Yesterday my friends and I took a motorcycle ride up to Chewelah to scout out some fly fishing streams I’m interested in. It was a beautiful sunny day and things looked excellent as we traveled up forest service road 9521 along Chewelah Creek and Drummond Creek. Eventually we ran into patches of snow and ice. We crossed the first few with little trouble and a few oh shit! moments. Eventually my luck ran out and I started sliding sideways and made the mistake of giving it gas in a move known as a whiskey throttle. I ended up with my bike upside down. The only thing hurting was my ego. I had a good laugh and made a photo.
We eventually were forced to turn around when we reached an elevation that was clearly still snowed in. Thinking that the adventure was over when we got back to a nice grassy meadow, I soon realized that I had burned out my clutch and couldn’t ride faster than 30 miles per hour. We were over three hours away from home!
I nursed the clutch as best I could until we got within a half hour of home. The clutch completely malfunctioned and I had no power whatsoever. My friend Shane rode home and got his truck and trailer while his dad and I sat on the side of the road. Fortunately I had my camping gear with me and could set up a chair to sit down.
An hour later we loaded the bikes up on the trailer and made it home around 10pm. The next day I woke up exhausted and headed to work with a big smile on my face. A real adventure on the weekend makes the rest of the week worthwhile.
