Styx In The Mud - Adventure Rider

Day three of the trip begins at over 9000 feet in elevation. Having tossed and turned nearly all night we wake and don our cold-weather gear. It's too cold to eat and between yesterday's crash and the cold neither of us are in any mood to stick around too long. We load the bikes and head towards the nearest town for our morning routine of fuel, food and bio-breaks. After the prior day's fiasco it becomes clear that we are unlikely to make our planned mileage so Chris starts making adjustments to the route and lops off a chunk of the ride from the early part of the day. It's also clear that our gear really isn't suited for 30 degree nights so our initial plan of staying at over 10,000' needs revision. While enjoying a breakfast burrito from a local New Mexico staple our tour plans are revised: the new goal is to make it just across the Colorado border, cut out a portion of the route and find an established campground. At least, that's the plan... Our route be...

Our second day kicks off at around 7am. It takes little more than an hour to pack, make a cup of "instant" joe, mount up and take a short drive across the Texas-New Mexico border to the nearest town of Clayton. We fill up on fuel where and locate a small cafe with a drive-thru (the only places open at the moment) to grab a quick bite. With COVID having closed all but the essential businesses we resort to sitting curb-side and chomp down our chow only to realize that one breakfast sandwich wasn't enough. Chris heads back to the drive-thru for a second round while I load the day's route into my GPS. Before long our bellies are full and bladders are empty so we turn the bikes north and head for the first real section of gravel road. The path we travel skirts alongside Clayton Lake which, while closed for camping, provides an early morning photo-op and a restroom break.  The Tiger 800 alongside Clayton Lake After the obligatory photo of the bikes sitting lakeside we head ...