I fanally have some time to update this thread. We finished rounding up our gear and set out for Northern NM on Friday morning. As I'm scrambling around the house and garage grabbing this and that trying to get ready, my son straps his backpacking gear to the GS and patiently waits for me.
We kept his load as light as possible putting food, water, tools and heavy gear on the FJR.
We took it easy for a while until he got used to the added weight on the bike, which didn't take long. He showed great control stopping, starting out and at low speeds. If he handled those well then heading down the road would be no problem. I warned him of high crosswinds and how the added gear on the back could make it difficult to control the bike, especially if he's leaning into the wind and a hill or big truck suddenly block the wind. Still, he and I are confident he can handle this and we roll out of town. About two miles into it he secured that blue matt a bit better.
We got behind a line of trucks and RV's, most pulling side-by-sides, and it was slow going for 30 miles until they thinned out. We made or first stop in Cuba for a quick snack. I noticed a couple of drips of oil from the stator cover on the GS and got concerned. I checked to make sure none of the bolts worked loose and figured we'd just keep an eye on it. I really don't think it's the stator cover leaking, but will investigate later. This put enough doubt in my mind to rethink our route though.
We were planning on heading through some pretty desolate area, but I now thought it best to stay on a more traveled highway should we need help or a quart of oil. Yeah, I forgot to bring oil. A few thousand miles on the FJR and I already forgot the joys of running a 40 year old bike. LOL
Instead of heading to El Vado lake we decided to go to Navajo lake, up on the Colorado border. We hadn't been there in years and it was always an enjoyable spot. Another thing I forgot about the GS is that it needs gas every two hundred miles or so. We're motoring along chatting over the headsets and my son says, so, how far can I go if the needle is in the red? What? Oh crap! The FJR stil has a half tank. He switched to reserve and we hit a gas station within 25 miles. After fueling we checked and the oil level was just fine. I still only noticed one drip in a fifteen minute stop. Note to self, grab a small length of hose in case we need to siphon gas from one bike to another.
We passed through Bloomfield and headed West toward Navajo lake. We got so caught up in the scenery we missed the sign for the lake. Pretty soon the trees got taller and the air got a bit cooler. Uh oh! This is feeling more like Colorado, I thought. Well not Colorado but close. We passed the turn to the lake by 30 miles. No worries, it's still only 4pm so there's plenty of time to grab a spot and set up before dark. We were prepared to just grab an undeveloped spot somewhere close to the lake, but decided to try the developed campground right on the lake. Well, NM state parks are still closed for Covid season, so we'll have to count on my GPS to take us to the spot we picked out. I really need to get a Garmin or something. The phone's GPS has been doing some really weird things.
Here's the spot we picked from the satellite image at our gas stop earlier. There are oil rigs everywhere in this area and the dirt roads are well kept. I knew it'd be risky with heavy bikes (and a new rider), but he has ridden a couple of dirt bikes before, not to mention the KLR 650 so we took the chance. The road was very hard packed dirt at first with ruts going down the center, which were easy enough to aviod. Getting closer to the spot, the road had more loose gravel on it. Still doing fine we moved along in first and second gear until we arrived.
Apparently we were'nt the only ones who had this idea. To our surprize there were what seemed to be dozens of people there. We unloaded the camp chairs and tore into the food rations. Sitting next to the bikes we ate our pasta with red sauce, peanut butter on crackers and powdered tropical punch from the MRE's. Yum!
After some grub, we scouted out a spot away from the party crowd. It was way too gnarly for the bikes to ride down so we packed everything a half mile or so to the site and setup camp. We left most of the water we brought back at the bikes to lighten our loads since In my son's backpacking gear was a water filter that makes river and lake water safe to drink. What we didn't realize is how long it took to get even a 16oz bottle filled...
We had a great first day and spent en equally enjoyable evening under the stars. This certainly wasn't how I taught him to start a caampfire, but it was very efficient.
I'll write more in another post.
