TAT old and new mixed

And the most known island, Wizard Island.


It was great to see this phenomenal Nature Monument again.
After the side trip I rode back to the TAT and followed mostly gpsKevin's blue route and changed towards the end of the day to the green route. A lot of forest roads and sections have been burned some time ago.


I have planned to stay tonight at the South Umpqua Falls Campground or the Ash Flat Campground. On the net it says highly frequented and I hope that I find a spot.
Before setting up the tent or the night I wan to checkout the Fire Lookout Acker Rock.
The road did not go up as far as I thought but after the hike trough the woods I'm rewarded with a stunning view.

And this place can also be rent for the night, but you have to be fast. There is a high demand. When I went there to see the place, it was booked by a young couple and they did that in the beginning of the year.


Than back to the campground, just before crossing the river.


The campground was empty. And when I say empty I mean empty. I went to check out the Ash Flat Campground but that was even worse. In the middle of the trees and also not one soul.
So back to the first site and I took a good look around. It was not comforting that at one site the trash was laying all over the place. At least this campground was fairly open.
Set up tent and had dinner. After that I did the only time on the trip the bear storage for my food up the tree. Anyway the night was good just very cold (no problem).
Of course there where animals walking around and you could hear branches cracking but as far as I know there was no bear visit.

Nice photo eye! I enjoy the fact, that you rode more of the TAT rather than by passes.

5th September
Day 31

Final Day to the coast! It is going to be a long day.


The sun didn't make it to dry the tent early enough and it was cold.
The route continues through the woods and up and down on the mountains. Thankfully as it was always warmer the higher I got.


At one stage I had to ride on paved road and bypass about 3 miles of the TAT as it was closed due to firefighting. Soon after being back on the TAT I came to this hard section. the road became smaller and rockier. The picture doesn't show it at all, but the road came around a corner and than a steep climb up.
The pic is downhill. 1st attempt failed as I came on loose rocks. As I stoppend and applied the brakes I went downhill with the brakes on! Thankfully I didn't fall.
Second time I knew which line to take and I made it up. No way I would have made this with a bigger bike. There are many roads through the woods but I wanted to follow the TAT. This section is on both Sams and gpsKevins route.


From here on it was no problem.

Shortly before Glendale I came out of the forest.


In Glendale the only Gas Station. It is located outside of Glendale and the host knows much about the TAT. He actually is a good source for road closure information.
Refill for the bike and myself, a quick chat and I hit the road again. As there are forest fires around I have no Idea if I will make it to the coast today.


On the last stretch I followed the blue track of gpsKevin's route. The views are great and the road was good.

Sometimes I was on paved roads for a short time and than the smoke became thicker and blocked the sun so much that it felt like late in the afternoon.


In the beginning of Oregon I was surprised that there where not so many trees. Now I cannot say that anymore. Most of the afternoon the only view I had was trees.


Here is the goal of the day written on the sign!

No problem, but I should have been warned.


I have seen this section when looking for the TAT. This section with the fallen rocks is only on gpsKevin's route. And I wanted to see it.
At the first corner where just a few rocks and an impressive view up.


And than the tricky part as expected. Do not fall! it is very steep on the right side.

And than the problems really started. Many trees have been down. I was still lucky as there have been riders through here before. Still struggeling.

But I made it. After passing the actually closed road section (there was a sign on the end of that part) it was not much left to the coast.


Final stretch mainly on paved road, and than I was at the destination.


I had planned to celebrate the completion of the TAT, but for what ever reason the restaurant on site was closed and so was the hotel I wanted to stay.
The prices are high on the other options so it was camping again.


So here I am, have still time left, what shall I do now?
My friend Ken, whos help was priceless to me, was at this time in North California on a bike trip. The following day I wanted to visit him and than maybe do the Idaho part of the TAT backwards.
For all which are interested on Sams Idaho section of the TAT, stay tuned.
For the rest, thanks for following. Hope you enjoyed.

Great report! I think there is a vid on "thetube" of a couple of guys who maybe did the bushwhacking for you along that last stretch with all the downed trees in Oregon... 2 guys on a couple KLR's, they came to a road closed sign at the end of it as well. They were almost out of gas as well and ended up pushing the bikes a lot of the way to save fuel!

I for one enjoyed it. Thanks for taking the time to do a RR.

Great report! Keep going, I'm in

Congratulations, really enjoyed following along and will stayed tuned for Idaho.

Great report and pictures. I find myself very frustrated with all your flats. I never had a single flat when I rode the trail.

With the frequency of them, to me, you had to have had something else going on. The chronic diagnostician in me makes me want to know.

Curious..........Besides the possibility of you pinching a tube during install........
Did you run your hand around the "inside" the of tires to be sure there were no thorns that kept damaging the tubes.
Did you check for spokes sticking up too high inside the rim? Were you running a rim strip?
Did you check for any metal burrs within the rim, caused by your tire tools, that could be damaging the tube?
Are you running rim locks on both rims?

Curious to know what kind of damage to the tubes you kept finding.

And I'm guessing you were running any sealant in the tubes?

Great ride and great ride report!

Great ride report @MotoPet!!!
This is my dream ride!

Yes, I have seen this vid afterwards.
I have to thank them for all the hard work. If they would not have done this I would have need to turn around.
Thankfully fuel was not an issue for me.

I'm not sur if it is allowed to post links to youtube, so I don't. But for all who are interested on the guys struggle I post the title. That should make it easy to find.
STRANDED IN THE OREGON WILDERNESS (WITH NO GAS) | Trans America Trail [ Episode 15 ]
STILL STRANDED IN THE OREGON WILDERNESS... | Trans America Trail [ Episode 16 ]

Thanks for the thoughts. I'm pretty sure that the main contributor to the flats have been the age of the tubes and the poor performance from me.
I did check the inside of the tire and there was nothing, although I noticed that the TKC 80 has a very thin wall. Also the rim

and the rim band​

was good.
After installing a brand new tube the issues where gone.

The only rear flat was due to a small nail I picked up on the road. So just bad luck on that one.

No rim locks used.

Fantastic RR. Thanks for the info and the effort!

6th, 7th September
Day 32-33

These two days have been just to visit my friend in Eureka. Enjoyed a nice dinner and than head towards Crescent (Oregon).
Crescent is the town where the New Idaho part of Sams TAT route is joining the Old route on the way to Port Orford.

I didn't make it all the way and had to stop just past Medford. The amount of smoke in the air was unbelievable due to all the forest fires.
On the way it showed again how small the difference between loosing all and have no issue, as there where houses surrounded by burned trees, but the houses have been not damaged.

I stayed in the Valley of the Rouge State Park. It was fully booked (not all showed up) but a kind family shared their sport with me.

8th September
Day 34

Passing through Crescent to be finally on the new route.


First the road is as I have already seen. Forest but sandy roads. But than it runs through the Newberry Volcanic National Monument.
I have never heard about these two lakes. Very nice. The Route leads out in the back where is no toll station.


Just east of the lake I saw a mountain with a road climbing up by circling around. So I thought there must be a great view from top.
No it was not. So you have to be satisfied with the pic below. Still a nice view with all the trees.


The rout turns north and after some time into a valley.