Back in the spring, 3 of us decided to do a "backpacking" trip off of our dual sports. I plotted out a circuitous route through Colorado and southern Wyoming using US Forest Service maps and a state road map. I knew the route would be more than we could do, but also knew that we could bail at any point and ride back to our starting point, Boulder. Friday, July 21 saw us departing Kansas City (and Wichita), Kansas for Boulder. Here is our trip.

The players:
Brian on a 2001 KTM 640 LC4 geared at 15/45
Tracy on a 2006 KTM 640 Adventure geared at 15/48. Changed to 14/48 in Ouray.
Mike on a 2001 KTM 400 LC4 geared at 16/50 (stock 15/45). Changed to 15/50 in Ouray.

We had saddle bags with sleeping bags, tents (2), clothes, cook gear, stove, spare parts, etc.

Day 1, Saturday 7/22/06

We headed west from Kansas to a friend’s crash pad in Boulder on Friday. On Saturday morning we loaded up the bikes with our gear and headed out for 8 days of adventure touring in Colorado, and possibly southern Wyoming if time allowed.

I had used a Colorado Recreation Map and USFS maps for each of the forests we were to visit (White River, Grand Mesa, Routt, San Isabell, Rio Grande, Gunnison, San Juan, Medicine Bow (WY))to plot out the GPS route. I wanted this to be an adventure; which to me means finding locked gates, undoable trails, dead ends, etc. In other words, get out the paper (plastic!) maps, figure out where you are and where you want to get to, and find a work around.

From Boulder, with Brian in the lead, we headed up gravel towards Gold Hill on some very nice gravel roads, some maintained and some not. One side trip was up a 4WD road … Brian bounced, road up the cliff face, sent his bike vertical (it landed pointing down the hill he had been riding up), and caused us to rethink doing that road.

Why is Brian’s bike pointed ~down~ hill?


A wee little rock stuck where it shouldn’t be. We smelled burning plastic the next few days as the shock guard got pushed into the presilencer. The bag got ripped open as well.


Fixing Brian’s misaligned bars with a rock hammer. I really should have had on my safety glasses.


We hit the Peak-to-Peak highway and had lunch in Nederland before heading towards Rollinsville and the Apex Rd, which would take us to Central City. Apex Rd is a very nice ride. Off to Downieville and some 4WD roads that I had plotted out as our route.

These 4wd roads proved a bit much for Brian. He hadn’t had a chance to ride as much as Tracy and I had during this past year. Last year when the three of us went to Moab for a week, I was 3rd in ability. With a lot of riding this past year, I moved into 2nd. Tracy will always be 1st do to experience, ability, and very little fear.

Above Georgetown, Tracy and Brian turning around.


The trail did level off, but Brian and Tracy had already decided to turn around.


Tracy coming up the trail that bypassed the first one.


Tracy coming down, after Brian decided to turn around. He made a good choice.


An aside: I approach riding as I approach whitewater kayaking … you never discourage someone from “portaging a rapid”, or in this case turning around. Encouragement is fine, discouragement is not.

Up and over Guanella, soon to be paved in its entirety, to US 285 to access gravel toward Canyon City. We stopped at a general store on US285 for supper fixins.


Then we headed south toward Deckers.





Day 2: Sunday, 7/23/06

Heading out of our campground at around 8, after a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee/tea, there was a chill in the air. But it kept getting chillier as the morning progressed. South of Lake George, on a cruiser gravel road, Brian came up missing. Tracy turned around just as Brian appeared … holding his shift lever. Coming into a corner hot and attempting to downshift, a funny feeling in the lever caused him to look down just as it fell off. He had ridden to us in 3rd gear. We pulled my shift bolt to get dimensions and then started to search the bike for a suitable replacement: rear brake reservoir and headlight mask bolts will both work. A bit of Loctite (red, which I brought by accident), and we were off to Cripple Creek. And it kept getting colder.





Snow, not hail.


Do I need this? Oops.


The hardware store in Cripple Creek had a decent selection of metric fasteners.

From Cripple Creek we too Shelf Road to Canon (“canyon”) City. What beautiful scenery.





In Canon City we had lunch and shopped at a grocery for our supper. Supper usually consisted of a large can of soup or package of noodles, extra meat (chicken, tuna, Spam), and a can of mixed vegetables). I had packed breakfast for the week (1/2 cup oatmeal per person with some brown sugar, and either walnuts or raisins.)

Through the Wet Mountains we headed for Gardner and Great Sand Dunes NP from the east over Mendano Pass. We camped on the west side of the pass. A bit of rain had us using the rain fly for the first, but not last, time. A cold bath in Mendano Creek, supper, and bed.

Wet Mountains behind us, Sand Dunes ahead.



The rest of Mendano Pass was a bit more difficult than what is in this picture.





Bear proof cabinet and kitchen table. Brian left, Mike right.



Now I will give Brian and Tracy a chance to add their comments. Days 3 and 4 up next.

Mike

Ok so maybe jumping the 1 and a half foot tall boulder was not a great move and I have no idea how I got the rock in their. I do remeber the bike becoming an lc4 air craft,but I did find the rock to straighten the handel bars. It was a great start to the trip. And Troy I belive you are designated to bring the bear box on the next trip!!! Just wait folks we haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet!!! PS, thanks to tracy for finding the wire to hold the sheired, fieldsheir bag together.

Here is a printout of our track for days 1 and 2.



Here is the section that got changed south of Canyon City as my cohorts (wisely) did not want to attempt single track. I would like to go back and see what we missed, but without saddlebags.

Day 3, Monday, 7/24/06
A sprinkle on us precipitated a beautiful double rainbow (hard to see in picture).



After breakfast and breaking camp it was down Mendano drainage to the park.

Brian:



Brian:



Mike:



Mike, a few feet, and lots of wrist, later:



And a movie: http://home.everestkc.net/malsin/COD...s/IMGP0145.MOV

Finally we see dunes:





We stopped to take a hike:



Lots of pavement and gravel got us to Alamosa for lunch, shopping for supper, and me fixing a blown fuse (taillight) caused by a shorted heated handgrip. I missed my heated grips in the mornings (including this one). Safeway had two pegs full of the old style, round glass fuses, but no blade type. Finally found some at Walgreens. (Yes, I was carrying some extra fuses, but I wanted a few more extra until I was sure that the grip had caused the problem.)

BTW: on an LC4 the turn signals and tail light (but not brake light) are on the same fuse. I used this for my heated grips ... good or bad it was the easiest/safest keyed power supply (there are only 3 on and LC4) to get and/or use.

From Alamosa, after lunch at Sonic, we headed SW to Centro, then NW over Blowout Pass, and then north to South Fork.



Coming up the south side of Blowout Pass:



On the north side:


After this cruiser section we did find a minimum maintenance FS road on which to head north toward South Fork. Confusing in that just after we got on it we ran into, going the opposite direction, two DSers (KTM RFS and Yamaha ???) we had passed several miles before. They apparently had taken a FS trail (single track?) to the road that we were on. I think Brian thought that I had led us down a wrong turn or two at that point. The road was a pasture access trail that had a couple of steep ascents, one ending with a large (1.5'??) rock ledge/step. A FS pickup and two ATVs waited for us to clear it before heading down. Tracy had no problem with getting his 640ADV up it.

We took gravel to near LaGarita and pavement/gravel to Storm King campground. The road toward Storm King passes through a "gate" formed by close, opposing cliff faces:

And a movie of Tracy and Brian heading toward the "gate": http://home.everestkc.net/malsin/COD...s/IMGP0165.MOV

How to travel light: day-wear becomes evening-wear.



Here is our track:



And our track with the route I had planned. Some of the planned route turned out to be single track (after Blowout) and parts north of South Fork. We used the maps to route around these.

I used my first digital ... which I received a few days before I left on this trip. I saw a fellow whitewater kayaker using one on the Arkansas River (Brown's Canyon) in early July ... waterproof to 5'.

I did absolutely no editing / Photoshopping on any of the images except to lower the resolution to 800 pixels wide so as to be quicker to download. Here is an original:
http://home.everestkc.net/malsin/COD...s/IMGP0146.JPG (Look closely ... you can see the knobs on the rear tire.)

Here is the camera: http://www.h20camera.com/home. I have the w10 model (the w20 wasn't out yet).

I put in a 2GB SD card at the start of the trip and had lots of memory left (I was taking pics at the max, 6 Mpixels ... 284 pictures, about 10 videos, < 1GB).

The battery lasted fine, although I did take along the charger (and recharged it on day 4 because I had the opportunity to, not because it needed it). I shortened the AC charger cord to approx 1 ft (25 cm) (bought an extra cord at Radio Shack to chop) so that I wouldn't be carrying 6' (2m) of cord. Videos use a lot of battery power ... but the battery seems to recover once you shut off the camera for a while.

I also carried the USB cord so that I could use any connected computer to upload images to my webspace if the SD card approached full.

The clicking you hear during the videos is due to the autofocus as the microphone is part of the camera.

All told: I am very happy with my purchase.

You can't see it very well in the pictures but I bought a small zippered case (LowePro) that I attached to the shoulder strap of my hydration pack. The case was at chest level and allowed easy access to the camera. Not exactly the same one: http://www.lowepro.com/Products/Came...l/Rezo_30.aspx

Day 4, Tuesday, 7/25/06
Up and over Cochetopa and Carnero Passes toward Lake City.



Brian and Tracy led … right past the turn (Tracy had a GPS with the maps and routes too). I waited, and waited. Here you see Brian inspecting my map when they finally realized I wasn't with them and turned around. I heard that when they turned around Tracy said "Great, I lead one and miss the turn. I am going to get yelled at for this."



Brian hit a corner a bit hot … the only damage was a lost hydration bag bite valve. I was riding sweep and was quite anxious as I enterred the turn and saw Brian laying motionless, still on his bike, in the ditch by the side of the road. I got the bike stopped a few yards past him and ran back. He was ok.



Tracy’s bike is going the wrong way … but is parked next to Brian’s skid marks … at least the skid marks in the road.



Tracy pushing Brian up and out of the ditch. The road did a 180 here.



Engineer Pass, at more than 12000 feet, was a struggle on my 400. I figured due to rich jetting, which proved to be true. I finally got around to fixing it a day and a half later. Not really sure why I didn’t fix it earlier. Anything over 11500 feet required WOT and first gear to not bog down until I dropped the needle. (When we did operate on my carb we found some rather severe wear on the slide, slide guide, and needle. My jetting was rather variable due to that wear.)

Tracy:



Brian:



Mike up front, Brian following:



From Engineer we took the trail toward Ouray (rocky and steep, no pictures ), and it started to sprinkle/rain, which made the rocky decent a bit more of a challenge, but would have probably stopped us if we had been ascending.

We hit Ouray about suppertime, just as the rain started to really come down. Desperately in search of a covered area to wait under, I found a large parking space in front of the large covered porch of a a closed store. The family that was there seemed a bit threatened by 3 guys in MX gear. Mom, probably in her early 30s, wasn't smiling as we joined them out of the rain. Seems HD leathers (and exhaust) would have gotten a better response.



The owner of the art gallery next door came out when the rain stopped and chatted with us for quite a while. Turns out he rides. When we walked up main a few blocks for supper at a restaurant he suggested he kept a watchful eye on our bikes and gear.

The rain continued to fall as we hit the outdoor store (great selection) for a bite valve and a good Mexican restaurant for supper. At supper I was the first to bring up a hotel, I even offered to pay if reasonable. The busboy suggested one on the north side of town.

I walked in to the hotel and the owner said they had two rooms left, each with a queen bed, for $69. My reply: “One of those will work. One of us can sleep on the floor.” After he found out there were three of us, he offered me a kitchenette with two bedrooms (each with a queen) that he was in the process of remodeling for $40. And a garage in which to park our bikes. Turns out he used to ride DS and thought we could use a roof over our heads. Pity is a wonderful thing!

We used to garage to swap out front sprockets: Tracy took my spare 14, and I replaced my 16 with his 15. I was hoping this would solve my high-altitude power issue. It didn’t. I should have tore into the carb with the roof over my head ... The Laundromat was next door, so we threw together two loads to get rid of the increasing stench. The hotel owner even loaned us a couple of wrenches to make the bike work easier than using our toolkits.

I’m glad we aren’t camping as the rain continued all evening. Our room was in front of the white pickup, the Laundromat was by the light behind the truck.

Here are some more pictures ... no video taken this day.

And we were there on a weekday ... lots of ATV riders with little or no skill and even less trail etiquette ... true of quite a few 4WD vehicles as well during our two days doing parts of the Alpine Loop. Many would not move over or let us pass.

Day 5, Wednesday, 7/26/06.
A gaggle of Shelby Cobras was in town and parked in front of our hotel in the morning. From around back we could hear the thump of the big blocks as they assembled.

The real deal, Shelby Cobras ready to ride (by invitation only, and only original big blocks allowed!!).



Biker friendly motel. Highly recommended.



We headed up Yankee Boy Basin, where my jetting issue once again reared its head. The lower gearing helped a bit, but didn’t solve the problem. Once again, 11500 feet was the magic number.





Rain in the past 24 hours made the streams a visual treat.



No power (too darn rich) except at WOT and loose rock … what fun. I ended up coming to a stop due to the power issue (lack of) in loose rock. To go on I used up about 3000 starts worth of my clutch. Brian and Tracy, a few switchbacks above me, could hear me abusing the poor bike.



We then headed to Telluride via Imogene Pass. Part way up we ran into a rider on an F650 GS. As all three of us own or have owned the Dakar version, we were amazed to see the F this far up a pretty difficult road. I think the rider thought I was making fun of him when I gave him the thumbs up and said he was doing awesome. Eventually I think I convinced him that he actually had my admiration. None of us would have wanted to ride up what we had just done on an F650 with DS tires.

F650GS on dual sport tires. This guy did well to get this far (the path to this point was more difficult that it appears here).



On up past the F650GS







Looking back toward Ouray. This is where we witnessed some numbnuts (nonuts?) in his stock Chevy SUV bypassing the trail and driving out across the tundra ... only to get stuck ... only to back up and succeed at the rise he had tried to avoid. Dimwhit.



Looking toward Telluride.



Tracy’s dream girl coming down the pass ...



Brian’s bike had been spiting coolant out of the overflow for the past few days and on the ascent to Imogene Pass it got worse, with the fan on constantly. Eventually the temperature red light came on and wouldn't go off. He dead coasted much of the way down from the pass into Telluride. At one point I could smell his brakes so we stopped and let them cool. Once we eliminated the fan, my guess was his coolant pump had gone bad and his was that his bike was running very lean. The lean didn't make much sense as we live at 1000 feet elevation and were riding between 9000 and 13000 ... I used the time to clean some very leaky fork seals. Again.

Brian polluting the environment.



No film negative, so a discarded water bottle got sacrificed. BTW, now I know to clean the underside of those fork skins!



The gas station didn't have any RTV (which we wanted to have before we opened up the water pump), so we moved to the hardware store in Telluride (the gas station was west of town) to buy some. On street parking in Telluride is all metered. We used the ACE parking space behind the store. Yep, that’s a dumpster tie down for our rain fly.

(And for Troy: We didn't carry the dumpster with .. we found it in town! )



A bit of carb adjustment.



Tracy got out our bagels, pepperoni, and some potato chips and made us lunch while Brian worked.

Turns out the pump was fine and the bike was running way too lean. Odd, considering we were at a higher altitude than the bike had come from. (The air filter was fine.) BTW, always carry a rain fly.

From Telluride we road west to “To Hell You Ride” MC shop in Placerville to pick up some fork oil to replace all that had dribbled out of both of my forks. The valley btw Telluride and the shop was cut from red sandstone, different from anything we had seen in CO. Gravel to Ophir and up and over Ophir Pass.

Approach to Ophir Pass. Noted a few avalanche chutes.



Looking east from top of Ophir Pass.



We bypassed Red Mountain Pass by taking a short 4WD loop to the east of the highway. Lots of mines.





Don’t eat:



After a short distance on the highway we hit Corkscrew Gulch to get us up to California Pass on the Alpine Loop.









We set up camp just below the ghost town of Animas Forks.

Looking south in the evening.



Looking north. Animas Forks is about a mile ahead ... before the notch.



I used a bit of the evening to tear into my carb to drop the needle. At that time I found that my slide, slide guide, and main jet needle were all worn. The needle, where it goes through the plastic slide, was about 1/4 worn through. That explained the inconsistent power at altitude issue I had been having the past few days.

Morning of the next day.



And our track for the day:

Two different cameras so each is in order but not with each other:

Some of Tracy's pictures:

















Critters are hungry in the winter when snow is this high:


Some of Mike's pictures:

KLR buddy of the guy on the F650 ... "It gets worse before it gets better" is what he said coming back down looking for his buddy.



Note that the ATV riders have stopped on the steep part of the trail and are blocking pretty much the entire trail:



"Where's Waldo?" Can you spot the motorcycle? The rider is wearing a yellow jacket!



"There's Waldo."

These might take a while to download.

Tracy crossing a stream. Brian and I took the bridge off camera to the left. Note that Tracy starts veering downstream ... not good.

Brian and Tracy coming up hill. Note how Tracy is tractoring (his term) along with his low gearing. Amazing where he could put/take that heavy 640ADV.

West side approach to Ophir Pass. The west side of Ophir is wide open and very beautiful. Lots of avalanche chutes (downed trees, no trees) lower down. A few years back the two halves of the town of Ophir (not a ghost town) were separated by a huge avalanche. The eastern part of the town was without road access for quite some time IIRC.

Day 6, Thursday, 7/27/06
From our camp we did a short loop around Animas Forks that took us by quite a few old mines, including the one that fed the miles long tram leading to the ore processing works in Animas Forks.



New cabin, old truck, old snowmobile (note single ski up front).



The old mine:



A short stop in Animas Forks to explore the old buildings and then it was up and over Cinnamon Pass ... passing quite a few 4WD vans that wouldn’t pull over to let us pass. Some were very courtious, many were not. Didn’t make a lot of friends, but were sick of stop and go in first gear.



Gas and food in Lake City, back up the highway to Slumgullion Pass, and then gravel to Doyleville and the following passes: Black Sage, Tomichi, Hancock, and Tincup.

Butt break after a long, high-speed gravel section. We met (as in oncoming) three mountain bikers (1 guy, 2 gals) a bit further up this road, each with paniers or a trailer. I figure they must have been doing the Continenta Divide MB trail. They were in the middle of nowhere and a long way from anywhere.



Plotting our route before the storm hits. We had just crossed US-50 on our way to Jaunita Hot Springs.



The storm passed quickly. On to Tomichi.







From Tomichi, off to Hancock (in background).









From Hancock, Tomichi in background:







On the top of Hancock we were met by a group of riders coming up from the east. A couple of KLRs and two thers that I don't remember. I do remember one of the KLR riders popping open a beer on top of the pass. The two that made it up while we were there commented on how tough the east approach had been. While waiting a third came up to tell the others that the fourth rider had fallen just a bit shy from the top and hurt his wrist. Not sure if they continued or not, but the west side was much more difficult than the east.

We camped at Mirror Lake just below Tincup Pass. The outhouse, the worst smelling of the entire trip, was tiled. Brian figure it was because paint wouldn’t stick. I just felt sorry for whoever had to tile the dang thing.

By now you all have figured there was a little palnning on mikes part! Having routs picked out was great. We were always flexable if the going got tough, and we could figure out a diffrent way ( pearl pass is the only pass we turned around on, it's yet to come). We traveled light and had a ball!! I am still amazed at amount of ground we coverd!! The high country in CO is something every on should exspirance!!! Out of dumb luck the passes got progresivly harder as we went! It was a nice compliment to our ever increasing ridding skills as the trip progressed. Needless to say some of the best pic's are yet to come. -BGG

Day 6 (Yellow) and 7 (brown, without the ride from Buena Vista to Boulder via slab) routes:



Tracy's shots:



Animas Forks ghost town:













Storm brewing:



Top of Hancock:



Mike's photos:

Campsite below Animas Forks:





Kitchen:



Tracy nearing top of Hancock:



Top of Tincup Pass:



Tire was new at the start of this trip:



Day 7 in next post!

Day 7, Friday, 7/28/06
After gassing up at Taylor Park we headed for Taylor and Pearl passes. Our plan was to take Taylor up and over to Ashcroft and then take Pearl back to Crested Butte.

The trials bike parked at the base of Taylor should have been a clue to what was in store. After a bit of struggle for all three of us on Taylor, we finally made it to the pass, where we met Bill from Aspen on a KTM 200 two-stroke (with a license plate!).

That’s me up in the shade.



Tracy, preparing for liftoff.



A bit further up .. video of this will be posted soon.





Top of Taylor Pass:



Bill gave us some info, including that Pearl was more difficult than Taylor. He also told us about Italian Creek / Pass trail that connects Taylor Park to Cement Creek drainage. We decided to forge ahead and attempt Pearl. We made it to 11500 feet before Tracy and I both said “Uncle”. Brian didn’t put up any resistance to turning around, heck, he was stuck just in front of us spinning what was left of his rear tire. Between the altitude and worn out rear tires, we just couldn’t get the bikes to go any further on the loose rock we found ourselves on.



“I’m spent.”



Brian showing his regards for the route planner. Tracy is already turning and burning!



We headed back to Taylor and did it in the reverse direction. Going up I had my only moving spill of the trip when the back end went sideways while I was being way to cocky through a steep, loose section.

Italian Creek turned out to be a nice trail except for the huge number of ATVs.

Coming into Crested Butte Brian’s bike started belching black smoke and stalling at highway speed. Doing some troubleshooting while inhabiting the ditch (to stay away from traffic), we figured it must have been a stuck float.

“I think we will camp right here.”



Our plan at this point was to take Schofield Pass and head to Leadville, where Brian would depart for Boulder via pavement and Tracy and I would continue on via Mosquito, Webster, and points east. Brian’s tires started the trip with 300 miles on them and the rear had been shot for a couple of days.

Once we got to Crested Butte and had a drink (non-alcoholic) break, all three of us decided that we had had enough and that our rear tires had definitely had enough. The GPS said we had done over 1100 miles and more than 113000 feet of elevation gain. Tracy changed out his front sprocket (14 to a 15) and we headed to Buena Vista via Cottonwood. Coming down the pavement on the east side we ignored the 30 MPH speed limit and used our rear “slicks” to really lean in the turns. My 400 couldn’t accelerate with the big boys on the straights so I waved them on (I kept up just fine in the twisties). A few miles later they were waiting, figuring that they had pushed their luck enough.

After a burger in BV (and a sprocket change for me, back to 16/50 from 15/50), we headed up 285 for Denver. Pulling off for gas in Fairplay, my bike popped and died when I pulled in the clutch at 30 mph. It wouldn’t restart. Turns out the extended idle mix screw had vibrated out somewhere between BV and Fairplay (I had it backed way out trying to compensate for my screwed up slide and main jet needle). A few wraps of electrical tape on the finger end of an earplug served as a temporary plug and we were on our way.

It got dark about Hoosier Pass. We all had on our goggles, which by this time in the trip acted as star filters due to all of the scratches. I should have pulled off and switched back to my clear/colorless safety glasses that I had worn most of the trip as US285 as we neared Denver was confusing in lane choice and exhausting in lead. A short stop in Morrison so that I could read the map (and get some help from a very friendly PO who wondered why 3 dirt bikes were parked among the Harleys), dig out my safety glasses, and strip off some of the high altitude clothing I had on, and we were headed to Boulder for a beer (or two) and a long-night’s-rest.

Post Trip Shakedown:

The gear I took was almost perfect:

Riding Gear: lightweight poly short sleeve shirt (2), SP1 pressure suit, long sleeve MX shirt, MX pants, knee pads, boots, wool socks (2 pr) with poly liners (2 pr), summer gloves, spring gloves (GoreTex), MX helmet (sunshade!), map case, GPS with maps loaded, Platypus hydration pack.

Clothing: heavyweight polypro bottom and top, midweight polypro top, stocking cap, swim suit (doubled as shorts), underwear, bicycle shorts, sandals, electric vest, rain jacket, rain pants, sun hat.

Personal Gear: 15oF down bag (packs smaller than synthetic), ThermaRest pad, spoon, cup (doubled as a bowl), toiletries, multitool, backpacking tent (Brian and I shared a 2-man tent (4.5 lbs), Tracy in a 1-man tent (4 lbs)), GPS USB cable, cell phone and charger, digital camera/charger/USB cable.

Crew Gear: MSR Whisperlite International stove (burns unleaded gas), 11 oz. fuel bottle (smallest one available), 2 L pot, large spoon, salt, pepper, dish soap, scrubber, maps (for each forest we were planning on being in), rain fly (don’t leave home without it), MSR MIOX water purifier.

Motorcycle Gear: clutch lever, brake lever, clutch cable, shift lever, zipties, 20 feet of webbing (tow/recovery rope or clothesline), zipties, loctite, modified KTM tool kit (sockets (8, 10, 13), rachet, spark plug added)), rubber bands made out of an old tube, extra tubes (1 front and 1 rear), GIVI side bags, Wolfman tank paniers.

Food:

Breakfast consisted of oatmeal (prepacked for 3 people: 1.5 cups oatmeal, 1 c dry milk, 1/8 c. brown sugar, ¼ c. crushed walnuts, ¼ c. raisins; add 3 cups boiling water) in individual day Ziplocs. Coffee prepacked in individual day Ziplocs.

Lunch was either eaten at a restaurant or consisted of bagels (they don’t smash easily) and pepperoni (“refrigerate AFTER opening”).

Dinner was bought each day and consisted of a large can of soup, a large pouch or can of meat (chicken, tuna, salmon, beef), and a can of mixed vegetables or Uncle Ben’s precooked rice. A bit too much sodium but filling and nourishing.

Potable water was usually available (most USFS campgrounds had a pump or we had enough in each of our 2 L hydration bags), but we did occasionally have to use my MIOX purifier. For the oatmeal and coffee/tea we boiled the water so no purification or treatment was necessary. Carrying supper in cans provided most of the water needed for that meal.

Gear Changes:

• Leave the heated vest at home.
• Bring a larger hydration pack, just in case the load grows. (a liter of fork oil perhaps?)
• An extra, empty Platypus/Camelback reservoir for water purification wait time.
• Add some film negative to my tool kit to clean out fork seals.
• CD/DVD-R with repair manual (pdf) and GPS program and data for use in an emergency (public library, etc.).

Notes:

• My rain fly was scavenged from a tent that was getting thrown away. CBoA.
• My simple side bags (GIVI) stayed together better that the more complex others (Fieldshier?).
• My tank paniers (Wolfman) were very convenient (maps, goggles, hat, etc) and useful and kept the load on the back low for ease of leg throw.
• My gear was packed in stuff bags lined with trash bags for waterproofness.
• A trash bag inside of a stuff bag can be used as a water bag when the source is far from camp. Hang it from a tree. Could also be used for MIOX treatment.

Video of Tracy coming up a steep, rocky section of Taylor. No, this wasn't even the toughest part. Tracy is a hoss!

Part 1. (I was serious with my offer to help.)
Part 2. (I really should have had my helmet and glasses on to protect from the roost!) Edit: Fixed link, now goes to correct video file.


More of Tracy's photos:









More of Mike's: