this spectacular desert treat into the route after our enforced delay waiting for a battery.

We finish the ride through Colorado and then back into New Mexico, passing near Cortez and the Four Corners (stopping at neither), a lovely 50-mile ride to close the day with buttes and mesas on every side. My camera card develops a fault and the pictures shot along this location are lost.

At the hotel in Farmington, NM, we are about to order delivery food from a local steakhouse when the phone rings. It's the front desk. "Someone backed over your motorcycle." Now that is a heart-stopping message! I'd temporarily parked the bike in a normal parking spot while we loaded in, showered, and decided what to do for dinner, intending later to go out and re-park for the night when I load my new routes for tomorrow and collect mileage information.

We look out the window, and Crusader is lying on the left side. Someone was backing up and apparently didn't see the trailer, which he backed into, pushed the whole rig forward off the kickstand, and of course the bike fell to the left. It would have likely caused no damage except scratches to the crash guards, but as the bike moved forward, the front wheel went over the parking space "curb" and the left mirror crashed into the curb, about four inches high.

At least the guy was stand-up and had the hotel desk call us and stayed to exchange insurance information. By this time there several other strong men there asking how to help to pick up the bike; I did the classic lift by backing into the seat while holding the handle bar and seat grab rail, but it was complicated by the fact that the front wheel had to come back over the curb. Picking it up is something I can totally and easily do myself, but I was glad for three other guys, all being very careful to ask me where to push and pull, as we wrestled the now-upright bike back over the curb and started assessing the damages.

I'm not posting pictures in light of the insurance claim. The trailer taillight and rear end has nasty scratches but no apparent structural damage. The bike wasn't so lucky. There appears to be no mechanical damage, but it looks to me like the front crash guard is bent, and the state inspection sticker holder is damaged. The left mirror plastic is fractured and the glass is cracked into many pieces, but still contained within the mirror. I don't think the fairing crashed onto the curb, as there are no scratches or apparent damage. I use a heavy dose of electrical tape to hold the glass and the plastic in place.

So after a long discussion with a really friendly claim agent who herself is a rider, we decided since the mirror is still usable, albeit cracked and not aimed too well, I can ride the bike home before repairs are made. But she had to check with her supervisor, so we narrowly missed a situation where the bike would have to be repaired before bringing it home.

So tomorrow, damaged rig and all, we plan to start the trek homeward in earnest. Let's go home, Baby.