TAT-2016 Post 30 – Tuesday, 22 March 2016 (TAT Day-6)

Black line was our ride (1431 miles), red is section we bypassed and will go back to ride this summer.

I’m really writing this on Wednesday 23 Mar the day after we arrived home for several reasons. I pulled into my driveway around 2 pm after a very tiring and in a few instances very scary day (more on that later). We three remaining riders all separated as we pulled into town to head to our own homes and some much needed rest. As I arrived home I realized I did not have a key to the house and my wife would not be home from work for several hours. It was one of those things I meant to take care of before I left but forgot. I unloaded the bike and put the gear on the back porch and rode my very dirty bike to Barnes & Noble to have an iced coffee and planned on writing my blog while waiting for my wife to get home. I just couldn’t do it, too tired. I finally rode back home and was falling asleep setting on the front porch when my wife came home early. I then find out we had a club meeting to attend that evening and all our friends want to see me since many had been following the trip on-line. I was in bed by 9 pm. Long story to say sorry I didn’t post last night.

Now for the trip report. After an evening of food and drink at a restaurant close to our hotel, we decided to ride south the next morning to pick up the TAT at Helena, AR and complete the eastern half of the AR TAT which would put us within striking distance of home. Over the previous months while planning for this ride we had ridden several sections of the AR TAT up to Hazen, AR. This would be today’s destination and then a straight 50 mile ride on back roads to Little Rock. Because we would be riding south away for the heavy Memphis traffic, we left shortly after sunrise.

It was forecasted to be cold (40’s) until around noon with strong southerly winds (15-25 mph with gust over 30 mph). This made the long boring 60 mile ride south pretty miserable. It is flat with nothing to stop the wind in the Mississippi River Delta region. We finally made it to the bridge across the Mississippi River at Helena and picked up the track for the TAT. We were quickly taken into the many back country roads that make up a good portion of the eastern half of Arkansas. The roads were mostly gravel (90%) and in a lot of places pretty deep gravel. Average speed was 20 to 30 mph and many times less. A couple of roads were packed sand with soft sand spots so you always had to be prepared. One of the scary incidents today was a 200 yard section of road that looked like it had recently been plowed. It was really just soft dirt clumps and the only good thing was a single car had ridden in it so we tried to keep our bikes in the tire track. We all came close to dropping our bikes numerous times on this short road from hell.

The previous week it had rained extremely hard in this area and we saw water up to the edge of the road in many areas. It was obvious that the roads had been flooded last week but for the most part were dry now except for two areas. The first water crossing was not too difficult and the water only about 8” deep. The second one was significantly more difficult. It was really a large mud hole with bayou on both sides. We walked in and around this hole looking for firm ground to take the bikes. We even talked about backtracking around this spot but decided to walk the bikes through the best spot. Terry took the heavy KLR650 first with Woodrow and me on the back holding it up when he hit soft mud. We made it ok then took Woodrow’s CRF250L with a couple of us providing extra support. On the way back across to get my CRF I discovered some firm ground in the middle but under the water. I was able to walk my bike across by myself but with Woodrow ready to help if needed. No other water was encountered.

A short time after entering Arkansas we were riding down one of the many gravel roads and came upon a hand painted sign that said “TAT Rest Stop ¾ mile ahead, Stop and sign our book”. That may have not been the exact words but you get the idea. We did stop and had a very pleasant time visiting with the two gentlemen that ran this rest stop. They said they had been tracking us via my blog and SPOT map and in fact a family member had called them saying we were in Mississippi and would be coming by the rest stop very shortly. They had been waiting for us to come by. We all got a big kick out of that. In fact several other people came to the rest stop to meet with us. We signed the log book and were told we were the fourth group to come through this year but they thought we had ridden the furthest and that the others were just doing short sections of the TAT. They took our picture and we took theirs. They actually print a book each year with all the pictures of the TAT riders for that year. They post on the TAT Facebook page around September when the book is available; we will be ordering one for sure since we will be in it. This is a must make stop if you are riding the TAT.

We continued on gravel roads with short diversions for fuel until we hit the Hazen spot where we would head for Little Rock. I have to say we were all glad to be getting off that gravel. It wasn’t too difficult but it was just never ending. We then got on the two lane Highway 70 for the 50 mile ride home. Highway 70 parallels I-40 and if there is any traffic problem on I-40, lots of cars and especially semi-trucks jump over to 70. That must have been the case because the traffic on 70 was unusually heavy. In addition, 70 runs east/west and the wind was gusting at least 30-35 mph out of the south; a direct crosswind left to right. Our lite bikes were leaning at least 10 degrees to the left fighting the wind then when a semi-truck passed form the other direction it would block the wind causing us to head towards the truck then a blast of wind in the opposite direction as the truck passed.  To make it even more strenuous traffic kept building behind us because we could barely make 50-55 mph. We pulled off onto the shoulder a number of times to let them pass but this was a dangerous situation. I haven’t even gotten to the scary part yet.

As we were riding down one of the long open stretches between the small towns on Highway 70, we came to a section where a farmer was plowing on the downwind side of the road. This caused a huge dust plume to drift across the highway. I entered this plume doing around 50 mph and went immediately to 5 feet visibility. I made a frantic call on my intercom to Terry and Woodrow saying “I can’t see anything and moving to the right of the road” because I was afraid someone in front of me might have stopped on the road. I got to the paved shoulder and could barely see the white line but was still worried that someone in front of me might have done the same thing. I was about to move over to the grass off the road when I popped out of the dust. You hear about multi-car pile ups due to smoke, snow, etc. This could very well have been one of those situations. In the future if I ever come up to something like this I’m stopping and moving to the grass beside the road and riding slowing until clear.

Statistics for today’s ride:

184 miles ridden today

43 miles on highway from Memphis to Helena Bridge (cold strong wind)

90 miles on TAT on mostly gravel

51 miles on highway to home (strong crosswind)

Statistics for TAT Leg-1

1431 miles total

Started on East Coast at Charleston, SC and ended at North Little Rock, AR

Rode TAT from start at Andrews, NC to Hazen AR (bypassing TAT section in Mississippi)

8 days on the road including 1st day riding to Atlantic Ocean and 2^nd day riding to Andrews, NC

6 days actually riding the TAT

I will be gathering a lot of technical details from my GPS tracks and other notes to put together a trip summary. It will take a few days to complete but will cover the topics below and any others I might come up with:

1               Bike review – CRF205L, KLR650 & WR250

2               Gear review – what worked & what didn’t

3               Trip plan – what worked & what didn’t

4               Road conditions and closures

5               Budget – where the money went

6               Pictures – I found some pictures that I didn’t put on my previous posts so will add them to the summary; especially of Woodrow and his bike on the side of the mountain.

The locked gate was on the TAT and we had to backtrack up the mountain to take a bypass. The mountain trails are covered with large gravel and is not a pleasant ride, especially if you have to backtrack.

The bridge was totally gone but there was a temp gravel bypass when we rode it. It may or may not be passable in the future.

The trail to the waypoint Permit from Hwy 27 is a permit only road. The road was also partially collapsed towards the top.

Thanks for all the great comments and views of my Blog and hope our experience helps with your TAT planning.