Thursday, August 27, 2015

TAT-2016 Post 3

TAT-2016 Post 3 – 27 Aug 2015

My wife and I spent last week on a driving vacation (and lots of walking); 3500 miles in 9 days. We went to the following:

1               Bad Lands, SD
2               Black Hills, SD
3               Mt Rushmore, SD
4               Wind Cave, SD (did I mention I have claustrophobia?)
5               Deadwood, SD
6               Sturgis, SD
7               Devils Tower, WY
8               Big Horn National Forest, WY
9               Yellowstone, WY (stayed in lodge within spitting distance from Ole Faithfull)
10           Grand Tetons, WY

BTW – On our return trip we went through Rawlins, WY and then followed the same path back home I took on my AK2 trip; see www.rvrrunner-017.blogspot.com. The wind is still blowing 35+ mph in Kansas and the scenery hasn’t improved one bit. Rawlins, WY was also the end of our AK2 first days ride that met the Iron Butt requirement; St Louis to Rawlins, WY, 1037 miles in 16 ½ hours. Never again.

We had lots of places we wanted to see in a short amount of time but had a great vacation. Now I can concentrate on TAT-2016.

Things are moving even faster now with a few key developments. It is amazing how quickly the core team has jumped into this adventure.

As stated in Post-1, Terry and I both bought new bikes for the ride several weeks ago. Steve bought a used KLR650 from John, who now wants to hook up with us on the AR to CO leg. Woodrow bought a new CRF250L last week (more on his learning experience later). So in summary we all have bikes for the trip:

Mike – CRF250L
Terry – KLR650
Steve – KLR650
Woodrow – CRF250L
John – He has a Kawasaki 250 but not sure of model

I ordered and received while on vacation a complete set of maps and roll charts from the official TAT home page this week. There are 91 different items in the package and is very complete and impressive. This package starts in Eastern Tenn. and ends on the Pacific coast of Oregon.

Our team, group, mob, flock had our first planning meeting a few days ago. We can’t decide what to call ourselves – if you have any good ideas please send them to me. We discussed the overall scope of the trip and some of the items we must define. We all agreed on some key points:

1               We four are the core group and no matter who else joins in the future, only we four will make the decisions relating to the trip.
2               A majority vote will decide any issue. In case of a tie we will attempt to reach a compromise that is satisfactory to all four voting riders. If we can’t reach a compromise then it’s every man for himself!
3               No rider will be sent off alone for any reason unless close to civilization and only if deemed safe.
4               We will motel at all stops unless forced to spend the night on the trail which means we will have to carry the bare minimum camping gear; i.e. space blanket, fire starter, etc. This will be more of an issue once we hit the Rocky Mountains but no spooning is allowed.
5               Everyone needs to carry adequate water in a camelback or some other means. It will be hot on some of the stretches.
6               Everyone needs to wear a helmet, boots and armored riding jacket, preferably one made for hot weather riding for Leg 1 and 2. No shorts or flip/flops allowed on the bike.
7               Rain gear is a must; light weight for Leg 1 and 2.
8               Since we have several similar bikes we will split up the tools and spare parts among the riders so we don’t carry duplicate items.
9               Fuel capacity is an issue that must be evaluated. The two CRF250Ls only have a 2 gal tank (72 mpg) while the KLR650s have 6 gal tanks. I will be carrying an extra 1 gal in a Rotopax tank but we will have to watch our fuel consumption closely. Once again this is more of an issue on Leg 2 and once we hit the Rocky Mountains.
10           A days ride will average 200 miles where possible.

Route – This has been and will continue to be the most talked about item in the planning phase. My original concept was to follow exactly the route from Eastern Tenn. to the Oregon coast. After lots of discussion, we have decided to try and plot a route to include the stretch between the East coast and the TAT. After a bit of searching we found a web page by a guy called GPSKevin who has posted the complete GPS route from East to West coasts. A good portion of it follows the route on the maps I have already purchased but it also includes spurs to Cape Hatteras, NC, New York City, NY and Las Angeles, CA.

I downloaded from GPSKevin’s web page these route segments into my laptop Garmin Base Camp program and then uploaded the segments into my Garmin GPSMap 64ST GPS. Everything works great. The chart below shows the segments or sections as they are called by GPSKevin (does not include NYC or LA spurs):



Section
Miles
Total
Start
Finish
Leg Miles
1
131
131
Cape Hatteras, NC
Stella, NC

2
111
242
Stella, NC
Newton Grove, NC

3
98
340
Newton Grove, NC
Candor, NC

4
105
445
Candor, NC
Statesville, NC

5
125
570
Statesville, NC
Bakersville, NC

6
107
677
Bakersville, NC
Maggie Valley, NC

7
96
773
Maggie Valley, NC
Deals Gap, NC

8
103
876
Deals Gap, NC
Charleston, TN

9
111
987
Charleston, TN
Pelham, TN

10
119
1106
Pelham, TN
Goodspring, TN

11
96
1202
Goodspring, TN
Counce, TN

12
96
1298
Counce, TN
Ripley, MS

13
127
1425
Ripley, MS
Tillatoba, MS

14
66
1491
Tillatoba, MS
Crenshaw, MS

15
65
1556
Crenshaw, MS
Marvell, AR

16
98
1654
Marvell, AR
Beebe, AR
1654
17
129
1783
Beebe, AR
Hector, AR

18
68
1851
Hector, AR
Ozark, AR

19
110
1961
Ozark, AR
Lincoln, AR

20
95
2056
Lincoln, AR
Adair, OK

21
75
2131
Adair, OK
Dewey, OK

22
91
2222
Dewey, OK
Newkirk, OK

23
109
2331
Newkirk, OK
Alva, OK

24
87
2418
Alva, OK
Buffalo, OK

25
104
2522
Buffalo, OK
Liberal, KS

26
117
2639
Liberal, KS
Boise, OK

27
153
2792
Boise, OK
Trinidad, CO
1138
28
72
2864
Trinidad, CO
La Veta, CO

29
104
2968
La Veta, CO
Westcliffe, CO

30
116
3084
Westcliffe, CO
Sargents, CO

31
93
3177
Sargents, CO
Lake City, CO

32
155
3332
Lake City, CO
Dove Creek, CO

33
137
3469
Dove Creek, CO
Moab, UT

34
71
3540
Moab, UT
Green River, UT

35
91
3631
Green River, UT
Emery, UT

36
141
3772
Emery, UT
Kanosh, UT

37
125
3897
Kanosh, UT
Baker, NV

38
118
4015
Baker, NV
Lund, NV

39
92
4107
Lund, NV
Eureka, NV

40
131
4238
Eureka, NV
Battle Mountain, NV

41
149
4387
Battle Mountain, NV
McDermitt, NV

42
82
4469
McDermitt, NV
Fields, OR

43
126
4595
Fields, OR
Cedarville, CA

44
67
4662
Cedarville, CA
Lakeview, OR

45
120
4782
Lakeview, OR
Silver Lake, OR

46
66
4848
Silver Lake, OR
Crescent, OR

47
74
4922
Crescent, OR
Dry Creek Store, OR

48
132
5054
Dry Creek Store, OR
Glendale, OR

49
114
5168
Glendale, OR
Port Orford, OR
2376

We all agreed that we should be able to do Leg 1 of 1654 miles (section 1 thru 16 above) in at least 9 days. This would be pushing it since that requires an average of 200 miles a day including some mountain areas out East.

Our next consideration was how to do the shuttle to the starting point. We considered several options:
1               U-Haul truck to start on East coast with some riders in truck and some flying to the start point
2               Start at Beebe, AR and ride East to coast then U-Haul back to AR with some riders in truck and some flying
3               Ship all bikes to East coast and all riders fly to start point

We all agreed that the best approach would be to use a U-Haul to take the bikes to the East Coast start with one or more riders flying out to the start. This brought up the issue with where to store the bikes on the East coast until all riders arrive. Not an issue if it all happens in a short time but Woodrow brought up another idea. He has family in Charleston, SC and if we started from there, he would take the U-Haul out a week or more before the start, store the bikes at relative’s house, fly back to AR and then we could all fly out with some flexibility on the actual start date based on weather and job requirements (remember we all work for the same place and the boss is a little nervous about all of us leaving at the same time).

Steve researched a possible spur from the TAT route to Charleston, SC and the following chart represents this change to the total trip:

Section
Miles
Total
Start
Finish
Leg Miles
1
240
240
Charleston, SC
Clemson, SC

2
130
370
Clemson, SC
Deals Gap, NC

8
103
473
Deals Gap, NC
Charleston, TN

9
111
584
Charleston, TN
Pelham, TN

10
119
703
Pelham, TN
Goodspring, TN

11
96
799
Goodspring, TN
Counce, TN

12
96
895
Counce, TN
Ripley, MS

13
127
1022
Ripley, MS
Tillatoba, MS

14
66
1088
Tillatoba, MS
Crenshaw, MS

15
65
1153
Crenshaw, MS
Marvell, AR

16
98
1251
Marvell, AR
Beebe, AR
1251
17
129
1380
Beebe, AR
Hector, AR

18
68
1448
Hector, AR
Ozark, AR

19
110
1558
Ozark, AR
Lincoln, AR

20
95
1653
Lincoln, AR
Adair, OK

21
75
1728
Adair, OK
Dewey, OK

22
91
1819
Dewey, OK
Newkirk, OK

23
109
1928
Newkirk, OK
Alva, OK

24
87
2015
Alva, OK
Buffalo, OK

25
104
2119
Buffalo, OK
Liberal, KS

26
117
2236
Liberal, KS
Boise, OK

27
153
2389
Boise, OK
Trinidad, CO
1138

This change to the TAT route reduces Leg 1 by 400 miles (now 1251 miles) and is much easier to accomplish in the 9 days we have planned. So our current plan is to do sections 1 through 16 sometime in March 2016. Woodrow will take the bikes out several weeks prior to the start date in a U-Haul truck and store them in a relative’s garage. He will return to AR until we all fly out on a Friday evening to Charleston, SC. We will launch on a Saturday and be in Beebe, AR within 9 days; S-S-M-T-W-T-F-S-S.

Some items we still need to determine are cost for the above plan. We all agreed that we would split the cost of the U-Haul truck and Woodrow’s return flight to AR. We would then cover our own flight out to Charleston, SC.

We will make detailed plans for Leg 2 (Sections 17 thru 27) after we complete Leg 1. We hope to do Leg 2 later in the year (2016) and then attack Leg 3 (Sections 28 thru 49) in 2017. Legs 1 and 2 will weed out anyone not wanting to attempt the more difficult Leg 3.

Woodrow’s learning experience – As I stated in an earlier post Woodrow is our least experienced rider meaning he has no experience at all. I received several comments stating that it isn’t very smart letting someone with no experience go on this ride but we have all discussed this in-depth with him and we have 6 months to get him some dirt time and feel he’s up to the challenge. While I was on vacation last week, Steve took him out to get some round the parking lot instruction to get used to the gears and basic riding techniques. He is picking it up quickly but still has lots to learn. On his own he took the bike out for a ride in some empty lots close to his house. As he was riding (slowly) up a small hill he got to the top where a street and curb was in his path. He got too slow in too high a gear and the bike stopped moving forward. It then started moving sideways due to gravity and he and the bike fell over. He said he was lying on the ground and noticed a piece of metal rolling past his face on the pavement. All he could think was that he just broke a piece off his bike but didn’t know if it was an important piece or not! He wasn’t hurt although his new bike was missing some part (yet to be determined) and the side panels had some scratches on them. He also noticed an older lady (grandma type) and young boy (approximately 7 years old) walking on the sidewalk across the street; both watching him. As they walked away he heard the grandma say to her grandson “see Johnny, even grown-ups fall off their bikes occasionally”. Woodrow provided an excellent learning experience for that young man, I’m sure.

Woodrow recalled the video he had watched on how to lift a big motorcycle so he turned his back to the bike, grabbed hold of the bike with both hands and lifted with his legs not his back. He said afterwards that the bike was so light he could have lifted it like a bicycle but form and technique is important to learn correctly.

After inspecting the bike and not being able to find where the recently ejected piece of metal came from, he decided to ride it back to the garage. He turned the key, started the engine (all normal), pulled the clutch; wait a minute, the clutch handle feels different. It feels a little shorter than before. The mystery is solved, the piece of metal in his hand fits perfectly to the end of his clutch handle but everything is still functioning so he rides on home. At staff meeting on Monday, Woodrow came in and rolled the end of his clutch handle across the table to the other three members of the group and said he has baptized his new bike.

 

Our first group ride is this coming Saturday at Ott Park in North Little Rock and we will be doing some easier dirt roads, single track, a little sand and even some mud if it stays wet for a few more days. We are also planning a long day’s ride from the Big Piney River area (Hwy 7 North of Russellville) to Hwy 5 by Greer’s Ferry. This is actually a section of the TAT in Leg 3 but will be good practice for what’s to come. There will be many more rides in the next 6 months in preparing the group for the big launch.

I’ve already started adding more equipment onto my ride:

1               Two RAM Mounts for my GPS and SPOT and I have a third one for my GoPro or the roll chart reader (haven’t decided yet).
2               Rear rack that also has plate for my Rotopax mount and extra 1 gal fuel tank.



I’ve ordered and expect to arrive any day, 30mm risers for my handlebars to make it easier to stand and ride through the rough stuff. I have also ordered a skid-plate and radiator protective grill. Still need to order hand guards that appear very necessary after seeing what happened to Woodrow’s bike when his was dropped.

That’s all for now but will post again as we make more definite plans for TAT-2016.


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