If you’ve been following this, you know I planned a trip, and had it end in a sudden manner about 2/3 through it. Well at that point the trip was ~ 1300 miles in on a ~2000 mile goal.
Original Plan (which was modified a few times after I made this) 
1300Mi in and the Trip ended.
After hauling the bike back and getting it fixed up, I’ve put ~ 200 – 250 miles on it re-breaking in the tires, and ensuring no leaks developed. And the bike is as happy as it ever has been, but now with new fresh oil and ready for a lot of miles.
After a spirited trip to the mountains to get some stress relief the other day, I thought… why not go and finish as much of the route up as possible?! This weekend coming up is looks to be one of the last weekends of the season that riding in the mountains can be somewhat predictable or without snow (Snow arrives on Sunday afternoon 10/11!)
Wrapping things up
~1000 miles in 3 days.
So I quickly drew up a plan to handle the majority of my route from the previous aborted trip. I cant make it back down to New Mexico (as much as I wanted to, to go back to the scene where the bike broke down and pick up the rock that fucked my bike up!), so I am going to pick up the route in Pagosa Springs and stay overnight in Durango. This also lets me take the bike on a few roads I’ve never ridden on with the bike in the San Luis Valley.
The bike was still mostly prepped and packed for the trip, so it should be easy to pack and get rolling in the morning of 10/9.
The Weather – End of season chaos.
The weather is supposed to be mild and sunny for most of the trip, but Sunday stuff gets interesting as by Sunday night it should be snowing in areas of the mountains and raining near Denver. I want to ride in some cold weather and rain, as I have some long term goals/plans I am working on that I would like to test my gear with. But otherwise I expect cold mornings, warm afternoons, and cool evenings.
New Boots!
After getting hot motor oil spilled all over my old boots during incident that ended the last trip, and re attaching the sole on the other boot with super glue the day before… I realized my 11 year old TCX X-Five boots were about done. So I picked up a set of new TCX X-Five Plus boots yesterday and am ready to get them broken in. I was going to go with some higher end boots with more mesh materials, but after 11 years of being good with the all leather X-Five boots, and these being just an enhancement of what I had… I might as well stick with what I know!
Packing for this trip
Packing will be almost exactly the same as the last trip, but I am leaving a few things behind to make room to pack for some heavier layers due to riding in some sub 40F weather in the mornings. I am going to leave the 100-400mm lens at home, and a few other convenience bits I brought last time that I didn’t need. The new boots are really the only new hardware on this trip.
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