General > Riding Stories
Trans America Trail
Motorrad:
Permission given to post extra pictures, cool ride story,
Admin.
NOTE: ALL WRITUPS ARE ROUGH DRAFT. MORE DETAIL TO COME..
I apologise in advance for all the Ugly pictures of my cousin. He seems to get his face into every one of my pictures..
Bike list.
2002 KTM 640 adventure (mine bought new)
2001 KTM 640 Enduro (dads)
1998? ATK 605 (cousin)
For those that dont know what the trans america trail is... here is a link
http://www.transamtrail.com/
Here we are loaded up infront of the house ready to leave. The trip started as kind of a joke. A local friend was moving to florida, and he needed people to drive moving trucks. I joked one day Id just ride a motorcycle home... well.... We talked him into letting us throw the bikes in the back of one of the ryder trucks, on the deal that we drive 2 of the trucks to florida for him, then take one up to north carolina for us to start our treck.. Worked out good.
Tenessee
Tenesee was mostly pavement. All single lane paved dirt pretty much. We got rained on alot in TN and MS. First few days were rough, trying to get suspension set right, Getting your rear end used to HOURS on a bike... after day 3, all was good. The water crossings were treturous. There is this Black slime moss stuff that grows on the bottoms that is like greased ice.
Mississippi
Mississippi was aprox 50% dirt roads. Lots of raised roads through swamps. The spooky part was all the water mockisons that enjoyed sitting in the road, waiting for you to go by so they could strike at the motorcycle. Had to keep your eye out for them, and make sure you were on the opposite side of the bike as them to not get your leg tagged. There were several "Interesting" locals we ran into. Interesting enough to wonder if we would end up in their basement... (deliverance) but they ended up being very nice people.
The Mud In Mississippi is very slick, and is the same color as the dirt. Very difficult to get used to.
Arkansas
Here we finaly hit 90% dirt from here on out. Lots more snakes and turtles. more to come on AK
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Oklahoma
I have to say Oklahoma was the surprise state of the trip. I always pictured OK as a big flat field. Yes its flat, yes it has fields, but all the natrual grass land preserves are a must see in your life. You couldnt turn your head without seeing an old abandoned farm house, most with all the equipment still there. Tons of old cemetarys from wagon train days 70miles from anywhere. This is also the state we got to sit in a hotel room wondering if a tornado would carry our bikes away. It was CLOSE. We knew it was close when storm chasers were seeking refuge in the same hotel we were in.
Motorrad:
New Mexico
We only cut the corner of NM. Absolutly beutifull. Id like to go back and explore more of it some day. The second we got to NM I while taking a picture, fell in a cattle grate and banged up my leg really bad (probly fractured it). Never did get it looked at.. Pictures cant do this place justice!.
Colorado
Wow. Scenery. and COLD. The one main stand out of CO was the change in people. In every other state, everyone wanted to befriend you, know what you were up to, where you were going, to the point of inviting you in to their house for dinner on occasion. CO was different, not for the better. Even sitting ontop of cinimon pass (12,640ft) people would turn their nose at you. Once you got past all that, the place was great, wild dandilions growing everywhere. The scenery was so good, my cousin (on the ATK) actually rode off one of the mountain passes into a pine tree. Lucky for him it wasnt a cliff...
Utah
(Rough notes)
Utah, is well Utah. Moab,
Coral pink sand dunes
Hillclimb#42:
Awesome. Thanks for sharing.
barryadam:
Great Job.
What time of the year did you do the TAT? Where did you end?
I've read a few RRs on ADV rider of both East & West TAT and it looks like a hoot. The RRs include similar pics and descritions as you have. What a way to see the country with your dad.
Motorrad:
--- Quote from: barryadam on February 26, 2009, 04:01:42 PM ---Great Job.
What time of the year did you do the TAT? Where did you end?
I've read a few RRs on ADV rider of both East & West TAT and it looks like a hoot. The RRs include similar pics and descritions as you have. What a way to see the country with your dad.
--- End quote ---
We were on the trail in June. Alot of the CO passes were still closed.
We followed the trail most of the way through Utah, then turned south and headed to Payson AZ (cousins live there) from there we trailered home to San Diego. (no way home besides long hours of freeway)
I have read alot of the guys ride reports on Advrider as well.. Ill admit, im no where near as good of a story teller as them.
http://www.advrider.com/forums/
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