TAT 2016-18 Post 15 25Jul2018

This will probably be my last post on this TAT 2018 blog, so I have several items I want to address. The original core four completed it from east coast to the west cost for a total of 5,653 miles. We did add a few additional riders for the different legs, but they now have to go ride what they missed.

TAT Summary:

As I stated several times before we started this adventure in the fall of 2015. The year before (2014) I had successfully completed my second attempt to ride a touring motorcycle from Arkansas to Alaska (plus Arctic Circle) and back. Details of my 1^st unsuccessful attempt and my 2nd successful attempt are in my other blogs if interested. I sold my big adventure bike (Yamaha Super Tenere) and was determined to never ride on interstate highways again on a motorcycle. When Steve mentioned that there was a trail across the USA that could be ridden on dirt bikes my interest again surfaced. I still loved riding motorcycles, but I was tired of having to deal with crazy car/truck drivers doing 70-80 mph.

I researched the Trans-America Trail (TAT) and was immediately hooked. During our Monday morning staff meeting at work, I threw on the table a USA road map with the TAT route and asked if anyone would like to join me in my next adventure. After some discussion, three of my co-workers said they were interested. Within 2 weeks all four of us had bought either a new our used dual sport and started the planning phase.

Since we all worked for the same company it would be impossible to leave for an extended time in one shot. We decided to break it down in sections we could accomplish in 1 or at most 2 weeks. It eventually became 4 legs:

Leg-1  Charleston, SC to Little Rock, AR – March 2016

Leg 2 Little Rock, AR to Lake City, CO – August 2016

Leg-3  Lake City, CO to Salt Lake City, UT (+ 3 days in Moab) – August 2017

Leg-4  Salt Lake City, UT to Port Orford, OR – July 2018

I’ve been asked “what is the hardest section of the TAT” and it is really hard to say but here are some of my thoughts:

·        Oklahoma mud in the pan handle is terrible and stands out as one of the worse

·        Ophir Pass in CO wasn’t much fun either. Lots of rocks and steep climbs/descents

·        During a day ride, we also had to do Stony Pass in attempt to take an easier ride back to Lake City due to mechanical problems, but it turned out to be much worse and longer than Cinnamon Pass, our original return route.

·        Ride through Appalachian Mountains only because we had some inexperienced riders and had several injuries as a result

·        Oregon Wilderness areas – lots of intersecting roads causing backtracking due to taking wrong road, fallen trees, mud slides with blocked roads, logging trucks, no fuel

That being said, these are what make it an adventure so I’m glad we made the ride for sure.

All the details for the previous 3 legs are in my other blogs so I will focus on Leg-4.

Leg-4

Our original plan was to make the 1410 miles form Ogden, UT to Port Orford, OR in 9 days. Since we were only using motels, this controlled our daily ride distance. We completed this leg in 9 days, but our actual miles ridden was 1663 miles; 250 more than planned. Most of these additional miles were caused by having to deviate from the TAT to get to the motel or as experienced on day 9, a lengthy back-track or detour caused by some issue on the trail. The chart below shows our destination for each day with the planned and actual miles ridden. BTW a 200-mile day on the TAT is long and tiring. I know lots of rider’s say they average 200 to even 300 miles a day but I really don’t know how they do it. We felt we rode at speeds that were safe (most of the time) but we also tried to finish each day before 5 or 6 pm. But we still had several 10 to 12-hour riding days. If you are camping and ride from dawn to sundown then camp, that may make the difference.

This section was not as tough as the Rocky Mountains for several reasons:

·        Peak elevation was 9,000+ but never above the timber line

·        Temperatures still got down to 30 degrees but quickly warmed up when the sun reached us

·        Trails were never as bad as some of the steep climbs/descents in the Rockies

·        It never rained on us and we only had one small water crossing

Leg-4 terrain:

·        Wide open rolling hills

·        Dusty roads (lots)

·        Winding dual-track through deep forest with huge trees right next to the road

·        Mountain climbs and descents right on the side of the mountain

·        Gravel (every verity and depth)

·        Deep Sand (some but not much) (BTW stay off Port Orford beach unless you want to push it back out. The sand next to the water is also soft)

·        Rutted roads that have hardened but covered with sand (terrible)

·        Wilderness many miles from civilization

Gear Review:

Maps/Tracks

This subject gets lots of comments both good and bad. There are basically 2 sources of TAT data:

·        Sam Correro TAT maps and GPS tracks ($) https://www.transamtrail.com/

·        GPSKevin GPS tracks (free) https://sites.google.com/site/gpskevin/adventurerides

I researched both when we started planning for our ride. I initially purchased only the eastern section maps from Sam with his GPS tracks, but I also downloaded the GPSKevin tracks. I did a pretty detailed comparison and they followed the same route in many areas, but they also deviated from each other in many other sections. GPSKevin did provide alternate routes for easy or harder riding while Sam’s did not. I finally settled on Sam’s route for several reasons even though they were a bit expensive.

·        Sam is the originator of the TAT

·        Sam’s effort to come up with the maps and GPS tracks, I felt should be recognized by paying for his products

·        Sam’s route was proven by many successful completions by TAT riders

·        Sam’s route appeared to be applicable to our type of riding; no radical trails or single track

Since I only reviewed GPSKevin’s GPS tracks on my computer, I can’t say much more about his route. I know many people use them, so they must be OK. It is up to everyone else to make up their mind which to use.

Our experience with Sam’s maps and GPS tracks for the whole TAT has been exceptionally good. He made a reroute on the eastern section that we used, and he sent me updated maps and GPS tracks for that section. We had no problem following his tracks and 99.9% of the time we had no problems. Occasionally we would come to a closed road or bridge but routing around it was not an issue.

We continued to use Sam’s GPS tracks out west. He rerouted the section that used to go through Nevada and made it go north to ID then west through OR. This is the route we used for Leg-4. He did not provide paper maps for this reroute but did provide GPS tracks. This section is the only area we had some difficulty following his GPS tracks; mostly while in the deep forest and mountains. There were so many different roads that came out of an intersection it was difficult sometimes to tell which one we were to take. We could usually tell within a mile or less, so we would backtrack and take another road.

If I were to do it all again, I would still use Sam’s maps and GPS tracks. Before I get jumped on, someone else can give a report of the GPSKevin tracks across the USA. I just rode 5600 miles of the TAT so that is on which I base my comments.

Bikes

Honda CRF250L - I did the eastern half of the USA on a 2015 Honda CRF250L dual sport with lots of modifications (see previous blogs). Woodrow also started and finished the TAT using his CRF. I sold mine to Woodrow who gave it to his son Matty to ride the western half of the TAT. This bike (with mods) did just fine on the TAT. We never carried real heavy loads through the mountains and it had enough power to get over all the passes. Both bikes eventually had leaking front forks so this s a weak area to watch. Perfect for lite riders or women but not so much for a heavyweight.

Yamaha WR250R – We had several of these on the TAT on various legs. Steve rode his WR the whole way. They are bullet-proof, and I would say it is the perfect bike for the TAT. My son is 240 lbs. and he carried massive side bags full of tools and gear and he did everything I did on a much lighter and powerful KTM. Only problem we had was on the front sprocket coming loose on one bike, but this was probably caused by whoever put the sprocket on and not a flaw of the bike.

Kawasaki KLR 650 – Two of our riders started with these for leg-1. Steve traded his for a WR250R before we started but Terry rode his for leg-1. Terry traded his for a KTM after leg-1. The problem is they are heavy compared to the CRF, WR or the KTM690 Terry replaced his with. I know lots of TAT riders swear by them and if you are camping with all the gear, this bike would probably be better than our lite bikes. Just be aware that lifting a heavy bike at 11,000 feet on a Rocky Mountain switch-back is not fun, even with the lite bikes.

KTM 350EXC-F – I replaced my CRF with this bike for the western half of the TAT. I wanted more power and a bike as lite as possible. I did shorten it by 2 ½” to make it fit me. This bike (with lots of mods) did everything I wanted. It has much more power than the CRF or the WR but is a bit more finicky with maintenance. It really is just a dirt bike with lights and not a rugged enduro bike like the KTM690; but it is lighter. It held up fine for my leg-3 and leg-4 sections which were much tougher terrain than leg-1 or leg-2.

KTM690 Enduro – Terry replaced his KLR after leg-1 with the KTM690, he loves it. This bike has mega power and can handle highway speeds with ease. It is way too tall for me, so I would have to shorten it several inches before I would want to ride it through the mountains, but Terry is tall enough to make it work. He did have some issues that are described in my Leg-4 posts, but he still says he would buy it again.

GPS

Of the 7 riders on leg-4, five of us had GPS units on our bikes. One had the Garmin 64ST and several of us had the Garmin Oregon. One had some other GPS but not sure what kind. We all used the SAM tracks on our GPS for navigation. The Oregon’s had a good 100K topo map that we used extensively to reroute and check our track. The not named GPS had 24K topo maps with much more detail. One thing to add here, we did not have paper maps with us that showed in detail the roads through the wilderness areas. Big mistake. The several times we had to reroute we had to do it with the GPS units and that is not ideal. Get paper topo maps to high definition and then you will be able to tell what type of road you are on and help with major reroutes if required. Lots of dead-end roads in the Oregon mountains.

Riding Gear

I won’t go into to name brand reviews, but I will say there was lots of “First Gear” and “Klin” riding gear. Everyone had some form of armor from imbedded in their jackets to dedicated armor with knee pads (me). Get good gear is my recommendation and wear armor, even when it’s hot. You can look at our pictures to get an idea of what everyone wore. Bring rain gear that is light. I used mine mostly for wind breaker and to help on the cold morning starts.

Temperature/Rain

We were lucky with no rain on leg-4 at all. There were many areas that we rode that I would hate to ride with it wet. We could see harden ruts on many roads that gave us an idea of what that experience would be like. Temperatures were ideal most of the time. Real early departures were cold from low 30’s but warmed up with the sun. Afternoon riding could get much warmer with 80’s to 90’s in some sections. I rode all leg-4 with summer air flow pants and shirt except for two real cold mornings. I would use my frog tog rain gear as an outer layer until it warmed up. I would recommend using multiple layers rather than a single heavy riding jacket. One thing I had that I really liked was a fleece vest that I would wear on cold mornings. If you are riding the complete TAT in one ride, then you must plan for both real cold and real hot riding which means carrying a lot more gear; sorry.

Safety Gear

I carried a SPOT and Satellite Phone on this leg. I like being prepared and this gave us a way to get help for broken bikes or people. Most I’m sure don’t include this in their gear, but you must consider how you will handle an emergency while in some remote locations. A SPOT is low cost insurance and we used it to provide a real-time track of our progress, so our family and friends could participate in our adventure.

I also carried a first-aid kit to include a trauma kit for excessive bleeding. Flashlights and batteries are also important gear to have with you. A 50’ rope or strap is necessary for many reasons such as a bike sliding off the trail. Tools and flat repair kit are mandatory.

Intercom

I highly recommend having intercom capability for multi-rider trips (even just 2 riders). It allowed us to navigate better and enjoy the ride sharing sightings of terrain and animals. We did legs 1 thru 3 using the Sena Bluetooth only intercom. They worked ok for 2 or 3 riders but not for more than that. On leg-4 we all used the Sena 30K intercom that was not Bluetooth (Mesh) and they worked fantastic. They still only have line-of-sight capability, but they reconnect automatically plus the battery life was acceptable. We found that if we stopped for lunch or a break we would hook the Sena’s up to external battery pack for 20 minutes and they would last several more hours. I would take a small battery back-up and just have a long cord to hook to the Sena from you tank bag. Several used this with good success.

Cost

We had 7 riders with motels and airline flights, 1 support truck with driver and a shuttle van with driver at the end. This is all explained in my previous blog but all of this for leg-4 cost each of the 7 riders around $1600. That’s a very reasonable cost for the quality of ride we had, and the amazing support provided.

I think that about does it for my TAT adventure. I had a wonderful time with some good friends and my son. Not sure what I will do next but I’m sure I’ll write a blog about it in the future.

Ride safe!