2015 Transam Trail Days 25-27

Day 25, 9/11: All is well
TAT Mile Marker: 2,962
Total Trip Miles: 4,829

I really enjoyed the off day in Capitol Reef. That park has been on my list for many years but stayed just out of my grasp. I got up early and on the road, wanting to hit the Honda shop in Richfield shortly after opening. The ride was nice but I skipped pictures in favor of maximizing my chances of successful bike repairs.

Arriving at the shop at 10am I found that my parts had arrived as expected and they would work me in as soon as they can. I was done with high elevation so I shipped some cold clothes back home, freeing up enough space in my panniers to fit more food and water for the upcoming remote sections of Nevada. The bike shop shipped that stuff home for me, saving a long walk to the post office, and I walked to McDonald’s next door to partake in the WiFi.

The bike was back together about 3pm. It turned out that the brake line was damaged and leaked fluid but they had a used bike on the lot and pulled the hose off of it to get me going. As with other motorsports places, everyone in the parking lot wanted to talk to me. They wished me luck and warned me to be safe. I was on the road at 4pm.

After spending a few hours looking at the route through Nevada I called Denise for a consult. This is the very remote area, as in easily over 50 miles from civilization for much of the time, often much farther. My hand was better, I could use it to help pick the bike up now and my rear brakes were working. My bags are showing some wear with some attach points having failed. Otherwise the gear was in good condition. I re-read several trip reports from others that rode Nevada and saw a lot of things that concerned me. Wrecks rarely resulted in serious injury but there were several bikes broken down such that others in the group had to ride to get parts. There was a lot of bikes getting stuck such that it took two guys to get it out. There were riders that were much more experienced than I am that were covering 150 miles at best, arriving in towns well after dark and making comments such as “I wouldn’t want to be here solo”. Talking through it with Denise I thought there was a very high chance that I’d have a very much un-fun time at some point. I also thought that if I showed the trip reports and maps to Dave, Brett, Pradeep, Denise and others that they’d tell me I was crazy to ride it alone. I was going to wreck a few times, I was going to get exhausted, I was maybe going to have to walk 20 miles to town for help. I do have satcom to get rescue if I need it so I wasn’t that worried about serious or fatal injury but I thought it was 75% likely I’d have some major not fun times. After talking through it together we agreed that it made sense from a safety and a funness standpoint for me to pick and choose some parts to ride so I could experience Nevada but mostly follow the trail loosely via pavement.

In that spirit I decided to go to the Great Basin National Park for the next day and then hook back up for some trail riding.

So, I took off from the dealer and hit the highway. I rode some seriously remote areas on Nevada 50, the “loneliest highway in the country”. This was some really cool terrain. The ranchers out there are scraping out a living in extremely remote, but gorgeous areas. They get to work in one of the prettiest outdoor areas a rancher could hope for, full time, all year. On the other hand, I’d look down and be 50 miles from help more often than not and see a car every hour.

As I reached the farthest western region of Utah the terrain suddenly changed to a foreign layout that I’ve never seen. There would be a tall, long, but narrow strip of mountains going north-south, then a 15 mile long flat plain. Then a mountain set, then a plan, over and over. It was very pretty but very odd.

I rode hard and arrived at the park about 9:15, well after dark. It turned out there was a stargazing festival this weekend so all but the farthest campground was full. My brother Eric and I happened across one of these by accident when we visited Bruce Canyon National Park together several years ago. What a treat but I didn’t feel like another 12 miles to camp.

The 12 mile ride took me back up to 10,000 ft near Wheeler peak. My hands were numb and I was shivering when I arrived, I circled the campground twice and found it completely full. I noted that the campground host spot was empty so I set up camp, made Chicken Teriyaki (thanks trail angel) and went to bed completely wiped out.

 

————————————–
Day 26, 9/12: Great Basin National Park
Total Trip Miles: 5,177

I was up before sunrise and it was C-O-L-D. I walk around the campground with hot chocolate (thanks trail angel) and oatmeal and started to warm up. Packed camp, on the bike and heading down to the visitor center by 7:30.

 

The aspens were turning at 9,500 feet. The way the leaves twiddle in the breeze is just plain awesome. I hadn’t seen any aspen that had turned until this morning, a nice treat.

It turns out that a mountain chain formed in this area and then the surface stretched laterally. This caused the resulting wide open plains interrupted by mountains. Or rather, mountains interrupted by long plains. Very cool, check out this link for a better picture and description. These mountains became isolated islands, much like an island in the ocean. Animal and plant life would evolve but couldn’t escape without entering the deadly desert. So, these mountains have a long list of species that are found nowhere else on earth. The coolest plant, to me, was a species of bristlecone pine that can live up to 5,000 years, then the dead timber can stand another 2,000 years. Some of the dead standing are over 7,000 years old.

I went to a couple of astronomy talks and looked through the telescopes. We could see sun spots and solar flares. I wish my mom could have been there, she would have enjoyed the entertaining and knowledgeable speakers.

I debated staying another day so I could sit through more talks and check out the stars at night but I remembered I my brother and I, while we enjoyed it, got bored pretty quickly. I went ahead and hit the road with Battle Mountain as my destination, 5 hours of riding away.

When I arrived in Ely I sat down for a rest stop and a late lunch/early dinner. I was looking at what routes I wanted to consider through the rest of Nevada and Oregon. I had been feeling worn out on off-road riding and while enjoying the scenery, I was not really looking forward to more time in the dirt. I suddenly thought “why not turn this into a coast-to-coast ride”? And then thought “Hmm, I bet Pradeep is nearly due west of here”. I checked the maps and sure thing, Pradeep was 550 miles away. A text message confirmed he was around and free. He said he’d be insulted if I didn’t come stay with him so I turned the bike west, straight across Nevada.

it was a long afternoon of riding; I landed in Fallon, NV around 9pm, maybe later and got a hotel for $55. Snacks for dinner, phone calls, long shower and tried to upload my prior blog post. For some reason my app hung and deleted the two hours of work. I rewrote it, saving a copy to email, and had the same thing happen again. A little troubleshooting later and I was getting weird database errors. So much for blogging, I’ll fix it when I get to Pradeep’s.

————————————–
Day 27, 9/13: Seeing a Friend Again
Total Trip Miles: 5,487

I had a long day of riding ahead: 300 miles including time in a busy city. I shot out early and got on the road. The flow of traffic was much faster than the 50mph I like to ride on this dirt bike. I picked up the tempo to 65mph so cars weren’t so irritated (and acting so dangerous) when they passed me. The downside is that wind resistance shoves my body backwards giving me a heck of a neck, upper back shoulder lower back and core workout. I expected warm riding but it was very cold for the first few hours. I got the pleasure of riding through heavy forest fire smoke and then enjoyed stop and go traffic jams on the interstate as I got closer to San Francisco. The scenery was mostly blocked out by smoke so I just stayed on and rode nearly nonstop until I arrived at Pradeep’s place.

 

I had a great time catching up with Pradeep again. I hadn’t seen him since he left the Raleigh Durham area 4-1/2 months ago. We had a great dinner in a nearby town and generally talked nonstop until we crashed around 11pm.

Tomorrow I’ll fix the blog and figure out what’s next for my plan. It’s 1.5 weeks until Jason arrives in Portland then a week with him, then 2 weeks home. I’m in the mood to be home more like in a week rather than in a month. But Jason timed his trip to meet up with me and redwoods are nearby as is Olympic National Park as is Yosemite as is the pacific coast highway as is…. I’ll sort it tomorrow.