Got out for another ride on the 11th. Another solo, it had rained a little the night before so the ride was not as dusty. Was considerably warmer than the start of my last ride, this one started in the low 40's. The tiny bit of rain helped green up some of the vegetation. Saw some deer, elk and turkey. The deer and turkey cooperated for a few photos, the elk did not. I didn't have my Go-Pro running when I saw the elk, so I couldn't do any frame shots from that. I only covered about 46 miles, the ride got shortened by a rock / shock incident. Not sure how it happened, but I ran over a pretty large rock, and somehow when the rear tire went over the rock, it grabbed the rock and drug it up into the fender well and broke the left rear shock absorber reservoir. Well, I know how I ran over the rock, by not really watching where I was going, I was looking to the side, just not sure how the tire grabbed the rock the way it did. Nasty little surprise. At first I thought I got the rock caught under the floor board and when I reversed to try to get off of it, that is what caused it to be drug up, but reviewing the Go-Pro video, I was still going forward when it got caught up in the fender. I guess the universes way of telling me to end the ride. It was cloudy and threatening rain the whole ride, but I never did really get rained on. I thought about continuing the ride with the broken shock, but it was bottoming out quite a bit, so I figured I should just head back and not do any more damage. Fortunately, it didn't tear up any brake lines or wiring that I could tell. Here are some photos, sorry, quite a few of them.
Turkeys didn't let me get too close, there were about 4 - 5 total.
The pond looked nice after the rain.
Wood used in the frame of the vehicle.
Here's the rock where it ended up.
Reservoir on the ground
Pushed the fender away from the floor board.