|
sense since I-15 was south of me.
As I continued on, the road began to climb out of the
valley and its surface become more hard-packed since this section of
the road was untouched by the flood. The railroad tracks
neared the road I was on and eventually I crossed the tracks.
Shortly thereafter, I glanced at my GPS and noticed it was telling
me to make a U-turn. What?? Apparently I had missed a
turn between the fork in the road (about 4 miles away) and my
current position. I didn't remember seeing another road, but
satellite positioning doesn't lie (ha ha ha). My GPS said that
there was a county road about a mile behind me, so I turned around.
After retracing the previous mile nearly three
times, I finally found the "road" my GPS was telling me to take.
The "road" was a jeep trail heading to the east. The main road
I was on had been graded so many times that there was about a
two-foot lip between the roadway and the surrounding grade and jeep
trail. Although I was doubtful, I decided to give it a shot.
The first mile wasn't bad. Very rocky with a
few washes, but my GS and Metzeler tires handled it with no problem.
Then the road began to climb |
|
up a small ridge at about a 10% grade. The
incline had washes going down each tire track and was covered in
rocks ranging from pebbles to softball size. Normally I would
even think twice about a trail like this, but even though my
Tourance tires has performed well up until this point, I became a
little worried. Without hesitation I began
riding up the incline. The first fifth of a mile went okay,
although I could tell my rear tire was losing traction. About
halfway up, the incline steepened and became even rockier. My
GS began to fishtail to the point where I thought I had a rear flat.
I immediately thought I was screwed, as it easy to plug flats due to
nails and screws, but rock punctures are a whole different story.
I stopped the bike in the best spot I could find. To my
relief, I didn't have a flat, but it was obvious that I had reached
the upper limit of the Metzeler Tourance's "light offroad travel"
capabilities. A feeling of vulnerability set it as I realized
I was in the middle of nowhere, 40 miles from I-15 and about 30
miles from Highway 93, my GS was now limited by its tires, I
had about 20 minutes of daylight left.
Based on the fact that my GPS was calling this
|
