The Mobius Trip

Yeh------the Sheriff came to Dingweeds house and confiscated that video while you was out "connecting roads and trails"

We'll all go down together though---we won't let you take all the heat :huh:huh:huh:huh:eek1:eek1

I felt like a sheep farmer in cattle country and Josey Wales was on my tail.

BigDog

I told em they wasnt gonna take me alive!!!!

Scott

nice Badlands...what happened to your Latitude? Same thing that happened to ours? Someone else owns ours :eek1now....nice pics Tony...looked like fun!

Hi all. Been following all of your adventures for a while. My brother and I did a two week trip in July using the Forever West and BigDog's tracks of CDT. We had a really really good ride. All you guys are a class act.

I wanted to finally post on here so I will not miss the report on M10.

That's the Latitude I'm wearing. Never owned a Badlands. And yeah, this was a terrific ride with amazing people. Doesn't get any better!

Well, we're back. Still haven't unpacked . Seems the first week after one of these trips is spent dealing with the bike and gear maintenance fall-out, ordering parts, etc. while the issues are still fresh in mind, and at the same time catching up with all the daily-life stuff at home and work.

I've managed to get the first days worth of photos processed and uploaded to Smugmug. Be prepared; the pace of this write up is going to be relaxed. I'll process a day's worth of photos, then write a day... each day of riding will take a few days to write up, and this will hopefully give everyone who participated a chance to chip in with their own photos and memories.

Having dipped our toes in the group-ride waters on previous trips, we jumped in whole hog on this one. A total of 10 people rode and/or camped with us at various points on M10. And it was awesome. Everyone contributed to the experience with personalities, stories, know-how, resourcefulness, or just good karma. It was an honor and pleasure to have met and shared time with everyone.

If I were to say what made M10 memorable for me, first and foremost it would be meeting the people we shared it with. Nine Mobiuses into this, Francine & I pretty much know what we're getting into in terms of the riding and accommodations, but I was a little apprehensive as to whether opening up the trip to all-comers would detract from our experience.

Not even close. Everyone knew what they were getting into, came prepared, brought great attitudes, impeccable navigation and riding skills, kept the pace, with no drama, no whining, and no divas. A more solid group of ADV riders would be difficult to assemble.

Besides the quality of the crew, there were two other things which left an impression on me... the combination of which led to the subtitle of Mobius 10: "Hazed and Confused".

"Hazed" as a consequence of the incredible and widespread devastation that the drought and wildfires have had this year in the West. There was dust and smoke almost everywhere, nearly all the time. You'll notice on practically all our photos a haze on the horizon. That didn't clear 'till we were on the plane home, flying over the Mississippi river.

"Confused" as a consequence of widespread ambiguous posting of public / private land and access through it. Mostly in MT & WY. Very different from UT, NV, & CO. Some days it seemed we spend more time rerouting than riding. So often we were unclear as to the legality of riding the roads we were on. The designation and assignment of land use has become a huge political issue in the West. It's not a simple two-sided issue of us vs. them. There's about 5 sides, and it's more like us vs. them vs. them vs. them, but maybe sometimes we're on the same side as them, but not them.

Ranchers, miners, loggers, water rights activists, environmentalists, Republicans, oil drillers, natural gas companies, small farmers, wind farmers, agri-business, Democrats, OHV advocates, ATV'ers, State bureaucrats, Federal lackeys, and others each have a stick in the fire. It seems there's a lot riding (no pun intended) on this year's election particularly.

(Link to a recent NYT editorial, just to get things started... the comments that follow are especially interesting)

I don't want to get all political in the ride report, and my intention isn't to start a big debate, but I can't help but express some of my opinions about what seems to be going on regarding these issues based on my observations, (and conspiracy-theorist biases).

To put it mildly, our route was often times "inconvenienced" (blocked) for what I would consider unnecessary and possibly illegal reasons. The biggest problem for us as dual-sport riders is that we have little recourse on the ground during our ride to fight to keep legal roads open. If a rancher decides to lock a gate on a public road and posts a sign that says "Private Property", and if none of the locals object (or even notice), that's it... done deal. We're not gonna fight it, no one's got our back out there. And the feds want "Roadless pseudo-wilderness" for whatever reason, they aren't gonna object. So you just pull out the maps, and figure out a go-around. There were times when our bullshit-meter was reading off the charts.

So anyway, that's the prelude, and tomorrow after rounds, if I can squeeze in a few posts, the saga of M10 will commence. Hang onto your hats, and climb aboard.

Oh yeah! More of the best RR on the Forum

At your leisure, Sir. I am sure it will be woth the wait. Always has been.

Doc,
Why didn't you run for president??
Then I'd have someone to vote for other than ABO.

Tom

ABO: anyone but Obama

+1

Hey you quit lurking and get back to work

BigDog

You caught me!!!!!!!!

Does this look like the face of a man who has had a good night's sleep? :huh



No it does not. By the way, Atlas Barber school closed down. Victim of the economy. No more $4 haircuts in NYC. That's right... DIY, baby.

Meanwhile, LDF is drinking healthy tomato juice.



After an uneventful flight / stopover / flight, Tony graciously picks us up in the Huegelmobile,



and we make a stop at our favorite WinCo for beer, pizza, Mountain House meals, beef jerky, and two big bags of trail mix that will last us all the way back to NYC.



Meanwhile, the rest of the crew is staging at ChezQ... Big Dog & Dingweeds are setting up cots in the basement,



Northern Traveler shows up with a good story to tell: :eek1



We get our bikes out of storage, and I start prep, under the watchful supervision of the assembled gang.

provided by Tony:



Washed down with some local (and not so local) beverages:





As dinner wound down, the conversation continued, and we got acquainted... Northern Traveler Scott:



Byways Tony:



Bob Bob:



Dingweeds Scott:



and Big Dog Mark (he had some bidness to take care of on the phone)



After a while, we bunked down and were treated to a nice note from Alisa:



which was tucked under the Wan's contribution to the ChezQ ADVentureCave™:



A lava lamp... remember those? Thanks guys!

Where's Questor you ask? Can you imagine that he would open his house to this motley crew and not be present to put out fires, mop up messes, and pay off law enforcement? Well, he was out on his own adventure, and left us the key, and we can't thank him enough. I hope we didn't miss any mess, and we tried to leave the fridge well stocked. Thanks again bro.

We missed you both.

Since you're going back to work, I'll take that >>

Good to see Tony is still in the hospitality business.. He sure did set us up good when I was out there! Although he looked better back then

BigDog ... must be on the phone given out "when you retire" advice to some poor old sap!

OK------------if you must know---------I was making sure my pension check came in.
KaChing

BigDog