The Mobius Trip

I know you're just being cheeky Chris, but it raises an important point; in the birkshires I didn't have another 2200miles of the ride to go. And I wasn't in the middle of nowhere -- there was a trailer waiting to carry me and my bike back home only a few miles away. One's risk-taking has to be recalibrated on trips like these and already Dave and I were pushing it harder than LDF and I normally do. It's something we all talked about that evening at the campfire. Our priority is to enjoy as much riding as possible in two weeks, and risking a bad crash or injury or bike meltdown on day 5 means losing 9 days of riding.

PS: did you watch the vid? it wasn't even a goat trail -- I had to walk up sideways to fit. crazy.

As much as we tried to lure him further into the Idaho depths, Dave had to head back north. We decided to ride into Priest Lake and grab some breakfast before we split up. We were encouraged to get a move on by the weather system that passed through in the morning.

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it was a straight-shot, flat and wide transit liason to town.



Today's route would take us for gas at Priest Lake, then a challenge point at the top of Hoodoo mountain, more gas at Athol, then loads more challenge points traversing through the heart of the Coeur D Alene National Forest, eventually getting gas again at Wallace.



the weather was threatening for most of the day, and we still made almost 200miles with all these verticals:

at the time, but doesn't it look like Dave braided cornrows in his hair?



we had a nice breakfast at



where the owner / cook / waiter chatted with us about our trip, and swapped off-road stories and intel of where we were headed. He was into 4WD. He even took our pitcher: (note the thought-balloon coming out of my head )



and then it was just us two again.



Bye Dave, it was great riding with you, Hope you can join us again on Mobius 9 or beyond.

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And for the rest of you, the invitation still stands.

M9 scheduled for May11-28 beginning and ending in Idaho Falls, looping south through UT, NV, OR, and ID.

we jumped right back onto dirt,



and started to climb.



Maybe a break in the clouds,



or maybe we were just climbing above them.





and then the final push to the top

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I look like an angry Klingon, not exactly the look I normally go for .

Too bad I didn't have more time. I had a great 6 days and I'm loving re-living it through your wonderful story telling. And now to see what I missed

Come on Doc. it didn't look that bad, and you had the bikes to do it. Reno Deano

20 years ago on my CR250 I'd have tried it, but not on a fully laden DR650...or even an unladen DR650; not in my skill set but I believe Doc could've done it (and he gave it more than a few seconds thought). I'm fully impressed by anyone that rides up that trail on any moto. By the time we got to that point the potential overheating issue and the time elapsed since leaving LDF was weighing on our minds...we made the right call.

Negative Dean, I appreciate your confidence in us, and in other circumstances it'd be tempting, but I wouldn't have taken anything heavier than a trials bike up there. And even then I'd probably have to carry it most of the way. Literally, it was a hiking trail. The road ended, and I'm not even sure it was legal to ride beyond. Plus, it was a set-up for a really bad situation -- low on water, we'd left LDF about 2 miles back, it was late in the day, my bike was already overheating with a dodgy patched radiator... Dave, back me up here. We'd already pushed far enough to get there. That section was the most technical of the entire 2 weeks.

PS: been enjoying your pics -- looks like the season is closing in soon, there was some snow in the last set!

[edit]: you beat me to it Dave!

Sitting at home sick today , doing the F5 thing, enjoying the RR. But I did completely disassemble, re-jet, and reassemble my carb today. Next up, emulators in the forks.

We left our Mobius Sticker --





and took some pichers,



It felt good to earn a tough challenge point. This whole section was labeled blue, and it was an order of magnitude easier than what we'd encountered at the WigWams.

Mini-LDF:



Powered by anti-hassle tassels:

Oh yeah... the infra red, don't forget.

Sweet -- I'm post-call, up all night, trying to follow the Dakar threads and write... my F5 finger is sore.

and shortly we were on a bit of pavement,



where we could gas up at Athol, ID



Another stretch of white and green,



and then on to more treasure boxes .

Bunco road, Moon Saddle, and Big Meadow airstrip. Get this... the following was ALSO rated blue:

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Maybe conditions change dramatically based on erosion and whether it's been recently graded?



[by the way, most of our photos taken while moving are geotagged, so if you're thinking of doing the TID you can scout what you're getting into.]

We cruised by here: (Not a treasure box)





and down to the Big Meadow airstrip.



I'm still not quite sure what makes the cut as a challenge point...

(check out the big bird coming in for a landing)



We were still trying to wrap our heads around this treasure box hunting. Some seem to be just technically tough to get to, some are easy, some are historic and/or beautiful, others are banal... no matter, we were happy to score another treasure box so easily.

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Thumbs up, Francine!

the next challenges were Steamboat(?) Moon Saddle, Two Mile, and Moon Pass.





We came to a sweeping vista, and I busted out the light/shadow/color recording box to see what it could capture.



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Let's see how they turned out -- the pano (click on image to link to full-sized version)



and the HDR:

we descended to the next transit section.







and even got a little taste of pavement.

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then it was back into the woods



for Moon Saddle, and Two Mile (creek?) challenge points, and on to Wallace for the night. We were chilled, the sky was grey, and the timing seemed to be right.

Blue section, that frankly, was pretty easy.



nice views though,



and pretty flowers, even this late in the season.



At the gps treasure box location for Moon Saddle there was a sign post, but no sign. We'd fix that:

ride down to Wallace,





still blue, not technical at all... maybe the WigWams was an anomaly, mis-labeled?



We sent a spot signal from our last challenge point for the day,



and felt pretty good when we hit the pavement leading into Wallace.

seemed a sleepy little town,



overshadowed by the freeway.



we found a room,



(actually, at the Stardust) caught the last seating at



which was pretty awesome.

Yummmmm... I think we ordered one of everything.



beer, bear, bar:





We walked to get some groceries, (note to self: come back and check this place out:)



This sign:





inspired next saturday's FMC theme. I'm cooking Greek + Chinese. :kbasa

Wallace seemed to be a quirky town. I wouldn't mind going back sometime.



(Didn't get to try a shake)

We slept like logs.



Stats for the day:



Pedro Chang's indeed!