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.