I recently rode the Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route with a couple of friends. This 1,000 mile journey across the back roads of Oregon was an adventure full of delightful encounters with wildlife, challenging riding and numerous mishaps along the trail. The most serious for me was an unexpected branch sticking out of the brush that caught my pannier and sent me spinning. After recovering from a short dirt nap I realized what had happened when I saw the end of the branch protruding from my pannier.
Luckily, I was relatively unscathed from the incident and got a cool picture of the damaged box which made it into an Overland Expo monthly newsletter column: Overland Expo Hard Luggage or Soft?