TATtered and Torn!

Well today started off good enough. The morning was a little cooler than it had been, so we didn't start any serious  sweating until around 10 AM! We rode south to pick up the trail and where we had started in Pryor OK. Everyone said what a bummer it was to leave the prairie and go back up into the western edge of the Ozarks, but it was time to start heading back east. After gassing up in Pryor and grabbing a quick lunch at Sonics, we started our first long offroad day. We started off in gravel winding our way thru some cuts and swales thru the country side as the tree line gradually enclosed us completely on both sides. It kept it cooler and the ride was much more interesting with all of the twists and turns, but there was a longing for the openess and expanse of the country we had left in our rear view mirrors. The day wore on and we slowly started gaining altitude until we were in some pretty difficult switch back turns with baseball sized rocks and gravel. That is when the day took a dramatic turn. On a particularly difficult section just as we had made a hard climb up the side of a pretty good size hill, the road suddenly turned almost a 90 degree hard left turn with a lot of loose rocks, gravel, a severe washout on the left, and at least a 25 degree tilt toward it and off the side of the mountain. I was riding at the back of the pack and as I rounded the turn up on my pegs, I downshifted to 2nd gear just as I saw a bike wash out the rear wheel and drive straight into the ditch on the left before it fell hard to the ground trapping the rider's left leg under its weight. As I pulled in the clutch and hit the front brakes I realized it was my wife Jenn who was on the ground holding her leg and yelling.  Daniel and Russ were in front of her and missed the fall, but continued to the top of the ridge to wait for the group. Jeff, who was immediately behind Jenn swerved to the right and went a little above her before he could stop. I tried to find a place to put my kickstand down and after finding nothing that would work, I just dropped by bike on the side of the hill and ran to Jenn. By that time Jeff, realized he had no other options as well and simply let his bike fall and also ran to Jenn's side. By that time she had pulled her leg out from under the bike, but the blood was beginning to soak thru her riding pants. Jeff and I helped her over to the side of the road and surveyed her damage. It looked like her knees were cut up and she was complaining about her ankle hurting, but we decided to leave her riding boot on until we could get down off the mountain. Now understanding that she wasn't in any immediate danger, Jeff and I went back to get the three bikes upright to keep the gas from pouring over everything. My bike had rolled down the hill some and was almost completey upside down, but Jeff and I got it upright along with his and Jenn's. By this time, Daniel and Russ had walked the 1/4 mile down from the top of the ridge as Jeff had told them that Jenn was down. As Daniel attending to Jenn's wounds, Jeff and Russ steaded first my bike and then Jenn's bike, and I rode them to the top while the bros. helped Jenn up to the top. After taking a bunch of deep breaths and assessing our options, Jenn decided she wanted to go on. She was still bleeding and her ankle was quickly swelling, but she said she wanted to push on. We spent the rest of the day, climbing and descending more steep inclines and Jenn like a trooper pushed on. At our last major stop I again asked her if she wanted to get off the trail and find some hard road to get to the hotel and call it a day, but she said no let's keep moving. Finally at about 7:00 PM we again got back on the hard road and drove the 14 miles to the hotel. We enjoyed a quick dinner at the Cracker Barrel next door, and relived the days events in greater detail from everyone's perspective. It will make great video for our travel log, but as the say, any landing you can walk away from is a good one, but I am sure Jenn will pay the price tomorrow when we attack what is reported to be the most technical part of the eastern TAT, Warloop drive. But, she is a tough chick, and if I were a betting man, I would put my money on her slating it. Man I love that girl!!!

TATtered but not battered!

Well we finally said goodbye to Rocklahoma and made our way to the place we would hook up with the TAT. Another hot morning, but not so bad if we kept moving. The morning started off in the treed area on the fringes of the Ozarks, but but midday we had made our way to the grasslands of the prairie. Wide open and beautiful and such a change from what we see back east. However the roads were extremely DUSTY. Not too bad if you are riding at the front of the pack, but I elected to run near the back with Jeff. Most of the time, we were in a clod of dust that prevented you from seeing the ground or anything greater than about 20 yards in front of you.  After trying several different gaps, I sat back about 150 yards, but as there was little wind, it didn't make much difference. I settled into a line behind Jenn and trusted that she would pick a path that would keep me upright. At one stop Jenn was laughing so hard she couldn't speak. Seems unknown to us in the "Fog", Russ had gone over a bump in the Dust Bank" and met a big hole on the other side. According to  Jenn Russ went airborne and left the seat but kept on keeping on, although he seemed a little tentative for a while. I on the other hand was not so lucky, after the 3rd of 5 water crossings, I was running a little hot when I hit the mud, and my Green Girl decided we both needed a mudbath!. Nothing hurt except my ego, but like the guy at the BMW offroad school told me, "If you don't fall down every now and again, you ain't trying hard enough". Russ came back and helped me get the bike upright and we pressed on. Aside from the fall down, we got to see some pretty cool stuff today. Horses in a pature next to Russ and Jenn decided they were challenging them and raced them to a draw for about 1/4 mile before the ran into a fence stopping their run. The trail often runs right thru 100's of acres of pasture and you find yourself shooing cows off the road. On topping a small hill we saw a couple of content buzzards sitting on top a recently deceased cow having a late afternoon lunch. Also local turtles seemed to be in some kind of migration as we passed dozens of them making their way somewhere. Then there was THE SNAKE. I didn't see it mind you, but according to Daniel it was huge and we were lucky to get past it without one of us being swallowed whole, bike and all!  Anyway, this is the kind of day that makes you want to climb back on these KLR's and find a trail, beautiful scenery, plenty of challenges to test your riding skills, and good friends to help pick you up when you fall down. I can't wait for the next chance to do it again.

Rocked Out! I'm getting too old for this sh!t!

WOW, two days of music, two days of camping in the 90's and two nights of  NO SLEEP. I guess this festival is everything a rock weekend should be. Big crowds, kick a$$ bands, and plenty of quality people watching.  Jeff and Russ left early for Arkansas to get their tires replaced, so Jenn, Daniel, and I went in search of some local artwork around Pryor. We didn't find anything that suited us, so we went back for the afternoon bands and sweat out last night's Captain Morgan. Our dear friend from Atlanta, Jerry and his son Brett showed up on their return trip on the TAT (see related links), and spent the night rockin to some great old "Z" music with us. Check out Jenn flashing our Martin Gang Sign during the ZZ Top Concert. It was a great touch for our last night, and seeing his Ural up close was a real treat.. There was also two great "warm up bands", Fuel and Cinderella. The Martin Bros. got back just in time for Cinderella, which was one of the bands that Jeff really wanted to see, so everything worked out just right, except for the ungodly heat! Man it was freakin hot, but as the sun went down, things cooled off to a perfect temperature for a night concert.  The guys took some great video and pictures that will be in the trip video, but here are some shots to give you a flavor. After the last song we said goodbye to Jerry who was heading back in the morning and settled into for a good night's sleep....... or so we thought. Turns out the toy hauler RV on the corner near us had set up a "Stripper Pole" in their RV and there were plenty of local talent willing to take a shot at the stagelights. I don't have any visual evidence of this fact, but the sreaming and cat-calling that lasted until well past 4 AM, told me it was so. In fact this morning the guy in the camper next to us said he took dozens of pictures that validated my assumption. Although it could have been the constant cheers of T!Ts, T!Ts, T!TS, that was the real give away. Anyway we all agreed it was a great time and we were glad we did it, but we probably will never come back. I am just too old for this sh!t! 

Rockout Part 1

Well, the ride into Pryor was uneventful. The tires on Jeff's and Russ's bike continued to disintegrate and throw lugs off for the 175 miles over here. After we setup camp,  we headed over to the local Walmart for some mead and a disposable cooler, and the Martin Bros. called every motorcycle store in a 100 mile radius for replacement tires. COMPLETELY SOLD OUT!! Turns out this is the half way point for those heading west on the TAT as we were told by local member of ADV. Finally Daniel called a place he knew in Rogers Arkansas who had some replacement Dunlops. So the boys are driving the 1.5 hours each way to get them replaced today. Anyway, we had a great time last night looking at the locals and watching Buckcherry (Hey Your a Crazy B!tch), 3 Days Grace, and Godsmack. Check out the picture of one of the locals!

The Long and Winding Road

Well Day one is DONE. This was our first and only marathon day, at least on the super slab. Jenn and I were up at 3:30 AM in order to meet the Martin Bros. over at the Waffle House in Cartersville at 5 AM. We got there a little early and ordered coffee while we were waiting. Danile and Russ showed up shortly there after, so we all ordered breakfast while we waited for Jeff. A text message was received saying he was leaving home now about the time we were finishing eating. It was decided we would press on and meet up with him in outside of Chattanooga. We stopped at Chicamauga (sp) Battlefield on the way and took some pictures.    A lot for crossed signals and missed communications, but at the end of it all we dinally hooked the whole team up and we were on our way as a group non e the worse for wear. Danile had laid out a route that kept us off the interstate for most of the day, which made it a pretty enjoyable ride. As the day wore on it got pretty hot, some places up into the mid 90's. Something happened with my Bushnell GPS during the day as I started getting the live feed weather services on my map and I could see that we were surrounding by lightning strikes most of the afternoon, but we never encountered any. However, we did run thru about 1/2 hour of heavy rains late in the day, but all-in-all, we got thru the day pretty much unscathed. That is except for Russ and Jeff's tires. As you can see the tires have lost a a bunch of lugs off these brand new Shenko tires! So it looks like they will both searching for new rear tires after we get to Pryor Ok. today. We finally finished the 700+ mile day at around 7 PM and as usual settled into a local pub called the Fox and Hound for nourishment an mead!

Gotter Done!

Well Jenn and I spent last weekend doing the things we “put off” from the previous week. We started the morning swapping out the tires on my “Green Meanie” and then moved on the Jenn’s “Ole Blue”. Before last year’ s Arctic Circle trip, we changed the tires in our driveway using the tools that we were bringing on the trip to prepare us in the event we needed to swap out a tube on the road. Now confident that we could do it in the field if needed, this time we used the equipment at the garage which made things way easier. However we still used our Motion-Pro tire spoons that I carry in my tool tube, because they work better than anything we have. After finishing each set we let them sit a while to make sure that they are holding air and we didn’t pinch the tube, but everything was cool and we “static balanced” all and moved on to oil changes and chain lubing. I took a good part of the day, but at the end of it all, we high-fived each other and placed the “official” trip log on our bikes. This Monday a group that we “wrench” with in Atlanta, the Monday Night Motorcycle Gang, are getting together for a send-off Pizza party where to swap road stories and “make up” some new ones. Always fun, and we will get the group back together after the trip for their now famous “Travel Log Night”. I will post some pictures from the event on my “Load Out” post right before we leave.

Well it was too Damn Nice!

Well, Jenn and I had big plans this weekend. Spend some time dusting of the cobwebs on the KLR's by running a combination of paved and fire roads on Saturday;  then spend Sunday spooning on the new tires, changing the oil, lubing the chain, and generally getting things ready for the trip in a couple of weeks. So Saturday started according to plan. We got on the road around 10 and pointed the bikes towards Locust Stake. For those that don't know, it is a national ATV park north of Toccoa Georgia. It has a good mix of gravel, and single/double track trails that lends itself to most levels of off-road riding. We spend some time runnning the fire roads and getting re-acquainted with our bikes. Although we have had them less than 1 year, they have over 8k miles on them and have spent a lot of time in the "junk" (See Martin's Up and About link). However, after we returned from the Artic Circle trip last June, they have mostly be allocated to the back of the garage in favor of the bikes that we use on the street. Anyway, the weather and road was perfect, so after a while on the trails, we decided to buzz the 30+ miles over to Helen and had a wonderful lunch down by the river at a place called "The Troll". Afterwards, I asked Jenn if she was up for some more riding and she said she would follow me! So I headed up route 17 to route 180 and struck out over to Suches and "Two Wheels Only". So we shot "Wolfpens Gap" and drove the 40+ miles over to buy a Diet Coke, talk some $hit with the moto crowd, and hot foot it home. What a great day, perfect weather (70's & Sunny), perfect company, a worthy machine, and beautiful roads to ride. As we pulled back into the lake house we thought they day couldn't have been much better. After tossing back a couple of liquid refreshments, we decided to screw the work tomorrow and we would take another run at the roads.  Sunday was a little cooler, but still a spectacular day. We again rode up to Helen in search of a fire road we found on a map. After a couple of false starts we finally found the road, and what a road. The first mile or so started off easy enough, just dirt and some loose gravel, but soon it started a steep climb with sharp counter pitched turns, filled with deep stones the size of golf balls. We climbed the switchback trail until we reached the waterfall in the pictures. We stopped grabbed some water and after checking the time decided we had better head back. This road we will take a nother run at, but not today. Overall a wonderful weekend riding with my beautiful wife. The bike performed as expected (after all it conquered the Dempster!), and the testing of our new equipment proved we were ready for the TAT. Next up, the Final Prep and Load!

Test Run

Well, it has been a while since I last posted, but the time for launch is fast approaching so I thought that I had better get back into this. Jenn and I are planning a set of test rides this weekend in the north Georgia mountains as a final prep for the upcoming trip. This saturday (5-8) we are planning to hit some fire roads and trails up near Helen Ga., to test out the settings on our new front fork pre-load adjusters and the new rear shocks that we have installed since our last adventure. Sunday, we are planning to spoon on some new TKC80's, change the oil, and do the final steps to ready the bikes for the TaT journey. I will post some pictures of our trip next week as Jenn is testing out her new Hero camara in the various mounting positions to figure out where she can get the best shots. If all goes well, we will put the KLR's "to bed" Sunday and let them sleep for a while so they are well rested for what we have in store for them starting 5-27!