ITTOG's Overlanding Trips

[ITTOG]

Day 3
I woke up about 7:30 AM but was in some pain so I stayed in bed until about 9 AM. The temp was 33F this morning, the coldest so far and by far the best. There was a lot of fog out on the top of the hills this morning.

The first thing on the agenda today was to assess the damage, to the bike and me. This is at least the second time the toolbox has needed to be replaced. Maybe the third time? I keep my beer in the tool box so it is one of the most critical parts of the bike.




This is however, the first time the handlebars have needed to be replaced. This pic is after I had bent the bar up a couple inches.


Luckily there was not more damage to the bike. Or at least I haven't found it yet. Now, transitioning to me, surprisingly the swelling has already gone down and I am not bruised very badly. This is the only picture because that was it. I guess I should be glad it didn't look as bad as it hurt. But that kind of makes me look like a wuss.


With that complete it was time to determine what to do. I primarily wanted to go home but if I did, everyone would know I had an accident and given I wasn't planning to let anyone know any time soon that wouldn't work. Also, I had planned to go to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Reserve in Southwest Oklahoma for a few days, so explaining why I didn't go was going to be difficult enough. So I knew I had to stay at camp and my options were to hang out at the cabin or hit the trails. Of course I chose to hit the trails.

Before hitting the trail I got a nice pic of the trailer after it dried. You can also see I painted the Platinum placard on my track black. I hate chrome/alloy and am in the process of removing all of it.


After making some basic repairs to the bike and getting the bike loaded with food and beer (a lot less than yesterday) it was time to depart. It was a little after 10:30 AM when I left. I had decided to see what the trail was like going to the Turkey Hunters cabin but I didn't get far due to the cabins on the main road. I remember them being there but it had been so long I thought I would see if it looked like they were still being used. The first cabin looked brand new. It had a G on it so I added it as a waypoint in my GPS. After this cabin there were many more starting to appear so I once again turned around. So I decided to go to the Bear Hunters Cabin and then go on the northwest trail that I had never been on. But I am getting ahead of myself and decided to stop at a couple of our normal spots first. It is always hard to pass water and waterfalls without stopping, no matter the size.




I also went by the giant rock slab we usually stop at but wasn't there long enough to get a picture. I arrived at Bear Hunters just before noon so I decided to have lunch. While there I noticed someone knocked down the dead tree that had been there and was a staple in most of our pictures. Now it is just a portion of the trunk (in the middle of the photo).




I often see boulders off the side of our trails but rarely think much of it. This time I took a picture.


To be continued...

 

[nathane]

Glad your ankle is not to badly hurt. I was worried for you there. I broke mine 30 months ago and it's only in the last 2 months that I have got properly back to running again without pain. Take it easy and try not to crash

 

[ITTOG]

Glad your ankle is not to badly hurt. I was worried for you there. I broke mine 30 months ago and it's only in the last 2 months that I have got properly back to running again without pain. Take it easy and try not to crash

Thanks. Luckily nothing was broken but I am still limping around a bit. I haven't tried running but hope to within the next couple months.

Sorry to hear about your ankle. They are definitely hard joints to heal.

 

[BritKLR]

Great trip report! Gotta say, two wheels might be safer! ??

Just kidding! Be safe.

 

[ITTOG]

Thanks @BritKLR. I can't imagine how dangerous I might be on two wheels but as I told you in your trip thread, I may have to get one and go on the trip with you some time.


Not long after leaving the Bear Hunters cabin I came across a cabin I had never seen and checked it out. It didn't look like anyone had been there in a long time. It also had a gravestone beside it.




As I was getting back on the bike to leave I noticed I only had half a tank of fuel, which is three bars, and realized I had forgotten to top it off this morning. Unbelievable. I figured I was probably 1/3 of the way and should have enough fuel to complete my trip but a little uncertainty was definitely in the back of my mind.

It was probably only ten minutes on the trail and I saw this old style wheel so I figured I needed to get a picture. It was new enough to have steel spokes instead of wood.


Not sure what it was but based on this section of it I thought it may have been an old trailer.


Not much later I stopped again for a refreshment. While I was there two side by sides came by and we had a good conversation about the hills and different areas. Probably the best discussion with a stranger I have ever had down there. They told me where their cabin was and to come by anytime. They were near where I was this morning, by the G Cabin. One was driving a Honda General and the other was driving a Honda Talon. The talon looked really nice. Reminded me of the Canam's.

As I was about to take off I noticed I was down to the last two bars, out of six, on my fuel gauge. At this point the stress started building. I am about halfway and definitely not sure I can walk to camp.

I also decided I had to get the customary flexed suspension pic. Funny thing is they don't flex much, especially when there is no weight on it.


When I got to waypoint "Heels Over Head" (mentioned above) I decided to turn onto a trail I hadn't been on in nine or ten years. I knew it connects to where I was headed but wasn't sure exactly where. The reason it was worthwhile is because it would reduce my total distance. Unfortunately, I didn't have the track on my GPS because it had been removing old tracks due to lack of space available. Knowing finding the turn would be difficult, off I went. After about 45 minutes I started wondering if I missed my turn but hadn't seen anything yet to know for sure. I didn't want to turn back and risk adding mileage. So I continued and about ten minutes later I had my answer. Once I saw the yellow house on stilts I knew I missed my turn. So I turned around and felt pretty confident I knew where the turn was but the stress of running out of fuel was getting stronger. After about 15 minutes I was at the turn and feeling confident. Even though I had that confidence, my mind was stuck on trying to reduce how far I would have to walk to camp. That is right, not if I would have to walk but how far. With the building stress I failed to take anymore pictures and was solely focused on saving fuel.

Back on the correct trail I quickly came to a y in the road. I made a quick decision and turned right. A few minutes later I came to a black double gate, which I remembered from the previous year. But I didn't remember driving around it so I decided I should have turned left at the y. So I turned around for a second time. Luckily I only had to back track for a few minutes so it shouldn't be a big deal. So I get to the y again and this time I turn right. Feeling relieved I was on the right trail I was cruising along and had to come to an abrupt stop because the trail just ended into a round camping area with no other trail out. This clearly is not the right way so I turned around for the third time today. Who knows how much fuel I had wasted. So I drove back to the y and turned the bike off. I analyzed my GPS to see if I could figure out the correct direction but didn't have any luck. I decided I needed to go look at the black double gate again. I thought we may have found a trail around it and I just didn't see it the first time. The trails change a lot over the course of a year. Wanting to conserve fuel in case I was wrong I decided to walk the trail even though I was hurting and it was uphill. Once I get all the way to the gate I see there is a trail to the right that takes you a little further up the mountain and realize this is the trail I need. Clearly, the first time I stopped too soon to see the trail split off to the right. What a stupid mistake. Clearly the stress is causing poor decisions. Wow, I guess this is how people die in the woods. I don't have to worry about that because I know how to get back to camp, I am just trying to get back on the bike. So I walked back to the bike with a renewed confidence and feeling better about my fuel situation.

When I arrived at the bike I was a bit hot and decided to have a beer. Once that was chugged, I jumped on the bike and turned the key on. Almost immediately I hear a loud beep because the gas is now down to the last bar. Renewed confidence gone in a heartbeat and stress at its highest point. All I can think about is I am going to have to walk back to camp to get gas. The question is, given it was late afternoon, at what point does this begin and is it in daylight or dark. So from this point forward I decide to start turning the bike off on all downhill trails and coast in an attempt to save gas. This means I will not be able to stop at one of my favorite spots (the one from yesterday where I talked about the creek being low due to lack of snow and/or rain). I figure I have about six miles to get back to camp. Given I am hurting I am not sure I can walk more than a couple miles I am concerned and once again I think about people getting lost and how they panic and make bad decisions.

Back on the trail I was able to coast a good distance with the motor off given I had been climbing over the past half hour. Soon, I was on the trail that led back to camp and I was feeling confident again. Still concerned I may have to walk but feeling better about being on the trail I wanted to be on. I came across another new cabin with a giant grill out front. I had forgotten about this cabin so I didn't stop long but did stop long enough to create a waypoint for it.

I ended up making it to camp without running out of gas and before dark. I thought for sure I was going to have to walk and get the gas can and take it back to the bike. What a relief that wasn't required. I decided I wanted to know how much fuel was in the tank and decided to put a stick in the gas tank. There was 2.5" of gas in the tank. Completely full it would have been almost 10". I think I was a little perturbed it showed I was on the last bar for so long. Then I was perturbed that I didn't think to check it out on the trail. If I had, I probably would have known it would not be an issue. Oh well, we never stop learning.

Per my GPS the high temp for the day was 54.9F. Not a lot of distance but you can see I drove all the way around a mountain.




I ended up eating an early dinner and began wondering what I would do until bed time. I also knew they were forecasting rain during the night and in the morning. Not wanting to pack up in the rain and after thinking about it a little while, I decided I didn't see any reason to burn time in camp when I could be driving home. So I started packing and at 7:52 PM I put the truck in drive and drove away. After a little over an hour I left the ranch property and hit pavement. The plan was to drive until I was tired and then take a nap.

 

[ITTOG]

Day 3+1
At midnight I was still driving and feeling okay. I arrived home at 2:40 AM. I went upstairs to sleep so I wouldn't bother my wife and I didn't want to get into my bed dirty. I decided to check out my ankles before I got into my sleeping bag and saw the bruising had increased. At least most of the swelling was gone.






When I woke up, too early, it was good to be home and not have a long drive ahead of me. This allowed me to unpack the trailer and truck and have plenty of time left in the day. Leaving last night was a good decision.


The stats and trails of all three days are shown below. I covered a lot of ground and had a lot of fun.




That is the end of the trip but I actually made another quick trip to go ride last weekend and this past weekend I started tearing down the bike to look at steering issues I have now. So I guess I will be putting a build/repair post together.

 

[ITTOG]

Bozeman, Montana
Not really an overlanding trip but there are enough pictures that are similar I decided to share.



The overlanding got started a lot sooner than expected when we got stuck in the driveway before even unpacking! It doesn't look like much but that front wheel drive minivan was stuck like it was on ice. I jumped out to push while my daughter drove and it wasn't moving. After a few attempts I looked at the dash and somehow the emergency brake was set. One of us must have bumped it getting out/in. After turning that off I was able to push it out easy enough. A memory we will probably always remember.


Looking at the Bridger mountains off the back deck of the VRBO cabin.


We loved all the wildlife we saw every morning and night. We saw a huge herd of Elk but they were far from the road and a picture wasn’t taken.


We woke early the first day and drove to Big Sky. We were on the mountain about 30 minutes before they opened. The wind was brutal at about 35 mph. I think we lost a lot of our excitement for a bit. Luckily it died down before lunch and then we received several inches of powder so a great day on the slopes!

 

[ITTOG]

The next day we went hiking around the Hyalite Reservoir. First, on the reservoir and as you can see there was snow all around us. Which made us very happy. When you live in the South just can't get enough snow.




What a beautiful shot! Snow-covered trees and more of it coming down. This trail was on the way to Grotto Falls Trail. With this beautiful as it was this hike was entirely too short. But it was a good one for my wife and daughter to begin on. As we moved further from the trailhead my daughter and wife started talking about bears. They quickly decided that the likelihood would be low given most would still be in hibernation. I didn't have the heart to tell them that mountain lions were a real threat. Luckily we did not run into anything of concern.


Unfortunately it was too cold for any real waterfall but it was a nice area regardless. The actual waterfall is on left and it is so frozen is snow-covered. We could hear a little water running underneath it.


We read there was a trail taking you to the grotto so we decided to follow that route through the snow.


This is looking back at the trail we came in on.


After the Grotto we decided to do the Palisade Falls Trail but when we got to the trailhead the snow was close to two feet deep and no one had been on it. Thus we decided we would skip that trail. I was kind of glad because I was only in jeans and a hoodie. Which was fine for me but given I would have to break trail it would have become an issue. After we got home from our vacation I read about a man that unfortunately lost his life in the area of this trail while looking for sheds. Unfortunately he ran into a grizzly.

After a long day of driving and hiking everyone was excited to see the deer.

 

[ITTOG]

The next day we headed back to the slopes. Luckily there was no wind this time.


I captured this angelic picture of the kids even though they are far from angelic.




For all of us, this guy was the highlight of the trip. I believe his name is Max. We ran into him at the Montana Grizzly Encounter. I believe they said he was about three years old and weighed 750 pounds.






One of our last activities was another hike. The girls decided they wanted something more challenging so we decided to hike the College M Steep Trail. Usually I am game for any hike but with my hip problems I was not looking forward to this one. The length is only 1.3 miles but the elevation gain is 935 feet. So it is fairly steep. After gaining about 100 vertical feet I realize nobody brought water so I volunteered to go back to the car to get it. Wanting to catch up with everyone I decided to do it in a slow jog. This was a huge mistake. By the time I caught up with them I was winded and hurting and it wasn't much further when I decided I was not going to make it. I figure I was at 400 feet of gain. I started to turn around but my pride wouldn't let me go too far. I decided I would take baby steps and that actually helped relieve some of the pain.


Luckily we all made it to the top enjoyed the views before heading back down.


The next day we went back to the bear encounter and then caught our flight home. Another great vacation with the family was in the books.




Until next time...

 

[ITTOG]

I can't have a dog because my daughter is deathly allergic. Thus I play with my neighbors Belgian Malinois. She is my running partner and loves to play fetch with balls. She is about 80 pounds. My neighbor says she is abnormally large. She is unbelievably smart.

We just completed a 3 mile run.

 

[ITTOG]

I just realized I never posted my families Spring Break pics that might be of interest here. For the 15+ time we went to Breckenridge. We may ended up buying our retirement home in the area????

As usual, the rental car places at the Denver airport never have the car I reserved, a 4x4 Yukon. This time it was even worse and they provided two cars instead, one didn't even have four wheel drive. Twice while we were there it snowed and the plow blocked the Camry in. Nothing like a good shovel job to start the day. Good thing I get up early.


The VRBO we rented had a hot tub leak.


We snowmobiled to the continental divide. This is my son and his girlfriend.


This fox really liked this place. My guess is the people that stayed there before us must have fed it. He came by almost every day.




My son, daughter, and I love to ski and this is one of our favorite lifts.


These rides would be nice to overland in.

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

Sometimes I miss having draft horses. A lot of work though.

 

[Todd780]

Looks like an amazing trip and a good time was had by all!

Minus the Camry. It doesn't look like it's having fun....

 

[tgil]

Breck is a yearly trip for us. I have a nephew that moved there, after college, and is living my dream!
I had hoped to retire there as well, but will likely have to settle on another area of the state. I have close to 10 years before that's much worry!

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

[ITTOG]

Breck is a yearly trip for us. I have a nephew that moved there, after college, and is living my dream!
I had hoped to retire there as well, but will likely have to settle on another area of the state. I have close to 10 years before that's much worry!

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

We are looking at that area as well. Probably north of or closer to Silverthorne or Dillon to get away from Breck a little. We have been so much it is like our second home.