When I left the flee hotel, I went straight to the Dry Creek General Store to top off fuel and pump my veins with caffeine. I didn’t get much sleep from some unwelcome bugs and wanted to be able to concentrate on the trail. Things got very interesting throughout the day. The trail, leading out of Dry Creek, was just breathtaking. Awesome roads with a steady incline and I felt like I was riding mountain sides all morning. 
It was literally like this from 8am until 11am. What a treat for the second to last section of the trip. Then things got pretty damn sketchy. I was on a remote trail that kept looking over the mountains and I could see a wall of smoke that kept creeping towards me. 
The trail ended up taking me to a dead end. It looks like the state closed off the trail and did a pretty good job at it. 
There were some tracks between the rocks and over the berm, but that would require me to unload all my gear and ride the clutch over. The other side was grown over so I decided to find another route. This is where things got really crazy. The smoke started getting hazy and then thick. It ended up getting so thick I couldn’t see 20ft in front of me and there was a red glow. I then started to ride through falling ash. Adrenaline started pumping and I started riding faster. I knew I was about 10 minutes from a main road and tried to get there as fast as I could. 
I made it to the end of the road to only go into the back of a blockade. The forestry ranger wasn’t happy. He was pissed at why I went through this blockade. I explained to him the trail wasn’t blocked and showed him the road on the Garmin. He made a radio call to block the road and said I was within the 10 mile radius of the burn zone. Holy Sh*t!
He said I couldn’t reconnect on the trail and I had to detour to Tillard. I wasn’t about to do that because of fuel so I rode the paved road until I found a dirt road that would reconnect me to the trail. I finally found one and rode on! 
This is where things got crazy yet again. About 20 miles to my hotel, the trail went vertical. Pictures don’t even do it justice. It was hands down the most vertical ascent I’ve come across, even after the Colorado passes. It was straight up and thick, loose gravel. 
It had 4 switch backs to the top. (Switch back is a road that continuously switches direction dramatically). I made it past the second, only to lose traction and wreck. The situation got pretty serious. I couldn’t continue because of where the bike stopped. If I had someone with me it would be a different story. Because I was alone, the only option was to turn around and start the descent. It took me an hour to turn that bike around without it tumbling down the mountain. Riding down was also sketchy. After losing my rear brake on the Imogene Pass, my front brake was taking a beating. I made it down and found a trail to reconnect around the mountain. I FINALLY made it to the Wolf Creek Inn just outside of Glendale, Or. Believe it or not, as I’m unloading my gear off my bike, two guys roll in on a Honda 650 and a DRZ 400. They parked right next to me and they both had Tennessee plates! I was pumped! It was a father/son duo who started from South Carolina. 
The hotel was awesome which was such a change of pace from the small towns I’ve been in. They were also pumped to have riders from the Trans America Trail. 
We drank some beers together and reminisced about our travels. It was nice eat dinner with other people for once, especially guys that could relate to what I’ve gone through. Tomorrow is the last day, and hot damn was it a tough one.
Walker Benz ADV 