August 5, 2018 Pt. 1

I’ve tried all week to post but either my app crashes or I have too much to post. I decided to split it into two parts, so I can upload all my pictures and videos for these days.

I could barely sleep I was so excited. I was SO CLOSE to the finish line! I started prepping the bike around 7 am and so were the other Tennessee guys. We decided to roll together for the first part of the morning since all three of us were using the same maps. We grabbed gas and some coffee and hit the trail.

The first part of the trail was awesome. Hard packed gravel with a steady incline. The views were just awesome.

We ended up coming to a large metal gate. Of course it was locked. I had seen this gate in previous YouTube videos and on some other websites, so I knew we just had to get around it. After convincing the group it wasn’t illegal (I hope), we managed to get all three of the bikes over. There was a small area on the right that had just enough room for two tires.

As we were about to leave, a German guy on a KTM 690 and a Polish guy from NJ on a KTM 1090 rolled up. We hopped back off to help them and especially help get that big bike over. Of course they were great riders and didn’t need much help getting through.

I told those guys I was going to hang behind and film my last day. We said our goodbyes and planned on meeting back up on the beach. We ended up constantly passing each-other from bathroom breaks and rest stops. We rode together until we finally split apart around 1pm.

I rode through some gorgeous pines until I rounded the corner of mountain to what looked like a rock slide. It only got worse from there.

I ended up coming to a completely blocked path. Their was a giant boulder in the middle of the trail and the only way around was a single track wide enough to fit your handle bars. The other side was a thousand foot drop off. I decided to wait and pray those two guys were behind me. I started taking everything off my bike right before they showed up. It took every bit of all of our strength to get those bikes through. It was absolutely crazy.

The rest of the trail was rough. It took us an hour and a half to go a quarter mile. There were about 100 downed trees we had to go under, over, through and around. It was crazy. I’m so blessed to have had those guys with my for my last day. I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through it alone.