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