GRIT 1

  Stats: 112 Miles; 4:45 moving time; 13,613 vert ft climbing I woke up early with perfect weather. I raced to pack up my camp and out and backed the trail I had camped at.  I had received a message from someone watching my route to be careful on this next section of road, I didn't understand in the message but once I got on the graded road it made sense.  Someone had cut a 6 foot deep 4 foot wide trench in the middle of the road! I'm glad I stopped for the night where I did, this would have been deadly if I encountered it in the dark!   Luckily someone already had started a go around for this vandalism of a public roadway.  I encountered a couple more and then the road just abruptly ended into a recently clear cut forest.  No signs warning of recent work in the area I was confused. I found a route around this situation on the map, and it wouldn't miss any trail. My tent setup. It was so nice to be able to have all of my stuff in the tent and vestibule...

  Stats: 222 Miles; 10:14 moving time; 30,973 vert ft climbing The camp was a-buzz when I woke up, as in it sounded like there was a swarm of bees surrounding my tent! I layered up in my rain gear with my pants tucked into my socks to get out of the tent, I didn't see a single bee! Not sure where the sound was coming from I went to grab my food bag from the tree I hung it in the night before, still no bees.  I took off my silly makeshift bee keeper outfit and loaded up the bike.  The ATV trail descent flew by and before I knew it is was in Wallace. I had passed through Wallace a few years earlier when in the area for Silver Kings, so I had an idea it would be one of the bigger towns I visited with a population of nearly 1,000 people. It was only 7:30 so my first priority was find a coffee shop and to charge my devices, since I couldn't in the wet the day before. I would be waiting until 9 USPS to open and should find a spot to change my oil. The best looking coffee shop i...

 Stats: 175 Miles; 10:31 moving time; 30,191 vert ft climbing I woke up delighted it wasn't raining and that it was already light & warm out.  I packed up quickly knowing I had a full day on many trails with unknown conditions and potential to get stormed according to the forecast.  Not one to skip trails labeled as advanced I opted to take my planned route of Pot + Elizabeth Mountain trails.  Leaving camp the trail I resumed my experience the from late the night before of wet brushy bench cut and the drizzle started soon after, this would be present all day.  The brush made my clothes and bags soaking wet.  I plugged in my gps to charge and it did nothing, my charging relay was soaked from the brush, luckily it had enough juice to get me through today, and I had a full jumper pack I could charge off of if needed. I was surprised to see a handful of campers where the connector trail crossed the river at a large road before starting up Pot Mountain....

Stats: 220 Miles; 9:32 moving time; 28,063 vert ft climbing I woke up early and started my day going to the grocery store to grab a new lighter, tape, & breakfast (4 pack of muffins + coffee) while waiting for USPS to open.  I decided to pull my skid plate off to be ready to change my oil, unsure where I was going perform this ritual.   As soon as I pulled off my skid plate I found trouble, I had sheard off a bolt from my ignition cover. Totally my fault as I had put an Enduro Hog ignition guard on with big hex cap heads and it stuck out from the skid plate.  There was a small oil drip from the bolt hole and no way to remove the sheared fastener.  I decided rather than pulling the ignition cover and risk it resealing I would just quick steel over the hole to further slow the already minimal leak.  I ran back to the grocery store to get paper towels and rubbing alcohol to clean up the leak and get quick steel on it so it can cure before my oil change heat cyc...

 Stats: 194 Miles; 9:55 moving time; 20,321 vert ft climbing When the light filled the world around me, I was in wonder of how cool of a place I had camped.  The on and off drizzle made packing up camp a bit of a challenge. The first descent reminded me of some of my local Colorado trails.  At the trailhead I realized I hadn't been consuming any of the instant coffee I was hauling around, so I stopped and made some adjustments while enjoying this cold coffee in the Hydrapak flask I brought for just such an occasion. This is a great minimalist trail coffee setup, no longer will I haul around a stove just for coffee! Soon I encountered my favorite phenomenon: a singletrack gate that exists just to exist, a nod that even though your already on a motorcycle trail, only motorcycles shall pass through this gate.  The ridge was surrounded by more white granite peaks. The roads through Warm Lake were very scenic. I hopped on Burnt Log trail worried by the dead forest at the ...

Stats: 164 Miles; 9:05 moving time; 30,299 vert ft climbing I packed up at Baumgartner knowing I had some medium difficulty trail right off the bat, which I had ridden years ago.  This led me to the infamous Snowline trail which ends by crossing the Middle Fork of the Boise River.  Leading into this trip I had studied the crossing in videos, it being late in the season I knew I could cross it.  Snowline was a great trail that kept me wondering how I would possibly descend the elevation to get down to the river I could see below.   Once I reached its banks I surveyed the crossing options and walked across with my bag & electronics to place on the far side.  As I started to ride across I realized how slippery it was, and with a solid current I decided to play it safe and walk across with the bike running while I was on the downstream side of the bike.  Once across I set my boots on some rocks toes up to dry out while I had a snack. The canyon road fr...

Stats: 266 Miles; 10:47 moving time; 24,948 vert ft climbing I geared up quickly in the dark at the Cactus Pete RV park under the rotating lights of the airport.  The weather was perfect and I was on the bike just after 5:45 AM MT.  Cruising out of town the roads were the best you could want for a dirt bike.  My Baja Designs headlight did a great job lighting up the road, so I left my helmet light on low to glance at my nav which I typically let the backlight timeout on.  As soon as the sun illumined the world around me I realized I was no longer in low desert and at the edge of the forest.  Soon I was passing through trees and even saw a Moose. Leaving Jackpot & early singletrack I struggled to find the gate to get on Swanty Creek ST but luckily with all 3 GPS's I was able to navigate across the small creek and find a very poorly maintained ranch gate.  While removing it I took a piece of barbed wire in my right index finger, not a great way to st...