Oklahoma Trail

TAT 4 - Oklahoma

"Love the TAT. Miss it already. Some more thoughts and pics to come."

That's how I ended the last trip entry. It seems I'm not so good at following up... but here we are, prepping to leave again. Tomorrow we return to the Trans-America Trail (TAT), for part 4. We ride straight south from KC, and turn right into Oklahoma. 

Oklahoma is the forum-described "boring" part of the TAT. You can read ride report after report of adventurers who choose to skip the trail through OK and take the highway from Arkansas to Colorado. The three of us have gone 'round a few times arguing about what to do. We aren't obsessive about riding every inch of the trail, but the options we faced were skipping Oklahoma and hauling our bikes to the Mountains next year... or squeezing in another short TAT ride this fall and STILL heading to the mountains next year. So fall is here, and to that trail we go. It wasn't easy finding some time for a second trip in 2015. I think we've rescheduled four times, and now we're riding in November--adventuresome, but less than ideal.

Since the spring...

Joey's Honda XR suffered a piston explosiatastrophe, and he's replaced, resurfaced, and rebuilt all those complicated metal parts that go somewhere under the seat. Just last weekend he finished the carb and says she's running better than ever.

Danny's Suzuki DR had an oil leak... if you can call it that. I think he spent $2 on some gasket and, you know, took something important off, gave it a new gasket, put it back on... and now it's good.

My Kawasaki KLR on the other hand, developed a real oil leak. And while Joey rebuilt his engine and Danny scraped off a 20 year old cam chain tensioner gasket... I put a cup under my bike.

Plastic cup, on right, to collect dripping oil

Anyway, the cup is starting to fill a bit. So I added some oil to my bike last night. Good to go!

Also since spring, we've been playing a game of musical motorcycle luggage. In May, we each took different approaches for our luggage:

• Danny: Nelson Riggs soft dry saddle bags - $50 Used on Amazon
• Joey: Dry bags with custom straps for mounting - $60 for all parts
• Nic: Wolfman Expedition Dry Bags - $180 Used from ADV inmate

There's a longer, really boring story about how Danny and I both ordered newly released DrySpec dry saddle bags several months before the trip, and then the bag manufacturing became so far delayed that Danny cancelled his order and I ordered Wolfmans at the last minute... and then two days into our trip the DrySpec bags shipped to my house. Anyway, after getting back from the trip, we decided the Wolfmans were the best, and Danny's bags were falling apart. So this happened:

• Danny: Returned bags to Amazon for failure to perform well
• Joey: Bought Nic's Wolfman's at a $10 discount (you're welcome, pal), sold custom bags
• Nic: Opened the box of new DrySpec D20's sitting in the garage ($110 out of pocket)

Only problem here? Danny doesn't have any luggage. Then sometime over the summer he surprised us with his UPS tracking number of brand new Mosko Moto Scout Panniers. I won't say here how much they cost, to avoid Danny's embarrassment. I'll just say that they did cost less than $451. And so far they seem amazing. Time and the trail will tell us which bags are to be most desired.

And that brings us to tonight. Three running motorcycles, packed (overpacked in my case), ready to haul us through a rain storm (tomorrow) and across the Oklahoma plains. And here are three not-very-good pictures of it:

Danny's Suzuki DR 650

Joey's Honda XR 650

Nic's Kawasaki KLR 650

TAT 3 - Day 4: The Real Mississippi

After several days of adventure riding, we started referring to any paved road as a highway. When switching from packed dirt to something even like a two-lane road without lines and crumbling shoulders, the leader would announce "looks like we are hopping on a highway" over the intercoms.

We were riding on just such a "highway" in Mississippi, complaining about how little adventury miles the state had to offer on our trail. That's when she (Mrs. Ippy) overheard us and punched us right in the face.

I told the crew to turn around, we had missed a turn off of our road that the trail map showed. I was surprised, as I hadn't seen it. We road back for a few thousand feet... and missed it again? The map is a little out of date, but roads don't just disappear. After turning once more we found it. A sliver of a gap in the wooded trees to our right, and a trail of mud to follow. Off we went down a stretch of maybe a mile that took us two hours to complete.

There was mud pit after mud pit (deep mud).

We even had to hatchet vines and trees out of our way on a point to be able to get through this Missippi jungle. At one point Danny caught a vine in the helmet and practically pulled him off the bike, which fell sideways, into 12" of muddy water. Below you can't see him literally pouring out his boots after.

Then all of a sudden Joey's XR 650 didn't want to run any more. It just stopped. We spent an hour trying to start it. Joey drained the carbs. We pushed it back up the trail 3 times and tried to roll start it. We even changed the spark plug on the trail. And yes, we prayed. All that in 90° heat, and infinite humidity. But it still didn't start. Then we noticed it. The carb had come slightly loose from the manifold. 

Pushed it back in, and it fired right up. A few sighs of relief later and we were on our way. 

Around 2pm we had to say our goodbyes to the trail and the taunts of Mississippi, and turned home. 

Hotel beds will rest us tonight for a long day of the REAL highway tomorrow, which wil take us back to KC.

TAT 3 - Day 3

We made it to Mississippi! We aren't too far across the river, but we found good camping at Sardis Lake, and we are exhausted. The trail is harder in Western Arkansas than Eastern Arkansas, and both were probably harder than Mississippi so far (though we are barely into it). Each day, though, has had it's share of challenges that keep us standing on the pegs.

Besides the riding, it's been fun just seeing the ecosystems change as we go. The dirt we ride on has been changing colors, and at any given moment we'll be in the middle of a forest, racing over sandy farm roads, or even spinning our tires in muddy slush. And meeting people at every stop is also interesting. The accents have been getting thicker with each stop. Eavesdropping on some of the campers next door proves they are often impossible to understand.

I'd say we are exhausted. We have to start thinking about when to turn toward home and how to get there, but we can't give up tackling a few more miles of the trail. So tomorrow we'll do both. Get just a LITTLE bit further before turning sorta-around. Danny still has to get to Tennesse to cross that state off his list. And of course Joey and I need to eat BBQ or fried chicken in Memphis. Then we'll ride West while tryint to avoid highways.

Photos won't upload tonight. And it's hot. 85 degrees or so in my tent. I hear the bull frogs croaking now that it's night. A pleasant break from the zacatas scremaing during the day.

TAT 3 Day 2

When you're driving a car on the interstate (which we lovingly call the super slab) you can cover 500 or 600 miles in a day over 8 hours.  We are riding about 200 miles per day, over 10 hours, and moving eastward at less than 100 miles each day. That means we're averaging about 25 mph (including some breaks). And it's amazing.

The trail has so far been excellent. It surprised us when we hit the hardest part we've ridden within the first 30 minutes of hopping on, back south of Fayetteville. That section (Warloop Rd) set an expectation of difficulty that has been lessening each mile we ride. Today in fact had quite a bit of pavement and gravel in between the fun parts. But the fun parts included 18" deep river crossings, tree-canopied packed mud roads, and beautiful Arkansas mountaintop views.

Finding a campsite for the night was the biggest challenge. When we left for this trip we didn't know how far we could get each day. So we decided to do the very thing I hate: "just wing it." We're riding all day and finding a campsite wherever we can once we get tired. Yesterday was brilliant. We rode until we couldn't and camped in a clearing we found at 5pm that was 50 feet from the trail, in the Ozark National Forest. See our little tents in the back?

Tonight, though, was tougher. We ended the day in Beebe, AR. It's big enough that we couldn't find a place to camp or a paid campground anywhere near the trail. We drove back and forth for an hour, exhausted, looking for anything, to no avail. After getting stuck and unstuck in some mud, with no prospects... what did we do? Prayed for a place to sleep and rode back into town for some Arkansas BBQ. Then through a happenstance encounter and a kind eavesdropper, we were sent to a fishing lake, just out of town, with plenty of free campsites available (really???). 

So here we are, lakeside: fully fed, warm, next to a dying fire made from wood that a stranger brought over, since he knew we couldn't haul any with us. Everything we need and more. It's good. All that and still no broken legs.

Tomorrow we hope to make it to Mississippi.

TAT 3 Day 1

The Super 8 parking lot we came from this morning seems like a year ago. 

Since then we've had to turn back from a washed out road,

Gone around the river that stopped us last year,

Had a slice of the best pie in the world,

And slowly, steadily, built a campfire.

The riding was great today. The sun was out, the trail was challenging, and no broken legs (thanks God, keep it coming).

Pfew!

Made it to camp. The bikes didn't fall over. Trailer and BMW are intact. The tents are up. We are right on the lake, which you can barely see is covered with fog under the moonlight.

Ticker says 3:03AM and 38° F.  Time for sleep.