TAT-2016 Post 27 – Friday, 19 March 2016 (TAT Day-3)

Day 3 was fantastic. We did 170 miles today and reached the motel at Kimball, TN around 2:30 pm. We gained an hour going to Central time, which helped.

We did our normal wake-up and breakfast schedule and hit the road at 8:30 am from Chatsworth, GA. Todays ride was totally different from day 1 & 2; mostly 2 lane paved with about 1/3 on gravel roads. We did have several climbs/docents crossing the ride lines west of the mountain chain we rode the first two days. Some beautiful views but no incidents like previous days.

There are a couple of issues I need to highlight about the route. I’m starting to think we may be the first group to take the new Sam route through Georgia. Don’t get me wrong, we like it but we came upon several road closures on this run.

On Sam’s new TN-04 map, bottom right corner, you are riding up an interesting climb to the top of Pigeon Mountain in the Crockford-Pigeon Mountain WMA. As we entered the road up the mountain we saw a sign saying permit required but it also said something about camping. We rode through the gate thinking the permit was for camping; wrong assumption we found out later. The ride up was good until almost to the top and we found half the road collapsed off the side of the mountain. We were surprised the road was even open but continued to the top. As we reached the top the road was blocked but we could get around the barrier and on the other side was a big “Road Closed” sign. No closed sign at the bottom! Later we met someone who told us that even if the road was open it requires a permit to even go up this road. This is clearly a section that must be bypassed. Sad thing is there is a fantastic overlook at the top. On the way down the mountain we came to another section where the track said to go but the road was closed. This was a short section and the bypass was easy to see on the GPS.

Another thing to watch for are dogs on the route. We had several herds of dogs chase us through some of the rural areas. A couple of dogs were chasing Terry in front of me and I almost ran over one as he tried to get out of my way.

Other than the above, the roads were excellent and the scenery was beautiful. We arrived at the hotel after 175 miles but early in the afternoon. As I write this post in the hotel, Terry, Woodrow and Steve have all the maps laid out on the table planning the rest of the trip. We are quickly running out of time with still 800+ miles to go. The rest of the TN, MS & AR sections are mostly flat so we should be able to make more miles per day but the biggest problem is motels along the route. Another problem is we need to be back in AR by Tuesday night if possible. That means we need to ride 265 miles per day, very unlikely. We are now looking at continuing on the TAT for the next two days to Corinth, MS. From there we will ride direct to LR on secondary roads. This about 650 miles total cutting out the 150 miles through MS. We will return to ride the MS sections we miss during the summer and make a 3 day camping trip out of it.

One more interesting thing happened today. As we were working our way through a very confusing section of switchbacks in a rural housing area we came to a one-lane tunnel under the highway just north of the spot where the TAT crosses back into TN from GA for the last time. I was going to take a picture of Woodrow coming through the tunnel when a 2^nd bike appeared and rode beside Woodrow through the tunnel. As he came out of the tunnel I noticed a TAT sticker on his headlight shield and he noticed the same sticker on my bike. We stopped and talked for a long time then he followed us to our hotel. His name was Terry (now called Terry 2) and lived in the local area and was just out for a day ride. Terry 2 had ridden the TAT last year to mid OK but the rain and mud was so bad they gave up and returned home. Terry 2 is actually going to join us in the morning for our next TAT section. One important fact about this meeting was that Terry 2 was on a 2015 KTM 690; such a beautiful bike. He had everything on the KTM to make this bike TAT ready. Terry 1 fell in love with the KTM and is even considering trading in the KLR 650 for a new KTM 690.  What started Terry 1 even thinking about this trade was the KTM is 315 lbs (same as our Honda CRF250’s) compared to the KLR 650’s 450 lbs. We were leaning our CRFs over on the kickstand to oil the chains this morning and when we got to the KLR it took three of us to hold his bike up. We will see what Terry 1 is riding a week from now.

I’m including pictures below of some of the things I mentioned in the text above.

Here are today’s statistics for those who would even care:

175.3 miles ridden

Overall average 23.1 mph (moving and stop time included)

Moving average 28.9 mph

Moving time 6 hrs 3 min

Stop time 1 hr 32 min

Remember our average was around 14 mph for days 1 & 2.

More tomorrow night.

After looking at the pictures I added the picture of my shoes with a bottle of water inside. I brought these shoes to wear during water crossings to keep my boots dry. If you read my Day 1 post you will know I didn't put them on as planned and instead filled my boots full of water. On Day 2 I had to put trash bags on my feet to keep my socks dry (a trick someone else showed me). The others have given me lots of grief for caring old tennis shoes on my bag. Today I needed someplace to carry a water bottle so stuffed it into one of my shoes. It is now a water cozy in addition to water crossing shoes.

One more item of interest. We take turns changing lead and our rule is if you miss a turn you go to the back to suck everyone else's dust until you move back up to the lead. Some of us spend a lot of time at the back.