Day 15- Banff.

41 miles.

Today just started off shitty. I went to the bear box to get cooking stuff and dropped and broke my 3/4 full bottle of Jameson. Alright, no big deal. We make coffee and Rudi decides he's gonna fix his leaking valve cover. No big deal.
I'm in the bathroom with diarrhea and I hear him yell out my name. This isn't good. As he was tightening the center nut on the valve cover gasket the stud stripped from the cylinder head. This isn't good.
We were pretty much packed up and we talked to the rangers about leaving our stuff for a couple hours while we sorted it all out.
I headed into Banff and went to the only shop in town, they didn't want to work on a bike, but they gave me the name of a shop in Canmore, about 15km east.
I find a pay phone and talk to Greg Waldner at Summit Motorsports, www.bsummit.com. He says he can do the heliocoil, but probably not today. I arrange with Progressive to get towed to the shop. $5 a year for 5 tows is the best deal ever!!
We wait almost 4 hours for the tow truck to arrive at the campground and we finally make it to Greg's shop. He has the right size heliocoil in stock and agrees to do it today, so we get the bike ready for him to install it. He's a super nice guy with a new little shop and he also rents bikes and does tours. If I ever make it back up here I'm gonna hit him up for sure.
We stop by a Safeway for some groceries and they fly off my rack on the freeway. Now it's starting to rain. I like Canada and the people here, but Canada hates us. Like Southpark said, "blame Canada". I hope the next few days are better.

No Bug report today. Sorry.




Hiking around, waiting for the tow truck.



Do not eat.



One mad Rudi.



Working in the back of Greg's shop.

Day 4- Natural Bridges NM to Mesa Verde.

204 miles.

We wake up and pack early in order to get to Mesa Verde by midday. We cruise around the park and view the natural bridges, they are pretty awesome. We stop in Bluff, UT for breakfast and gas and continue on our way.
About 30 miles down the road while going through Aneth, UT Jessica's clutch cable snaps. We find shade at the only gas station in town and she calls for a tow truck and arranges for a new cable at a shop on Cortez, CO. Problem is, they can't get it til at least Tuesday.
We wait with Jessica until the tow truck arrives, we found a rickety suspension bridge that goes over the chocolate milk looking river and I explore a bit of the buildings that appear to be old Reservation housing.
Once the tow truck arrives Rudi and I bounce out, make a quick stop at 4 Corners and onto Mesa Verde.
We unload at our site and head back to Cortez to get Jessica and her stuff. We eventually meet up with everyone and head to the campsite.



A natural bridge.



Yum.



Broke down in Aneth.



Aneth architecture.



Sketchy footbridge.



The other side of the chocolate river.



Safe side.



Old reservation housing.



Downtown Aneth, UT.



Colorado.



4 Corners.

Day 3- Bryce NP to Natural Bridges NM

269 miles.

Rudi's forks have been getting worse and worse. He sometimes gets gnarly speed wabbles in turns, by the time we got to Bryce last night they were completely bottomed out. We do a quick flush in a parking lot and they seem to be a bit better. A mechanic at the repair shop in Bryce City suggests putting PVC pipe in as a preload spacer, if the oil alone doesn't work we'll try it. We leave Bryce and head east towards Kodachrome State Park. The road there is amazing and super fun, they don't take the National Park pass so we head back on the main road. We're trying to get to Mesa Verde today, to meet up with my older brother Erik, his wife Julie and her family.
We stop for gas is a little town and the station also happens to be the towns hardware store. Perfect time to add those PVC preload spacers on Rudi's bike. After an hour or so we're back on the road. We go over the mountains on SR 12, a fantastic, windy, high elevation road and then through Capital Reef NP. It's getting late and starting to get apparent that we won't make it to Mesa Verde, so we settle into staying at Natural Bridges National Monument. It's empty and we get a nice spot, make dinner and watch the stars.



Feeding the baby.



SR 12. Utah.



Capital Reef.



Petroglyphs (lower mid frame). Capital Reef.



Bike crew. Capital Reef.



Lazer.



Moon man on the moon.



Small fire.



Big fire.



Bug Report.
7/10.
Lots of little guys. And one juicer to the shield.