Monday 2nd November

Castle Dale, UT to Castle Dale, UT

After a leisurely start to the day, we grabbed a snack from the fuel station, topped up our cans and tanks, and hit the road around 11am. It was a perfectly clear and sunny day, and thankfully the sun had some heat to it.

 

 

We took a paved road out of town and in to the hills, before turning off on to a gravel road and taking a detour in the wrong direction. It added on about 20 miles but we presumed Sam had put it in for a good reason, and happily continued on what was now a dirt trail, surrounded by naked deciduous trees in the middle of the Manti-La Sal National Forest.

 

 

There’s something I love about bare trees and that crisp winter feeling, although after months of travelling across Canada in the winter, I was sick of it and desperate for leaves and green!

 

 

There was snow in places where the sun hadn’t got to, and once again we were reminded that summer was definitely over.

 

 

We continued along the road and were about to reach the turning point to make our way back down, when several things went wrong, one of which was rather serious.

You know how everything happens in threes? Well first my rear foot brake stopped working, just as I was heading downhill and round a corner (luckily I had my hand rear brake and front brake!) On further inspection we discovered that the split pin that holds the pivot in place had gone walkies, so the lever no longer pivoted and just wonked off to the side, deeming it useless. It was easily fixed with a piece of wire, but the issue of split pins reminded Ed that we needed to get some for the nuts on my rear wheels. Just as he was saying, ‘That reminds me we need to get some split pins for your wheels’, he walked round to the left side of the trike and said ‘Ah too late’. The reason it was too late is that the nut had already vibrated off, and my wheel was now only held on by the friction in the splines and luck. Me not being very impressed or happy about riding a trike with a wheel held on by friction, Ed set to work with the paracord, and secured the wheel by tying it on to the sprocket.

We thought all was well, or at least good enough for getting to the next town, but little did we know that that was the least of our worries. All secured we continued on round the corner, when the trike suddenly started swaying and flopping from side to side, like I had very springy independent suspension. I quickly stopped and got off, and got hold of Ed on the intercom who was ahead. I rocked the trike from side to side then looked underneath, and reported that is was ‘Game over’. ‘What do you mean it’s game over?’ Ed replied, coming back up the road. It was then that he saw for himself; the swing arm had snapped.

 

 

I couldn’t keep riding with it like that, as the pressure could snap the other side, so we had to sit and wait for our fate. We were basically in the middle of no-where, and highly doubted that anyone would be driving down the road any time soon, however after racking our brains for half an hour about the best course of action, a guy called Justus turned up in his 4WD. He kept 900 head of cattle on the mountain, and was out with his dad and son looking for the last four that were hiding. Thank you adventurous cows! He very kindly agreed to help, and said that he’d just finish his drive up to the end of the road, then would drive back to Castle Dale to get his truck and trailer. What an absolute star!

 

 

We sat in the sun and waited, with the only other vehicles coming past being two forest workers, who kindly stopped to see if we were OK. An hour and a half later and Justus came back with his trailer, and we loaded both bikes on and strapped them down.

 

 

We were incredibly thankful for Justus going out of his way, and were well aware that he didn’t have to. We knew we would do the same in his situation, and he said that he would want someone to do the same if he was in our shoes. Treat others how you wish to be treated; it goes a very long way. In our case it went 20 miles back to Castle Dale, where Justus took us back to one of his farms where he had a welder on the back of a truck.

 

 

He helped Ed clean up the swingarm, then Ed did the welding. The welder that Ed had to use in Moab was really rubbish, but we actually discovered that it wasn’t just the welds that had failed, it was the Yamaha swingarm tube itself. It wasn’t designed for twisting and torsion, and finally gave in under the strain.

 

 

Luckily Justus had lots of old pieces of steel laying around, and Ed cut some pieces down to reinforce and strengthen the Yamaha tube. Just as they were getting started with the welding, Justus’s mum and dad turned up in their car. After a while of me standing out in the wind and cold, unable to help with anything, they invited me to sit in their car with them. It was a pleasure to talk to them, and I discovered that they were all Mormons. Most of Utah was settled by Mormons, and being quite a different thing for me coming from England, it was interesting to meet and talk to them. Their ancestors had actually settled some of the homesteads that were still in the family, and up until a recent accident Justus’s dad was still involved in herding the cattle.

A month previous he’d been out in the middle of nowhere on his own herding cattle, when the horse he was on bucked him off, leaving him with a broken leg and some cracked ribs. He was unable to call for help as there wasn’t any phone service in the area, however by a stroke of luck when Justus tried to call him several hours later, he managed to get through. A rescue helicopter was sent out and he was taken to hospital, where his ribs were plated and his leg was pinned. Despite his accident, I loved the fact that at the age of 81 he was still out riding a horse and herding cattle. I really admired him for still doing it. Although when I asked him if he would be getting back on a horse once he’s better, he said that he’d probably give up riding horses. He doesn’t bounce like he did when he was younger, and it takes him longer to heal now he’s in his 80’s. I couldn’t blame him, but good on him for continuing up until then.

It was dark and late by the time they’d finished welding, and Justus kindly gave us and the bikes a lift back to the motel where we’d stayed the night before. I tried to offer him some money but he wouldn’t take it, and we thanked him for sacrificing his time and evening to help us. He was happy to help, and we promised we’d pay it forward at some point.

 

 

We unloaded the bikes and Justus went on his way, leaving us to get a room. ‘De Ja Vu anyone?!’ Ed said. ‘Well you can’t say that we didn’t try to make progress!’ I replied. We managed to get a king size bed for the price of a smaller one, then popped over to the only restaurant in town where we had a crap burger and a drink that tasted like Listerine mouthwash. I was starving so I was just happy to have some food in my belly, and was even happier when we got back to our room and our massive bed. Despite being back where we started it wasn’t all bad, after all, we could still be stuck in the forest! And with that we hit the sack, ready for ‘Take 2’ in the morning.