We started off trying to record everything even fuel consumption, but after a couple of days, that went out the window and it was just easier making a note of food and accommodation costs rounded off to the nearest Dollar. We may have missed a few items here and there, but it mostly matches up with the bank account balance. For fuel, we just estimated based on 45km/litre and 3.4 USD per gallon average. Our initial record keeping indicated we were...
The bits in the East People often poo poo the eastern part of the TAT and the MABDR, complaining that it is too tame and boring. We really enjoyed it. Yes, spending a lot of time in the trees with no views can get a little tiresome, but we liked the fact that it was a good mix of back roads, hard packed forest roads, and lots of little towns. It made for a fairly varied ride experience, and it was...
Yippeee!Our little buddies are finally home! We picked them up this week from the shipping agents depot where they have cleared all their customs inspections including being fumigated for stink bugs and other nasty cooties they may have caught in America. The bikes started right up after reconnecting their battery and Simon had to take his for a quick ride up and down the street. Huge grin on his face when he got back. Its good to have them home...
After the weekend abusing our motel room we had all our gear clean and ready for New Zealand's bio security officers...
Woohooo!!!!! We made it. We are elated, knackered, sad, happy and relieved all at the same time. The tent fly this morning was covered in ash, which goes to show how much of it must be in the air around these parts. We took our time packing up knowing it was the last time packing our saddle bags. It was a weird feeling getting on the Groms this morning knowing it was going to be our last day on the Trail. We...
Up early to get on the road. After packing everything up we had a gear malfunction. After Sim had posted that our headsets had done great so far, his one up and died completely. Luckily we had a spare. Unluckily, it was buried somewhere under his seat, so he had to pull everything off to get to it. Amazingly enough the spare headset had a full charge and paired immediately after all this time sitting there :) The short bit of...
Crater Lake was beautiful. Bonus, the lady park ranger knew our bikes were Groms :) Tomorrow we will be back on the TAT. It looks like only 2 more days till we make Port Orford. Quite a bit of the trail looks to be off pavement and includes a particularly gnarly climb somewhere between Tiller and Azalea. Should be interesting. Not sure where we will end up tomorrow night. Not a lot of camping or motel options. We may just have...
The TAT is so different from day to day. Yesterday it was all trees trees trees, and today it was more varied both in terms of scenery as well as terrain. Still a lot of trees, but it started off with a nice winding road along the crooked river then changed to scrubby hills then forests. Trail varied from winding seal to fast gravel to red and white dirt (think painted hills dirt) with the odd bit of sand thrown...
That was a cold night. My temperature logger hit a new low 4.9C (~41F). The Austrian we met yesterday had warned us but we were not expecting temps like this and are really not set up to camp in less than 10C so it was an uncomfortable and restless night.. or was it the RF from the radio tower? Either way, we started out knackered from the first km (0.621 miles). Riding was similar to yesterday. Fast wide gravel roads with...
We had a bit of a false start this morning and had to call into Walmart to re-buy the few bits I bought yesterday but inadvertently left in the bag at the till (facepalm).Then it was back into Idaho to get onto the TAT briefly before crossing back into Oregon officially. Unfortunately the TAT is unable to avoid the interstate, but only for a short section. We pulled into Huntington to top up with fuel and clean the millions of midges...