HadesOmega Returns 2 TAT (ID + OR) TAT

[HadesOmega]

Hey everyone I'm currently riding the Idaho Trans America Trail. You can follow my progress on my inReach mapshare at:
https://share.garmin.com/hadesomega

I'll post pix along the way or when I get home, more riding and less blogging. Click view all to see the whole route.

You can view my pictures on smug mug also at:
https://hadesomega.smugmug.com/Events-and-Touring/HadesOmega-Return-2-TAT

 

[m0t0_ryder]

:thumbup

havefunbesafe!
pictures!

 

[HadesOmega]

Also this is my first pandemic adventure ride. Its pretty much the same story every state I've visitted. I guess the more remote places you don't see as many people wear masks as often. Some restaurants you can eat in but certain tables are blocked off. Lotsa moto distancing =)

Also the weather in Idaho is perfect almost. 70s-80s in the day but late at night it dips into the 30s-40s and it's dry out here for now no snow or rain =) still some smoke. It's worse in some places than others. Hopefully the fires in Oregon will calm down when I get there.

If you don't remember from my previous TAT trip I rode the TAT from Tenessee to Idaho and went home. So I've returned to finish Idaho and Oregon.

 

[cheez]

Good luck, be safe, don't catch the bug, have a shitton of fun.

 

[wilit]

Have fun! We were in Idaho earlier this year. Beautiful country.

 

[SFMCjohn]

loving the pics, and following along via the wonderful Garmin link!

have fun, looks epic! :ride

 

[Cabrito]

Right on Merlin!

Love this shot from your pics.

 

[EBDan]

So cool! Stay safe and I'll be watching for your updates!

 

[HadesOmega]

Day 6 of my TAT adventure. Yesterday was a long day 150 miles on the TAT and I passed through Craters of the Moon National Monument. It's like desert roads with lava/moon rocks thrown in. A lot like riding in the mojave typical desert riding. Not much sand though. I was wishing for some more plush/softer suspension after riding through so many rocks. But with a 7gallon tank and a home on my back can't make it softer I guess. DR handled it well though. Craters is awesome highly reccomend. It's very remote. I didn't see anyone out there. It's like Arizona desert roads they just go on for miles and miles. I think there is a national park on the other side, sounds like fun but I'd like to avoid tourist traps.

After 60 miles of desert I passed through Arco the worlds first city to be powered by nuclear/atomic energy. Had an Atomic burger at the Mr. pickle restaurant. Late in the day so I gotta find a home for the night. It was more farm roads in until I got to Antelope Valley. It was a beautiful ride but I'm getting anxious gotta find a place to sleep and I don't see anything sorta unless I want to Stealth camp. But fortunately the TAT passes through Challiss National Forest and I pass through little dispersed campsites left and right. So after a bit of riding I set anchor for thr night in this beautiful valley with fall colors everywhere =)

I have to say the IDTAT is pretty awesome it has everything the TAT has farm roads, plains, desert, and now forests and high passes! I would say it's very similar to the UT and CO TATs a little easier. You could do it on a big bike I guess like an Africa Twin or Baby Tiger will eat it right up so far. The new Tenere would be great too. But you could do it on a KLR setup for ADV touring. Or light ADV bike will be good too. The DR once it hits the dirt it's in its element for sure.

Elevations are pretty usually nothing lower than 4k ft. I rode up 9k todat. After 5k the DR is gasping for air, that's when you wish you had that fuel injected liter bike power.

 

[HadesOmega]

Also you might be asking why not the ID BDR Merlin? Well I thought of doing ID TAT + BDR then I realize they go totally different directions. Idaho is HUGE south to north. It's literally WA and OR put together. It's got thaf chimney or panhandle. I was thibking about doing ID BDR and then cross over and do the WABDR but would take a while and I want to finish the TAT so here I am. Sooo in the future ID + WA BDR! Also I heard ID and WA are the easiest of BDRs. I've ridden NV and CA and those were actually tge hardest haha!


One thing about the TAT is time changes. You lose time going to the TAT but gain it when you ride it. BDR doesn't do that it's isually south to north.

 

[budman]

Sweet Man! :ride

Adventure is in the soul. Seems to me you have a lot of it!

 

[HadesOmega]

Day 7 of my TAT adventure. Camped by the Boise South Fork River last night. The Sawtooth forest has mamy places along the road you can camp at kind of like Ebbets pass but it goes for miles and miles. I picked a campsite right next to the water. There was just enough space to squeeze my bike and tent in there. Washed my feet in the freezing cold river too.

I literally spent a whole day riding on dirt. There are so many dirt roads in Idaho they stretch for miles and miles. They are dirt teisties sometimes. The closer you get to civilization you will notice more and more people appearing.

Today I passed through featherville a small town amd had brunch at the cafe there. I told the dude I was riding the TAT and he knew exactly what I was talking about I asked if he gets people from the BDR also and he said yes. I told him that Featherville is where the TAT and BDR intersect each other. Pretty cool.

Then I rode more dirt and followed the river for what seems lile forever with epic views. Eventually the road stops following right next to the river and starts rising. It just goes higher and high and I reach Arrowhead Reservoir. Huge reservoir and we're riding around it on a dirt road. At the end is the Arrowhead dam pretty cool. You can also see the spillway around one corner. It was slow going lots of twists and turns and sand, gravel, amd rocks on the road. Plus there was significantly more traffic now.

Then i reach a highway and head to Idaho City. It's this really old town. They had one gas station with non ethanol gas that was lile pre-covid gas prices, so I only put in 2 gallons. I had a fish and chips at Trudy's Kitchen and an orea cake. Then I head back out on the TAT. Another really wide twisty dirt road with sand thrown all over it. I ride this road to Horseshoe Bend and i have to find another way to get on thr TAT because the bridge on the GPS is no longer being used blocked off. So I find a setour and hope back on the TAT and ride dirty canyon road for a couple miles. Then arrive in a farm lands again.

It getting late and I need to find a place to sleep and I ride by the Montour Campground. I asked the camp hose where I can tent camp amd he said anywhere the sprinkler won't get you. I asked where do I pay and he said no pay because covid19 the government doesn't collect campground fees for now. Lucky free camping. Its a nice clean campground. I'm also lower elevation so ot's warmer too. Like 3000feet finally. Still cold as I type this. in my tent like 40F. Good thing there is signal here. I'm at the final stretch of thr Idaho TAT tomorrow I will bid farewell to Idaho and start the OR TAT! Hopefully I can find a decent hotel room it's about time . When they say Idaho has some remote places they weren't kidding.

 

[HadesOmega]

It's the end of Day 9 and I'm in a hotel room in John Day, Oregon. I crossed into Oregon yesterday, I could tell I was in Oregon when there was a sign that said HELMETS REQUIRED haha. Sorry Harley dude's you gotta wear helmets now. I've been able to ride about 120 miles a day average. From what I have seen so far Idaho and Oregon TAT are very similar. It starts off with farms, then desert, then forest. The riding is great, many different types of dirt road, sandy, grravelly, silty, etc... Nothing too hard. There are some funky tracks on the TAT that take you through some cattle areas that seem unnecessary.

Last night I camped at Malheur Reservoir. tt's in the desert with pretty much no facilities exect a boat ramp, some really no well kept bathrooms, and a water spigot. I was hoping the camping temps would be better but they are still pretty cold like 40F. So warm in the day. Looks like I'll be getting some rain on the TAT in a day or two. Not looking forward to it. THe farther I go west the more smoke I see.

Oregon has these long sections. Today I stretched my gas tank out to 200 miles. So if you do the ID or OR TAT make sure your bike can do 200 miles minimum range. With my Acerbix 6.6gallon tank it's no problem but I dread topping it up makes the bike so heavy.

It's beautiful in Oregon, just lots of dirt roads to ride not many towns in between.

 

[Titus58]

Great stuff Merlin--you rock! Thanks for taking us along :thumbup

I was thinking about you re the weather; the rain you're going to get is part of a strong system coming in from the North that looks like it will hit WA and OR pretty hard, which will be great for the fires but not so much for the dirt trails. It was originally forecast to swing down deep into norcal (which would have been great) but that's no longer the expectation.

How far West does the OR TAT go? Will you make it all the way to the Pacific? It looks like it follows some of the Oregon trail, which I believe parallels the Columbia river; beautiful country to be riding a moto in (weather permitting :teeth).

Keep the reports and pics coming...you're almost at the finish line!
/Tim

 

[HadesOmega]

Day 11... COLD AND RAINY mostly. Yesterday was such a great day of riding. I rode almost 200 miles. Lots of forest riding, not hard just long. I've been having a lot of electronics problems with usb chargers. I brought 3 portable usb chargers and one just crapped out on me. Forgetting to plug in the microphone in the morning also. I've had my action camera freeze on me twice and I need to hard reset it. I made it to the town of Prineville and had dinner at the Taco bell. I pretty much ran the tank to 200 miles too! That 6.6 gallon tank goes the distance! I buy one of those solar powered charging battery banks to try it out because I could use one more charger. I could strap it to my luggage and have it charge while I ride in the day.

After leaving Prineville the idea was to camp along what's called the crooked river highway. It's this cool paved canyon with a river curving with it. Lots of campgrounds, it was a BLM area also. It was $8 to camp, kind of strange since BLM doesn't usually charge but they were nice. I stopped by each one and decided to camp at Poison Butte because it was the smallest and one one person camping there. The best thing of all is the temperature. It around 1830 and it still like 80F out. This was the best night of camping the whole trip probably never dipped below 60 at night. Well next morning would suck...

After the great camping I knew I was in for some rain so I got the tarp out for the first time this trip. Made sure everything was in the tent or luggages. I slept great. I wake up like 730 and hear a light sprinkle. I was like looks like it didn't rain. I get up and use the restroom and I shit you not in that short span of time it starts raining!

So I say aww I wanted to pack my stuff up dry guess that's not going to happen. I hangout till 1000 to see if the rain stops. It lightens up so I start packing my wet tent and hit the road. I am wearing all my layers 4 layers! The road is wet so I take it easy. Check out the last 2 camp grounds and the dam. You get to ride across the Prineville dam pretty cool. There is a boatramp at the reservoir also but it's closed.

I ride on and it's a twisty road till it hits a dirt road. Real easy to ride I hit 70 in a couple sections. Eventually I get to a desert area. I rip through it and we are in the deschutes forest I think. Crazy it just goes from desert to forest. The weather looks good too. I ride through the forest and I call the roads red road and grey road. The red roads are red graded dirt roads but its slightly washboardy. The grey roads are narrower and not as flat but smoother. I rode through an OHV area and the road gets a bit whoopy too. Crazy you area riding through miles of forest surrounding you.

I try to ride this trail called China Hot I saw it on the map and it goes around in a spiral. I rode it and it's defintily for a dirtbike. Some sections like a single tracks and brushing up on little trees. You can see someone road this a while back. I got a great shot halfway though but I couldn't make it to the end because it was blocked by 2 uprooted trees =(. So I turn around and head back and by the time I made it back the weather went to shit. i get back on track and eventually get to newberry volcanic national monument. It was about 7k feet so it's now cold and rainy. I was so miserable. This is also a national park. I take some pics of Pauline Lake and find a campground and hangout at the restroom to get out of the rain. I eat a snack and summon the courage to head back out. I'm miserable cold and fogging bad. I have to take this paved twisty road and my fingers were so cold even with the heated grips on high. I had to get off this. Luckily I'm crusin along and there is a dirt section next and it was such a relief riding through it. The dirt roads are much nicer to ride than the paved roads. I cruise through the forest and dropped a whole lot like from 7k ft to like 3k feet at the end of the dirt road and I take this paved road to La Pine and here I am having a steak dinner. I think I will head out on the TAT and camp somewhere. It's gonna be a cold night but I think the worst of the rain has passed. I was looking at the mountain I was riding on earlier at the park and it literally in the clouds no wonder ot was so cold and wet. Like 30F cold. Time to gas up and head back out!

Almost done a day or two and I will be at Port Orford and will have completed 100% of the TAT!

 

[Tom G]

Think of getting a car charger (12V) for you gadgets, they come with up to 3A USB output (5V obviously). That way you can charge while you ride (disconnect it when the engine stops or you may drain the battery). I sometimes charged my Sena or phone while riding that way.

 

[HadesOmega]

Yep that's what I do. I have portable USB chargers that I charge on the bike while riding. I use it to charge my cameras when one runs out of charge I swap cameras and charge the one that is dead.

 

[HadesOmega]

Day 14 Return 2 Tat Adventure

AND I'M HOME! I completed the Oregon TAT and the TAT in all of it's entirety 100% Monday October 12, 2020. Took me 3 years to do it all but finally! There wasn't a big party at the end but there there was a beach sand adventure that involved calling the police to help me get my bike unstuck from the beach before the tied swallowed it up, more details on that later. I arrive at Port Orford and Paradise Point where the TAT ends that night. Wasn't glorious, the whole trip there was NO EVIDENCE at all that you were riding the TAT, I did find a sticker in the forest on the TAT's gnarliest section which was on the last day of the OR TAT that said Trans-AM 500 on it.

I will probably post about this trail in detail later but here is the sticker and I just googled it and the Trans-Am 500 sticker is Jenny Morgan's sticker! It was when she rode the TAT with her CB500X Rally Raid. Hah what a fitting place to put it and find it, because that trail was the gnarliest trail I rode on the TAT. I actually met her at a Horizon's Unlimited HUBB meeting a couple years ago just before I rode the TAT. Anyway that was the only evidence I had seen that I was riding the TAT. No TAT stops, no stickers, etc... anywhere besides maybe word of mouth like the dude in the Featherville Cafe. The Hotel I stayed at also knew about the TAT also.

Check it out the sticker she put is in this post. Someone must have put the 2nd sticker after.
https://www.cb500x.com/index.php/topic,6457.msg61732.html#msg61732

This is where I found the sticker. Don't let the picture fool you this is like a break area before you have to go up the next steep rocky climb section.

Anyway I will go over the trip in more detail from here on out since I am home. I did a half iron butt (500 miles in 15 hours) to make it home from Port Orford. I just wanted to jet home because the weather was just miserable in Oregon towards the end of the TAT. I was also just drained. I had pretty much not taken any breaks from riding almost. I rode everyday and it took it's toll on my body. When the weather went to crap it took it's toll also. All I have to say is my days of doing these epic adventure riding trips is numbered. My hands started cramping up and I have a bad ankle that becomes more painful after long days of riding. The DR is so bad at long stretches of paved riding at high speeds. You can bet that I was wishing I had a larger adventure bike with a twin and smoother engine by the time I got home. My wrist was in so much pain and I was using the grip donut to hold the throttle and I was falling a sleep.

I had a lot of fun on the trip home though I stopped by many places along the the way. I have actually ridden through this part of Oregon and driven in a Prius many years ago so I wasn't a stranger to it but this time I was doing it on my own so I could stop wherever I felt like. I did my usual thing and stopped and take pictures along the way. Also going south along the coast is better for taking picture's because you are already on the side that is by the water, you don't have to cross over.

Here's a recap of the day. I packed my bags and loaded them onto the Cactus Puncher at the Sea Crest Motel. This was literally the only hotel in town I could find a room at when after my sandy beach adventure. The room wasn't even cleaned I think and there was white dog hair all over the room. I mentioned it to JJ the guy working in at the hotel office before I took off. He took a look at it and was like oh no that's not cool let me see if I can return some of your money for that. So he gave my $25 back, the price of the room was $75. I feel that was a fair compensation, I seriously wasn't happy with the room but it was late and I was tired, it was a step up from sleeping in a tent at least, still kinda gross. My guess is they had forgotten to clean the room and he set me up with it, probably doesn't help I came on short notice, but I was lucky because the office closed just as I got the room.

Anyway I set out and head back to Paradise Point and take pictures and NOT RIDE DOWN THE BEACH since it was night when I arrived I couldn't get pictures. The weather was all wet and starting to rain. Miserable riding conditions

DON'T GO DOWN HERE!

Paradise Point

The sand here is nastly don't go down here, it's like quicksand.

 

[HadesOmega]

After I get gas and air up my tires. I let air out at the beach to hopefully get more traction. I rode to this vista point at the harbor where you can watch whales and take some pictures. No whales right now unfortunately. I have actually been to Port Orford before when I rode through here with my buddy and his brother a while back so it brought back memories for sure. I air up but uh oh I take the air pump out air is leaking out of the valve! There was sand stuck in the valve! Also I don't have a valve cap on the rear wheel So I get a valve core remover tool I keep on the bike from a slime I used (I collect them you never know when they come in handy they're plastic though ) and I loosen and tighten the valve and it works it sealed again. So I pump it up and the front to like 28R 25F and hit the road.

I take some picture at Battle Rock on the way out. It's also at Port Orford.

It's wet and raining. Miserable riding conditions. I made sure and put my frogtogs wet weather pants on before moving out. I was wearing all everything but my thermal jacket also.

As I continue south on the Oregon Coast Highway 101 the weather slightly gets better. That's the theme for the whole ride, the weather got better as I went further south. I was also hungry because I hadn't eaten dinner since all the restaurants in town were closed when I got done riding the TAT and they don't open till like 11. It's a small town.

I take pictures a long the way of the coast, beautiful ride it is.

I stopped by Brookings and finally find a place to eat. I had a hankering for some seafood since I'm by the ocean. I found a restaurant called the Happy Clam near the marina that has fried seafood. It was really good, it was oysters, calmari, fish, tater tots, shrimp, and hush puppies. It was great and you could tell it was very fresh since we at the ocean! I ate it on a table outside near my bike. This was $20 btw.

With food in the stomach we set out again and it didn't take long we crossed the California border. I took a picture at the sign and rode through the inspection building. Haha I gave the dude waving people by a fist pump and announced YAY I'm home gain! And he replied WELCOME BACK!

 

[HadesOmega]

So onward we go down the coastal highway. I take a bunch of pictures along the way.

I stop by this tree near Klamath where you can drive your car through and take a picture of the DR inside the tree. It was $3 for motorcycles to ride around the corner and see it but I only had a $5 on me. It's ok keep the change.

Also took pictures of the pair of golden bears on the Klamath bridge.

Took a break at an Elk Meadow but there weren't any Elks. A number of years ago I camped around here with some friends and did see elk.