Back in Blighty

Hi !!

I arrived back in Blighty last Wednesday after a rather sneaky airline tactic - I thought the aircraft wouldn't be particularly full flying out of America on Sept 11th ! I was right - I had 3 seats to myself for the long haul back to the UK :-)

As you may have noticed from the blog entries and photos - I had a great adventure on the Trans-America-Trail - great company, great scenery, great people, and truely great experience.

The highlights ? Well, it is very difficult to say - there were so many great experiences, but if had to, I guess the highlights would be surprising the wildlife (espec the black bear, brown bear and mountain lion), playing silly beggars with the aeroplane and riding over the 14,000 ft trails in Colorado.

Summaries from the trip are:
    photos
    GoogleEarth Track [3Mb] (get GoogleEarth)

The overview map of the trip:


   
So, what next ?
Well, I'm a lucky little sod - I'm off to Romania on Friday for a weeks trail riding - I wonder if Dracula is in residence....

Russ

Cactus attack !!!

05:30 the alarm was set for this morning !!

Trail riding in Arizona is best done at sunrise, when there is some hope that the temperature is below 100F!

A bunch of Phils friends turned up for a 40 mile single track loop in the desert (and forest - but I wouldn't confuse the English readers by mentioning forest, as I saw the 'forest' sign , but I didn;t see any trees!!)

It transpired that the guys are all motocross/enduro racers - at expert level. I managed to keep their dust in sight (some may say binoculars were required for this !) for the first part of the loop, but towards the end, I was completely knackered and unable to ride even vaguely properly !
Even the scenery had it in for me - a cactus jumped out and tried to attack my arm. I rode a bit further with my new friend, but with every bump the cactus spikes moved in my arm causing more extreme pain (wuss!!)

The reaction is to try to pull the things out - even tho' common sense tells you not to. Phil took pity, and pulled the main parts off me with the use of 2 sticks. Even in the swimming pool an hour later, I was still picking the spikes out !!

Absolutely great fun and a fab ride.

Phil sizes up a cactus;


The trail heads up towards the rocks..


From here you can see the trail zigzag on the left side of the photo;

The long drive back...

The long drive back from Oregon to Arizona is going to be a 3 day affair (just to lighten the load).
The first 100-odd miles were down the pacific highway, which offered great views of the Pacific Ocean - I love the way the forest reaches down to the shoreline.


We then crossed over a mountain range (dunno which one - but it was fab (well the road was nice and twisty :-) ) ), and headed for Fresno, where Phil was meeting up with the plane to head to Texas.

After an overnighter shacked up in a Super8 motel, and an early 03:00 drop-off at the airfield, I set off for Vegas.

On route I passed one hell of a windfarm;


I guess it's green energy - but it's a bloody eyesore!

Finally in Nevada, I pulled over at Primm for a quick break, and came across the paddock for a desert race
that is taking place this weekend.

Even the local gentry had entered in the family roller;


Right I'm off to the Casino to spend my launderette tokens that somehow never got spent ;-)

Day 25 - the PACIFIC OCEAN

The Final day - the Oregon Hills - do those clouds look ominious to you ?

Rather than ride 15 miles down the highway, we drove the truck, and then attempted to find somewhere to park up - we located a great little grocery store in Fortune Branch where the owners very kindly allowed us to park in their lot;

 

As we had 144 miles to do, and some past reports over the last couple of years indicated that the trail was impassable - requiring a lengthy reroute, we finally sorted out the fuel carrying on the KTM (pity we hadn't done this days ago !!)

 

Whilst tuning the bikes (ok, patching them up!), Don appeared to chat; (he was later to text us a particularly accurate weather report later in the day)

 

It was only earlier in the morning - and 'Phil from the desert' was already whining about the cold - I thought it was just like trail riding in Wales;

 

Whilst pulled over at the end of a trail section, we bumped into Ellis and his partner who were camping in the area - he gave us a heads-up on the status of trail riding in Oregon;

 

We then climbed higher into the Oregon forestry;

which offered us some great views into the valley, and over the clouds

 

All to soon, we climbed up into the clouds - we rode along one particular ridge for half a mile or so, and all that was beneath us on either side was tree-tops and a sea of cloud. What a shame, the view must be awesome on a good day.

 

All to soon, the rain started, and got heavier, and heavier. With 140 miles of forest, we refuelled under a tree;

 

On route through the misty forest, I rounded one bend to be confonted by what appeared the be the rear-ends of 3 horses, as they dashed into the forest, I realised that they were Elk - awesome !

 

We sloshed through some interesting (and slippery) ATV trails for another hour or so, until we finally descended beneath the cloud, and into sunlight;

Here's Phil trying to muster a 'thumbs-up', but is too wet to do so :-)

 

Totally sodden, and with the wind chilling us to the bone, we tracked onto a more direct gravel trail to the coast. With the dust finally damped for the first time in 4800 miles - Phil was finally able to ride right on my tail - which made for a great chase down the mountains, on the twisty gravel trails.

 

Finally we arrived at the Pacific - Hooray !!!

 

Oregon has been unbelievable - over 500 miles of forestry trails - superb!

 

After checking into a cliffside motel, we headed over to a local diner for lunch - ordering anything hot - soup, hot chocolate, pasta - anything to try to warm up.

 

After lunch (a late lunch -4pm), I left Phil at the motel, and I got back on the XR to ride the 135 miles on the highway back to the truck - and then drove the 135 miles back to the motel.

 

By the time I arrived (10pm) Phil had already dressed up in his party outfit;

(Apperently he had been to the only shop in town (the grocery store) that stocked clothes, so that he had something dry to wear.)

 

Links

As usual,
all the photos are on flickr
and the track is kindly being updated by Marcus

Day 24 LaPine to Canyonville (Oregon)

We spent last night sleeping in the truck, pretty much in the middle of nowhere (well Diamond Lake) so we had a great view of the stars in the sky, due to the lack of cloud, and more importantly, light pollution.

Last night was the first time I'd been hoping NOT to see any wildlife !!

We only had a 100 miles to complete before the first fuel station (and first sign of civilisation), which was lucky as the fuel can for the KTM had suffered from the being thrown from the bike one too may times!!

So, off we set, on easy gravel roads that twisted through the National Forest. After maybe an hour, I spotted an airfield on the GPS, so we diverted to check it out;


It was quite an odd site, carved into the middle of the forest - with no sign of life.


So, I attempted a grass landing;


At the airstrip, this tickled me - how on earth the pilot can spot the windsock is one thing, but being so close to the trees renders it pretty useless;

The gravel roads continued to wind through the forest, offering great views;


We were soon to come across another road closed sign , but continued. It quickly became clear why the road was closed - trees down everywhere;


We crossed the first 10 or so trees, with varying style;


A few hundred yards further on there were some HUGE trenches that had been dug - presumably to stop people going down the road. So we continued;



After riding, pushing, lifting and dragging the bikes over trees, through trenches for an hour, we had only covered a mile. I walked on, and in the next 100yds I counted 18 trees over 1.5 foot in diamater criss-crossing the trail. The trail continued for another 2 miles, and we were losing time, and wasting fuel, so we turned back :-(

The return journey was a little easier, until the KTM refused to start at the bottom of one of the trenches, After repeated attempts, the battery gave up - and there was no kickstart. There was no way we could push the bike out of the trench, as it was too steep and slippery, and was probably 3metres deep !
Out came the trusty fuel straps - this enabled us to push and pull the bike (on it's side) out of the trench.

Once we got our breath back, we had the small task of starting the bike - we had to push start it. This would normally be easy, but we were inbetween a deep trench and a fallen tree, and the trail resembled a ploughed field, filled with boulders !

We tried pushing but no good. The strap came out again, and we managed to bump start it by towing it behind the XR.

The remainder of the route was uneventful, and we stopped at Tiller for fuel and lunch. Tiller had one shop, with a single fuel pump.

Over a burger, we chatted to this hunter, who was out sleeping in the wild after some deer - hopefully (for him, not the the deer), the 23rd out of the 28 big game in North America for him. He was hunting with bow and arrow, and had been out for the last 2 weeks hunting this one animal. I asked what was his trophy to date - the answer - a polar bear, with an arrow !


After lunch, I then back tracked 80 miles on gravel and twisty tarmac, back to the truck, whilst Phil continued 20 miles to get a motel in Canyonville.

I then had a great drive in the trailer and truck through some great twisty roads, with fantastic scenery - until I got held up by a biker on a Harley Davidson. I sat behind him on some fab roads, with the 'Country and Western' blaring on the CD player, without getting any kind of road rage. Am I becoming American ??

So.
Tomorrow, should be the final day - but it is 144 miles to the coast, and the road route to collect the truck is even further. So there will have to be some careful planning tonight...

Day 23 Lakeview to LaPine (Oregon)

There is just Phil and I left - and as such, the support truck (for the first time) becomes a pain: there's no-one to drive it!

We drove the truck to LaPine, and the plan was to ride the bikes back the 150 miles down the road to Lakeview and start the trail from there!
The first hurdle was finding accommodation in LaPine - it's Labour Day weekend - some sort of Bank Holiday.
After trying all the motels in the area, we sat on the trailer tailgate in a fuel station forecourt pondering our options. We decided that we would sleep in the truck, but we still needed internet access - so the plan was, to head back to the Best Western motel - and that I (being recognisable with my 'quaint' accent (although Phil and his brother have been telling people "it's not a speech impediment - it's an accent")) would see if we could use their internet access.
Result - the receptionist remembered us, and told us there had been a cancellation!!

So, early in the morning (6am) we strapped the 6 gallons of fuel onto the bikes, and set off on the road to Lakeview - and boy was it cold - brrrrrr.

Once in Lakeview - after a 3 hour ride, we joined the trail - it started as gravel road, but turned to untouched trail;



Whilst Phil was (again) retying his fuel can back to the bike - I met up with these 2 guys, who were filling their water jugs from a spring - they had been using the same spring (when on vacation) for the last 25 years.



As has been customary so far, we came across another road closed, and again continued through - although my little short legs let me down on this one:



The trail then turned onto a disused railroad line for 15 or so miles, which was great. Long sweeping gravel turns all on an embankment several meters above the forest floor.

We had found out that the fuel station at Silver Lake closed at 3pm today (sunday) so we were racing to make it on time (if you remember, we have fuel range issues!!).
Things were going well, until the trail turned to this;



The rocks got more and more frequent - it was like riding a ploughed field for the next 5 or so miles - except the rocks weren't as forgiving !

We reached SilverLake an hour late - and there was no sign of anyone.

Phil wanted to keep going, but I'd been told stories by many people, that Phil is notorious for running out of fuel. We had 50 miles by road back to LaPine - we emptied the cans into the KTM (filling it), and put the remaining litre (quart) into the XR.
The KTM has a 50 mile range - so made it back (just), and the XR crawled into the parking lot after 15 miles on reserve!!

It was 7pm, and we had to move on, so we packed up the bikes and headed to Diamond Lake where we would sleep in the truck, ready for the next day. (we will miss out 40 miles of trail - but so be it !!)

Day 22 Aeroplane rendezvous

Today was another day off (!!)
We needed to do some planning as to how we progress - the KTM 450 has a tank range of 50 miles - and we need to complete 150 between gas stations !
Also, Caroline needed to meet up with the aeroplane, to fly back to Arizona.

We located an airfield near to Paisely - this was the best kept, most remote air field I've seen.
Phil was to be the air traffic controller for the day;



But first, he had to limber up;


Once the plane had arrived, we had a little fun;


So, now there is just Phil and I, and a support truck !!
We've just stocked up on fuel cans, and aim to carry 6 extra gallons of fuel on the bikes - so fingers crossed....

TransAmTrail - Caroline, having fun in the truck - not able to ride :-(

Well my week is nearly up and I fly out today, so I thought I would give a quick summary of the support truck bit.

Having had a good laugh with Randon & Margie in the support truck, with Margie showing me how to join in the American way of "Start talking to everyone, you never know who you will meet!" which definitely works! And making the obligatory visit to the medical centre



Why is is every time we have riden with Phil we have checked out the local A&E!

I dropped Margie & Randon off at the airport to fly back in Phil's shiny new Columbia 400



Then I took charge of the support truck.
So any of this black paved area we can drive on right?



We made Battle mountain with out much incident. And then set off for Denio Junction. Theoretically this was the half way mark of another attempt at doubling up days. I arrived at 11am and spent all day getting to know all the people in the area. I met the chef Bob, his cousin who is visiting, the bar man Geoff, and most of the mining community - I was even given some molybdenem.

After about 2 hours Bob came out of the bar with the phone saying it was for me - I was not sure who was more surprised, him or me. Teresa had somehow managed to track me down to let me know Phil had done a little damage to the back tyre!

I then raced back to McDermitt, switched Phil's bike & then drove back to Denio to continue chatting with everyone. I drove 110 mile & they only rode 50, but it took them over 3 hours, they only had 1/2 hr before it got dark. Russ keeps denying it but they did get lost!



Especially thanks to Geof who saved the last room for us when someone called for a room that night!

So then we figured doubling up days was jinksing us, so we'd just get to Lake View & plan from there.

Now Phil was on his KTM 450, he only had a theoretical 70 mile range.
I got to the first meeting point & had some time to kill so I took a picture of a beetle.



Then I saw some donkeys so I then took a walk to take pictures of them.



Then we planned to meet on highway 34. So I set off. I then had to wait 30 minutes at some road works but met up with Darryl Holland, who we had met the night before at Denio. I made Adel but there was no highway 34 sign and the GPS map only went to the N7 as Nevada border so I could not confirm the road, but it looked correct and Darryl pulled over & confirmed the road was highway 34 so off I went.

Unfortunately  highway 34 went off right shortly after - onto the dirt track. I eventually got to the end of the pavement and & Phil had made it clear he did not want the truck on the dirt road (I don't blame him - it is like the catapillar tracks on ice when skiing!!) I figured they had to have fuel so I found an alternative;



Sorry Steve (it's his bike!)
I figured it was only a gravel track so would be easy going. 300m later it started raining. After about 4 miles l I stopped to check the GPS track - looking good. After another 4 I ran out of fuel. Obviously not totally as I had 5 gallons on the back! So check the track, realised it was not right. I was about 1 mile too far east!
Luckily there was a rock I could conveniently rest the bike against to refuel - what is so wrong with a side stand!!

1 mile further on the fuel can fell off! My rush job in the rain had't worked! This time I had no place to rest the bike but I was determined it wouldn't fall off again so propped it up on my leg while I grappled with the tank & strap - in the rain! Eventually it was solid like the first time so I set off.

As I was 1 mile east of the meeting place (1 mile across a mountain !!) I decided to return to the truck.

On my way back to the highway I met the very friendly farmer (Dennis) who lent me phone, to call Teresa & Phil to leave a message before continuing. I now realised the guys would be way ahead of me with no fuel & wondering where the hell I was.

Then, in the middle of nowhere, at the side of the track I saw Phil asleep by his bike - Russ had pooled together the remaining fuel, and gone to town (35 miles away) to get fuel.

So we thought we would have a BBQ. Phil tried for  15 minutes to try to light a piece of paper with the car cigarette lighter - he even put petrol on it! We  then flagged down the a passing car who kindly left us his matches so we could have lunch.

After a bite to eat, and catch up on gossip, the guys headed back to the trail to get to Oregon (70 miles), and I headed to the highway to get to Lakeview for the night.
On the way back to the highway there was a herd of antelope. Very conveniently they were just before a lay by, even the wildlife here considers where you need to park.

See you back in England - Caroline

Day 21 Into Oregon, and more problems !!!

After the problems of the previous day, we decided to stop attempting to double up (and you thought we had lost the plot!!).
Doug set off on his way, and we tidied the truck and trailer, and had a good cooked breakfast at Denio Junction:




We had 185 miles to get from Denio, through California, and into Oregon - but Phil was on the small KTM, and it only had a very small tank range - we though 70 miles ! So the 2 gallon tank was strapped onto the XR again, the trails tightened into dual and single track.



After bumping around for a while, the 2 gallon tank slipped off again, this time puncturing. So we put the remaining fuel into the 2 bikes, and set off to the first refuelling point (a roadside meet with Caroline).
We got there ok, and decided to try to meet every 50 miles !, and carry a one gallon tank in a rucksack !

After about 30 miles, we caught Doug up on the trail - he had suffered a cracked subframe so we decided we would ride with him to the meeting point so that he would be able to unload his luggage into the truck , and seek a welder !

The mountain trail lead down to the meeting point on the edge of a salt lake;


Unfortunately , Caroline wasn't there. So we headed North on the graded road (the direction she would have come from), after a few miles the KTM ran out of fuel (about 55 miles - so a great tank range then !!). It was refuelled with the 1 gallon tank - and we continued to Adel. I was sure Caroline would be there - she only had about 70 miles to do on the road. We reached the end of the road - which was road 35 in Nevada, unfortunately, as the road entered Oregon - they had changed the road number to 315 - I was unsure how Caroline would find this - she was looking for road 35 !!

Phil stayed at the end of the 35/315, and I went to Adel, which was the turn off point from the main road. It also had a gas station - which was closed until Tuesday -as the fair was in town !!!

The nearest fuel station was in Lakeview 35 miles away.
So, after ensuring Phil would remain at the end of the 35/315, incase Caroline turned up, I set off for fuel. I left Phil with my rain jacket, as the a desert storm was brewing - as it happened it did rain, but I escpaed it by being on the other side of the hills, heading for fuel :-)

When I got to Lakeview, I phoned Teresa (our helpdesk :-) ), and it transpired that Caroline had indeed missed the (badly numbered) junction, and had had her own adventure, but had managed to find a local rancher, who lent her his phone. She left a message that she would remain at Adel until 4:30 then head to Lakeview.

WIth this positive info, I refuelled, and headed back to Adel. She wasn't at Adel, so I turned off in search of Phil. When I got there, I found the 2 of them having a BBQ !!


After a few exchanges of stories from the day, we set off to complete the final 70 miles to Lakeview - 30 miles to Fort Bidwell, California by road  and then 40 through the forests.

Wary of the tiny fuel range (55 miles) of the KTM, we took the gallon tank and headed off to Fort Bidwell - entering California on the way;


Arriving at Fort Bidwell, we found the gas station - closed !


We transferred the fuel from the one gallon tank and headed to Lakeview - some beautiful trails through the forests, and we finally met up in Lakeview - WITHOUT any further issues !!