The Mobius Trip

[DR. Rock]

supposed to make this right hand turn, but we could see Scott & Mark way ahead -- we thought maybe they knew something we didn't about the road being closed...



I think they were just using the men's room.



They'd followed Galena Creek, but we were turning onto a smaller road that followed Dry Fork Belt Creek...



Note: there are "No Trespassing" signs literally everywhere.





Past Barker cemetery,





26 years old. Imagine that.

[DR. Rock]

was pretty sweet -- technical, but not too tough, a welcomed change from the wider roads with loose gravel we'd been on.





and then... rut row. The road seemed to peter out, crossed a gully, maybe?

Mark saw a trail marker, and headed down...



Scott followed...



and then they both stopped. That's not a good sign.

[DR. Rock]

30% grade. Nice.

Short break, then... "Let's finish this off..."



Uh oh, Francine's down.



No biggie, she'd made it 98% of the way to the top... we got her the rest of the way up, and we were back on track.

[DR. Rock]

not too bad,



but then... The Big Dog got nailed!

[DR. Rock]

I mean:



Well, Mark and Scott are like a well-oiled machine:



I tried to offer help, but they just grunted and said "step aside, rookie"



Mark doesn't like to use patches, and we were out of rear tubes, so he put a front 21" tube in the back.



Francine was sporting a dirt moustache...



and when I told her, she said "stop, don't take my pitcher",



so I stopped.

[DR. Rock]

let me help,



Is that poison ivy?



Or poison sumac?

Back on the trail,



we were having a great day,



But I made a mental note that we should probably try to find a new spare rear tube... we still had a lot of miles to cover.

[DR. Rock]

into Stanford was great,





I anticipated that we'd be in some flatter ranch land, not too exciting until we got to the Missouri Breaks area.

[DR. Rock]

Stanford was in the flats,







Funny, I don't remember stopping?



But I think we picked up groceries.

I remember these two guys, though:

[rugbyrtcwka]

to your microphone? When you started to do video updates I was able to understand much better what you were saying. Now all I here, for the most part, is wind and your motorcycle. Your going to have to find a way to get that mic inside your helmet and out of the wind and engine noise. Aside from, and dispite that, you have the best MC blogs on the internet, Bar none!

[DR. Rock]

Originally Posted by rugbyrtcwka

to your microphone? ...Your going to have to find a way to get that mic inside your helmet and out of the wind and engine noise....

'bout that: I was using a new video cam, that is very ingeniously incorporated into the goggles. It's a Liquid Image impact 1080HD, much lighter and less cumbersome than the video cam mount on top of the helmet, and when I tested it at home, the audio was great. Unfortunately, as you've noted, once I start moving, you can't hear my voice. I'm going to have to decide what to do going forward... either talk more when stopped, or shout when moving, or just talk when moving slowly... I don't think there's a really easy way to hack the thing and mount a mic inside the helmet like I did with the ContourHD.

[the other thing I love about it is the nose guard which keeps my big schnoz from getting sunburnt. ]

I've left out a bunch of videos where the main point was what I was saying, and the visual of riding was sort of secondary. When that's the case, I generally tell the story in the text, which I've always done... but what you miss is tone of voice, etc. Especially with Francine's occasional meltdowns . The videos I am including are more to show what the terrain and trail were like.

[waylongway]

[the other thing I love about it is the nose guard which keeps my big schnoz from getting sunburnt. ] .....

[dvwalker]

Really enjoyed looking at that old 1804 L&C map of the NW. I tucked that gem one away for future reference. I was surprised the names for cascade range cones were fairly well established back in the day and haven't changed, except Mt Rainier, which had the extra french "e" suffix (iere) on the old map. Of coarse the local Indians all had different names for them before the white man did the redo.

continue to really enjoy the great story telling and perspectives, keep up coming...

[McDOPE]

"I slide out of the sleeping bag, and unzip the tent. The smoke and haze has completely blown off, and we're treated to this:"

Every Tuesday, 9/11 not withstanding....This shows a better "fire in the sky" and a better place to be.
Sorry you had to experience the first....glad the second has taken it's place.

[DR. Rock]

a little concerning, given that we're sleeping out doors most nights...



I knew this section wouldn't be particularly challenging,



but we couldn't complain too much...



it was fast, with no traffic, and great weather.



I actually love blasting across these wide open spaces.

[byways]

This is making the rapid approach of winter in these parts so difficult to bear ... Outstanding pioneering work, ya'll.