deathvalleypilgrimagep2

Death Valley pilgrimage

However Cerro Gordo climbs pretty high and the snow started to appear...

The god think is that the climb is exposed South so the snow didn't stick. Therefore no problem for us and and here is my bike on the top.

Aquavit joining me

And finally Eduardo. Notice the big smile

.

Yes, the view at the top was awesome...

But also revealed what I had kind of anticipated: the downhill, facing North was still covered in snow. Remember, Eduardo had almost zero experience in the dirt

. Here is Dirk:

You can barely see him on the top right corner, but for Eduardo things are not that smooth anymore...

A steep downhill turn was too much to deal with.... Turning and braking simultaneously in the snow in such an heavy bike is more than tricky! One bag down

Crashing with bags is sometimes a problem with any bag. But what about those fragile BMW plastic bags ! Those new bags are extremely ingenious in the way that you can increase very easily their size and all but how could they make them so weak?!? We're speaking here about a fall at less than 5 mph and still a hook broke, creating a hole on the top right corner of the bag! Anyway Eduardo took it very well, put some straps in place and continued more carefully than ever.

Still, that's not an easy exercise

I was often checking the GPS to see how much altitude we were loosing and how soon the snow would stop...

Even Dirk's 950 with knobbies had some "moments"

One more fall on the right side and this time it's the luggage rack that fails

. Yes, this beautiful stainless bolt (the main bag's lock) is screwed on a plastic part!

What's awesome with Eduardo is that he never looses his smile and with a few more straps he's able to fix his bag.

The Joshua trees and the snow always make a cool combination.

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