Lately we’ve been covering very sad and depressing topics. This one is no different.

In May of 2006 Clayton Schwartz, beginner motorcyclist and avid adventurer, left for a trip of his dreams, riding Kawasaki KLR from Seattle to the south tip on South American continent. It was a trip many of us can only dream of. He was posting daily trip reports here. Sadly, his dream was cut short about a month into the trip near Acapulco, when he hit a donkey and got paralyzed from chest down.

I remember thinking back then, how does one stay positive and keep living when something like this happens? Many great racers get paralyzed but still appear happy and active. Doug Henry, Wayne Rainey, Ernesto Fonseca. The list goes on and on. The truth is that it’s probably very hard to stay positive, for the moment it may seem that the life is over.

In the beginning Clayton struggled, deeply depressed he was even talking about suicide. As time passed his life got back on the track, he even got enrolled in a law school. A week ago he took his life. Unfortunately this is not a Hollywood story.

I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done in his situation.

RIP Ozymandias!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 12:26 pm and is filed under Motorcycles, Street, Offroad, Riding, Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.