Day 32 - Update to rest day in Amarillo

Day 32
November 4, 2016
5 miles of hiking in a gorgeous canyon
Hours of good visiting with John and Cloris


John is retired and had the day off while Cloris went to work. John is an avid hiker and took us to the incredible Palo Duro Canyon about 30 minutes south of Amarillo.

To give some context, here is the gentle grade we climbed yesterday to get here. The terrain was flat in every direction, rising ever so slightly as we pedaled west. There was only 900 feet of elevation over 54 miles:

This pancake-flat area in the Texas Panhandle is known as the Caprock and is a huge expanse of very dense rock and soil that resists erosion. However, there are instances where rivers have cut canyons, and the Palo Duro Canyon is one example. As we drove toward it, the canyon was invisible. Then, all of a sudden, the earth fell away and valleys and cliffs were everywhere.

As usual, the grasses and cacti were interesting, especially to Jean:

John said some of the clefts in the rock went back into the hillside a long way:

In places, slabs of rock looked like they were still falling:

Fall colors appeared occasionally:

Hoodoos (rock chimneys) were evidence of rock that resisted erosion:

Animal life included the first-ever praying mantis that I have seen in the wild:

Evidence of other animals was around us, including this raised bench so people do not have their feet on the ground, thus making themselves susceptible to the many ants on and under the soil:

We had started our hike before 9:00 a.m. and were home in the early afternoon. I used the time to open the tandem's rear hub and I found that the circular coil spring that retains the four pawls had indeed broken. You can see it in the groove looking twisted and asymmetrical:

As mentioned earlier, Bike Friday had told me on the phone that the spring above was likely to have broken, and thus I had bought what an assistant at Carquest told me was the same part as the Napa part that Bike Friday said would work. However, the part from Carquest was too big. When I called Napa, they said they'd have one tomorrow morning.

Our plan is to get the part, fix the hub, and head on toward New Mexico.