The Mobius Trip

Great pics and vids. Love that area of the county.

mowing the lawn:





Then, switchback hell:

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but everyone's having fun, it seems.





Dingweeds updating his Twitter feed:







A "Helmets Off" stop means we get tasty treats!



Carry on.

the last to find out about Aaron + Elizabeth?



continuing downhill,



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More good stuff,





Jackalope herd:

Francine needs to spit more often when chewing.

gas,



and then...



and then, :dog



Double grrrr....



Plus, I noticed my front was starting to chunk.



To make the best of our time, Francine, Dave, and Steve doubled back to Kaycee to pick up groceries and beverages.

kept us on pavement to Linch, WY where I'd noted a way to reconnect to our route. The road we wanted wasn't gated, but it had this sign posted:



FINALLY! Some un-ambiguous, call-it-as-it-is signage. Private road. OK, I get that. Travel at your own risk. Cool! We can do that! Game on.

It was called Meadow Creek Road on the maps & GPS, and followed a ridge.



Obviously drilling going on here,



No one around today, but us. Nice.



I missed a turn, but no biggie.

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All good.



Ten miles later, at the other end connecting us back to the highway...



Mother brother. :dog

An unforewarned locked gate ... If I had hair ...

facing a 10mi backtrack.

Not to worry... Dave starts bushwhacking the fence line. A couple minutes later and he finds a pass-through the barbed wire fence. We open, scoot through, and close behind.





Free again.



By now it's already 3:30pm,



and we entered a quagmire of navigation.



in what would be a crucial decision, I opted for a slightly longer, but apparently better traveled option,



which headed us down a rabbit hole of posted warnings, gates, roads that disappeared into fields, etc.



we weren't to psych'ed to camp out here,



Finally, after about an hour of this,



we plotted a course back to pavement, and hightailed a bypass that would get us to Casper before sunset.

For whatever reason, Casper didn't seem so inviting. We found a campground. Fort Caspar RV park. Sign said full, but the gal said there was tent space by the river. It sounds nicer than it was.

No campfires allowed, so we just cooked dinner,



ate,



took hot showers,



and sat around the Campfire Substitute&#8482; sipping our bourbon-spiked hot chocolate.



at least until it started to drizzle. Then we went to bed.

Day 9 .GPX file can be downloaded from here.

Actually I saw the posts in the fenceline and then saw some old overgrown two track, which made me believe there was a gate. I followed the two track, so technically I didn't "bushwack". However the rest of the group didn't see the old two track, so yeah, we "bushwacked" the 1/4 mile to the gate. If you are in a situation its better if you can use an old two track or cow trail, even if its overgrown, than just cut across the pasture. - David

September 16th Sunday. We started getting up and breaking camp in the morning about 6:30. With a breakfast of oatmeal and apples we headed out down the trail. The goal was to see Hyattville, Ten Sleep, Kaycee, and then Glenrock for a camp site. The North Platte river looked to be devoid of campsites all the way from Casper to Glenrock, which didn’t bode well for our lodging tonight.



However, the riding this morning was fantastic. Just a little smoke on the horizon to remind us of the forest fires.




I believe this is Hyattville. We were coming down a ridge with several switchbacks and could see the rock escarpment from a long ways away. I had to wait until we got closer before my little point and shoot camera could do the scene some justice. It still doesn’t take in the immensity of the landscape out before us. The red rock with the contrasting green valley was also a visual feast.



Here we are a little closer and I try for a panoramic shot of the rock wall.



Looking back the way we came was also pleasing on the eyes.




Finally we are down in the valley right in front of the rock wall.

As Hyatteville isn’t really a stopping point, we head right on through it to the gravel road that will take us to Ten Sleep. At Ten Sleep we stop for gas and some snacks and a quick break before heading on down the road to Kaycee.



I’ve been over the highway from Ten Sleep to Buffalo and down I-25 to Kaycee but I have never been across this gravel road from Ten Sleep to Kaycee.

As we come out of Ten Sleep we start to cross over this ridge and into the rolling hills at the south of the Bighorns. As you cross the ridge you see across to another ridge and so forth. The immensity of the landscape assaults you and you are humbled by its size.

Here the road goes by a canyon, and you look down into it and realize that not many people have been down to the bottom of it.






Here I zoom in on the canyon.




The road meanders along the meadow and up ridge on the far side.



The road we came on.




The road is getting us closer to Kaycee.



Steve is cleaning his visor, which we all did quite regularly due to the dust.

After Kaycee we start casting about for a back road down to Glenrock. This actually is part of the Bozeman Trail, an overland route that many took to Bozeman and the gold fields of Montana. We quickly learned that this area was private land with oil and gas. Most of the roads were private with locked gates the norm. We did get off on one gravel road that started near Linch, but the south end was locked. Fortunately there was gate in the barbed wire fence a quarter mile down the fence line.

Soon after that, we gave up and took the frontage road down I-25 to Casper, and found a private RV campground for the night. It was a bleak end, but the morning was great riding, so you take your lumps and roll with it.



September 17th, Monday. It was a blustery night and we couldn’t have a fire at the campsite, so we set up our tents, cooked dinner and went to bed without too much time around the “substitute fire”. The next morning we got up and headed out. I needed to head out that morning to Glendive, so I took some picture of the crew. My picture of Steve didn’t turn out, so I used my photo of him yesterday.

This is Scott AKA Dingweeds loading his gear on his bike.




Mark AKA Big Dog loading some jerky and sticking his tongue out at me. ;-)



Francine AKA La Donna Fugata and David AKA Dr Rock also said good bye and happy trails. It was a great trip and I can’t express enough that I enjoyed meeting up with you for these three days.

Anyway, after that, it was a short trip home for me via the highways. Casper, Edgerton, Gillette, Broadus and home.

Thanks everyone. - David AKA Mtrider16

I rode the section north from Ten Sleep up past the lake to Woodchuck Pass in mid July of 2010.

Hyattville actually has a local watering hole - I had to stop in and have a beverage...a Coke, of course!

As you come down off the mountain on Cold Springs road and you are looking at the red ridge, there is an archeological site right at the base of the ridge that they are working on. Can't remember what they found, but the locals told me that they were digging out there.

Beautiful area to ride in through there... I had come from the south (from Thermopolis) and it was badlands...empty and rough.

and my first video!

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After about 10 days off, all snowed in, I am caught up on your report. The ADV ride report de-crufter was a godsend until LDF started posting, and now with even more people posting it has really slowed down the reading! But dang-it, I got through all 402 pages.

I really enjoy your writing and the pictures are great.

I thought you might want to know that you probably hold a couple land speed records out on the salt flats. There is a category for pretty much everything, so I'm sure you hold the record for the "Japanese dual sport, under 500cc, liquid cooled, carburated, pump gas, with luggage, while on a vacation from NYC, with a camera on your helmet" class, and LDF no doubt holds the female version of the same record minus the camera!

Might want to look into that, it would prolly help with future sponsorships!

Hope one of the Mobius trips heads up this way I would love to tag along with you guys. I hear there is some great riding in the upper peninsula of Michigan!

I think the replies are an important part of any Ride Report but..

the ADV Picture Once-inator is a nice addon, not for this thread of course because the doc keeps pics per post down to a minimum so a re-post of the whole thing doesn't cramp the scroll wheel finger. Oops almost went on a rant there...i'll get back to celebratin'
Happy New Year!!

I agree, and that's why when someone makes a reply worth reading the OP will normally quote it.

If a report is only a few pages then I like reading the commentary. But 400 pages would take forever.

We pass thru the town of Kaysee where gas, food and lodging are avalilable but it's too early in the day to stop.
And since we all are prepared to with camping and cooking supplies we ride on of course---------untill.
Remember that 21" tube I put in the 18" rear tire a few days ago ?????
Well---it bit me in the ass.
I sometimes don't carry an 18" tube and use the 21" for emergency's----maybe not the smartest choice.
Then tube got wadded up when I put it in and just wore a hole in the side.

It usually is no problem doing this-------Dr. Rock didn't approve, and he passed up a good chance to poke a little fun at me. I was waiting for it-----------
But he didn't-------since he's not that kind of guy and let me slide.



So lots of data on cameras, gear, tires, food, etc. over the years on the Mobius adventures but never any mention of "heat".
Is this why the "bear" reports have disappeared as you're now packing protection?
The State cop a few days back must have found the permits in fine order.

Many states out west allow "open carry" which is what I see in this pic. The "heat" is in "plain view" and thus allowed without permits. However, be safe and check each states laws cuz they vary.