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Bikepacking NV.OR.ID. Moto Cowboy Style

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So, There we are up Onion Creek drainage with an injured rider. First things first, the Bike is OK! Evaluate the patient: nothing broken, full use of limbs, hands feet. Whoops, a little blood on your sleeve buddy. Break out the first aid; How bad is it. Mmmm kinda, open wound and road rash-ish. Luckily I can't see the damage, just getting reports from the crew. After discussion we decide the kid may need a couple of stitches and a thorough rinse.

Trouble is, we are 180 miles north of the pavement and who knows where a fire station or any real help is. At this point a guy realizes a little fore thought would have helped. The injury is Not bad enough to call in a Helo Evac. Nearest gas is something like 50 miles north in the opposite direction from Winnemucca, NV. Thing Is, we are not really certain where the nearest medical help is. Even if we knew, we Don't have the gas to get there quickly. As a Group we decide to follow our course and check in at Denio Junction for help. We needed to move gas to Tracy's bike then get moving as the sun was setting. Seems we rode another hour to one and a half to pavement, then 20-30 pavement, arriving 7:45 with the restaurant having close at 7;00pm.

You folks all know, that In a Pinch regular people make an extra effort to help. The staff of the Denio Jct Cafe were still cleaning up. They let us in and called the local EMT guy, who's day job is prospector. He arrived in about 20 minutes and pronounced CID's work good to get me through the night. Nearest ER or Urgent care is 100 miles to Burns, OR or 100 miles to Winnemucca. No gas pump until 6:00am Tuesday Morning. We decide to make camp at the airport and get gas in the AM. Should I just soldier on and stay with the Camp N Ride or pull the pin and bail. Hard to do but some times the Bail Option is wisest. There was idle talk of re-joining the ride after treatment, but I quickly realized that would risk further injury.

Tuesday AM, I call John Church the prospector / EMT and he has a can of gas. Funny, his card does not claim any medical skill. Just a guy willing to help. Information was his biggest help. Which direction to head for Med Attention. Again, a smarter guy would have the info in hand before starting out!!! Reluctantly, the Crew splits up with Ken, Chris and Tracy heading north to Fields, OR. and I take to the dreaded pavement for the 100 mile journey to Winnemucca. There is a hospital with Urgent Care and ER as needed. I really did not feel up to the return 200 miles off-road to my truck in Lovelock. I had plenty of time to think on the 1.5 hours or so and came up with a plan. 100 miles to Winnemucca for gas and a real meal; then carry on the additional 70 miles ON the Freeway to get the truck and return to Winne for treatment. What's another 3 hrs at this point. After the ride I was headed to Bozeman, so this made some sense at the time.

Back at Urgent Care Winnemucca, it turns out they don't like to stitch you up after more than 6 hrs. Treatment was clean out the wound and use three steri-strips to pull the open wound together. Bandage me up and check on it in Montana. No way I should have continued to ride with the guys. Looking back, It may have been possible to buy gas in Denio at 8:30pm and make to ride to the ER. After 200 miles of off-road etc. I was not in a mood grab a snack and head south solo into the night. We all made the best of the situation and set up camp at the airport amid a few laughs.

One week plus later, I have just been able to brush my teeth with the right arm. Another two weeks, and I figure I'm good to go. This has been rather wordy, put I hope the details will help other folks think about preparing for the un-expected. Like Tracy said, " The feeling of being a long way from nowhere is priceless". Just do yourself a favor and maximize you chances. We had the Spots and a Lorain if I had been really critical. But think of the mess getting my gear out!!

Bagstr Out

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MacDuncan -----------My Kit is a 10 year old KTM 450 ( now 525 ) MXC with a used first Gen Rekluse clutch. It has the original plates in it and the bottom end or the cases have never been opened. Head lite is from my 1995 XR 450 . My bike is lowered . I keep thinking it is going to let me down on one of these trips. But it runs like a top. I keep wanting a new 500 but my old bike keeps going.

I got the first gen Giant Loop and a old duffel bag. I got a good system and have been using it for many big trips. Realy loving the small bike on these rides. My poor BMW 800 sits a lot .

The only thing I would change is possibly getting rid of the 800 and getting a new 500 ( mabey in a few years yet LOL )

Hit a 1000 hr,s Had to put on a Yam hr. meter as Ktm did not have them in 2005.

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What Bags said. One time I was in Austin NV. talking to the locals . They had some rowdy person around and they called the NHP. Well the officer had to drive out 100 miles just to calm the guy down. Big Country !!!

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Day 4

Today we were headed to Jarbridge and beyond. Being cold at nite we don,t get that early of a start. We were rolling at 9-9:30.

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Ah finally some trees.!

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Coming into Jarbridge NV.

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We had a good meal and loaded up on supplies. Cool town and everyone we talked to was pleasant

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After some drama with Chris,s seat we made it to this little creek to camp.

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I think the one mistake we made with Bags injury was we/I forgot that the Montana's will show you where the nearest hospital is. When we hit the pavement we might have made some different decisions if we had known that there was a hospital 60 miles or so south. We still might have made the same decisions but it would have been good to know. I was a registered EMT 35 years ago but didn't know/ remember that stitches need to be done within 6 hours of an injury in most cases. I will file this info away. I'm also going to start carrying a much better first aide kit. All I've been carrying is a few band aids and a trauma compression bandage that I could not find in the bottom of my backpack.

MacDuncan, I made the mistake of believing the weather reports. This is the 2nd time in the last two months that weather reports have been way wrong. When I went mountain climbing the reports said rain everyday so I carried lots of rain gear. The weather was beautiful all week long on the mountain and I had lots of gear I didn't need. On this ride every site I checked said days in the low 80's and over night lows around 50. So I took my 45 degree sleeping bag and froze a couple of nights. One night I think the temps were in the high 20's. I had a bag liner that helped a little but it was still cold. The lesson is always be prepared for colder/hotter/dryer/wetter weather than predicted. I would have still had rain gear on my mountain climb just less of it and I will never use my 45 degree bag again if camping above 6k feet.

CiD

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Glad Bagstr is ok. His incident is a stark reminder of quickly things can go bad in the backcountry. 100 miles of pavement on a 450. You are an animal! I hate doing 20!

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Macduncan:

I run a dirtbags setup. I like the simple three bag design and they have plenty of room. Only thing I strap on the outside is my jacket.

Things that work great are,

Tank bag for quick access stuff

Headlamp for hands free camp work at night

Jet boil stove

I have a two compartment backpack and make sure to leave the big compartment empty. Last stop of the day I pack it with water and the nights cocktails, any extra food etc.

Tools to be able to fix anything on your bike

One thing that was very handy on this trip was CIDs Montana. It's extra features were priceless on this trip.

last but not least, a kugs sticker placed proudly on your ride

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CID,

If had a gash on my forehead, we would have made a different decision. A little scaring on the underside of the forearm is just a "trophy".

The only thing I regret is missing out on Camping with the Ponies!!

Randy,

170 miles including the freeway. Ouch. Broken up by an excellent Crab Benedict at the Griddle in Winnemucca

Enough on my injury, Let's get back to the Report. Great Guys out in Truly Wild Spaces

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Macduncan:

I run a dirtbags setup. I like the simple three bag design and they have plenty of room. Only thing I strap on the outside is my jacket.

Things that work great are,

Tank bag for quick access stuff

Headlamp for hands free camp work at night

Jet boil stove

I have a two compartment backpack and make sure to leave the big compartment empty. Last stop of the day I pack it with water and the nights cocktails, any extra food etc.

Tools to be able to fix anything on your bike

One thing that was very handy on this trip was CIDs Montana. It's extra features were priceless on this trip.

last but not least, a kugs sticker placed proudly on your ride

Which Montana features? More and more folks are showing up to my rides with Montana units.......I'd like to become more knowledgeable about their features/use.....

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Macduncan:

I run a dirtbags setup. I like the simple three bag design and they have plenty of room. Only thing I strap on the outside is my jacket.

Things that work great are,

Tank bag for quick access stuff

Headlamp for hands free camp work at night

Jet boil stove

I have a two compartment backpack and make sure to leave the big compartment empty. Last stop of the day I pack it with water and the nights cocktails, any extra food etc.

Tools to be able to fix anything on your bike

One thing that was very handy on this trip was CIDs Montana. It's extra features were priceless on this trip.

last but not least, a kugs sticker placed proudly on your ride

Which Montana features? More and more folks are showing up to my rides with Montana units.......I'd like to become more knowledgeable about their features/use.....

CID could speak more but having the advanced maps, search features, etc. helped us out a few times since we had to deviate from the plan. He could punch in a destination and it would give him options. We had a map but it wasn't detailed enough however his Montana seemed to have everything on it.

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Macduncan:

I run a dirtbags setup. I like the simple three bag design and they have plenty of room. Only thing I strap on the outside is my jacket.

Things that work great are,

Tank bag for quick access stuff

Headlamp for hands free camp work at night

Jet boil stove

I have a two compartment backpack and make sure to leave the big compartment empty. Last stop of the day I pack it with water and the nights cocktails, any extra food etc.

Tools to be able to fix anything on your bike

One thing that was very handy on this trip was CIDs Montana. It's extra features were priceless on this trip.

last but not least, a kugs sticker placed proudly on your ride

Which Montana features? More and more folks are showing up to my rides with Montana units.......I'd like to become more knowledgeable about their features/use.....

CID could speak more but having the advanced maps, search features, etc. helped us out a few times since we had to deviate from the plan. He could punch in a destination and it would give him options. We had a map but it wasn't detailed enough however his Montana seemed to have everything on it.

That has more to do with the maps than the unit......I can perform the same search on a Garmin 60csx using City Navigator software/mapping....

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I don't remember all the functions the 60 csx has but I like how easy it is to find stuff on the Montana. I can look for POI's in the area and get lot's of mines,springs ect in the general area or look for the nearest gas,food,hospital etc and get that info in seconds. Also can punch in a destination and get a track in just a couple of seconds. The touch screen makes everything very easy and quick.

CiD

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Even on the Montana I think you really need City Nav or at least one of the routeable Topo 24K maps to use the hospital find feature. I have City Nav and Topo 100K for the entire US on mine.

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I have City Navigator NT and 100 K topo for the whole country and 24 K topo for all of the western states. Sometimes you need to turn some maps on and others off to get what you need but it's easy to do and can be done while riding with gloves on. However the more I think about crashes the more inclined I am to stop and use the gamin rather than try and make changes while riding.

CiD

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Now that's what I'm talkin bout :) Thanks guys.... for the real scoops about Moto Cowboy Style! All that info is truly invaluable! cheers.

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This is what I'm talking about. Now that's my kind of riding.

Just my 2 cents on the Montana, I got the version that came with the 100k preloaded and found it to be pretty much useless except for showing you what part of the continent you're on. If you're wanting the ability to make routes and better trail maps the 24k is the way to go.

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Day 5

Well we had to start to think about going home. We had hundreds of miles of tracks left. It was not going to happen. We had slow going to Elko for breakfast and then came across another river crossing. We all decided to pass and started looking for ways to get back to the main roads. We made it to Elko for lunch. Stopped at the BLM station for a state map and plotted a course on main dirt roads back to Lovelock. We did get one more night of camping in and had a good time.

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To bad Bagster was not along he would have loved this old telephone switching station in the middle of nowhere .

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Day 6

We had some sprinkles at nite . We all scrambled to put our gear inside of our tents. It was dry in the morning for a few hours then it started to rain. We only had about 45 miles to go to Lovelock. Loaded up the truck around 11 and hit the road. I think we got back to Escondido around 8. All in all a good trip. We put on around 880 miles on our bikes .

Time to start planing next years ride . I got a good ideal on where to go .

Later .

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Kug,

Now That is funny. Looks like a Retirement Home for Old Telco equipment. Actually late 80s to early 90s tech, electro mechanical dialing switching just before the conversion to semi-conductor equipment. The Central office environment was aways maintained in a exceptionally Clean state, Quite odd to see it so dusty. Like the Horse Camp, woulda coulda.

You Navy Guys imagine your ship in that Non-Ship Shape state

Bags

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Regarding Moto Camping Setup:

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I will go into some detail for Bowers benefit, as I know he looks forward to camping Off His Bike.

My luggage is somewhat different from the other guys in that I stick with my usual Mojavi Day Pack instead of the larger 39 liter Coyote Giant Loop. The Coyote I found could not accommodate my bedroll at the top, and was so large it made a separate sleeping bag dry bag hard to fit. So, the Mojavi uses two 6 liter kidney shaped side bags and one 1.5 liter top bag I mount to the Nomadic Tail Rack. The small bag is used for a spare tube. Added to this I use a 35 liter roll top dry bag carrying ground tarp 1.5 man tent, bed roll, Big Agnes mattress, camp chair and camp stove gear. In addition, a third Giant Loop 17 lter Rogue double ended roll top for clothing. To complete the tail end I use a mesh top crampon zip top bag for quick access stuff like a hat, camera and snack. One side of the Mojavi carries tools for tire changes, chain links, gas siphon, the heavy things. The other side gets a 2 liter water bladder and First Aid pack. In terms of luggage the final piece is my Camelback Backpack which carries a 3 liter water bladder, wind jacket, radio, and food.

All this adds up to 35 lbs + .

Regarding The Moto: This cycle I chose to use the 450 XCW. Previously I used the 350 EXC with success. The 350 is a Terrific Package... For a rider with no extra luggage And no big hill climbs, it can't be beat. Sooo Agile! I found I had " some issues " on messy rocky climbs or the Big Sand Pull. You can pull it off with careful attention. For my use the 450 is turning out to be a better option. The '16 uses the Tried and Tested frame and suspension with the exception of a smaller front axle. The axle shrinks the Offset 2mm without changing the triple clamps. The motor has nice torque and a broad range of use without any big brutal hit along the way. Pulling the damp spots on the Black Rock Playa was a plus. Shifting less often than the 350 a plus for my style. One situation on this Camp N Ride proved the point I was looking for. The group was following the Kug late in the afternoon on this mountainous, dusty in places two track. Kug, "This is a pretty tough climb here. You probably want to wait for the dust to clear". Riding in the #2 position, I slowed a little and hit the attack switch. Wrong move. The right track devolved into an un-ridable vertical rut. The left track was good traction but off-camber, and then the direction turned directly into the setting sun as I moved up the steep climb. White Out ensued. Piloting by braille worked up to about the 3/4 point and I over steered left into the bank and stalled out. As it turns out, No Problem, wait for the dust to clear, roll back in first gear to straighten up then dial up the clutch and sweet torque. No wheel spin, just drive forward. Case made as far as I am concerned. Sorry Tracy and Chris to stall you in the middle of that climb, Good Luck Buddies!

George changed out my springs to the get the sag front and rear correct , Seat Concepts comfort seat, Baja Designs XL Pro light, GPR Pro kit with rubber cone vibration dampening. Rugged Radio ear plug speakers, Yaesu radio.

Bags

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Treatment was clean out the wound and use three steri-strips to pull the open wound together. Bandage me

Steri-strips ordered for first-aid kit.

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That sounded like a great trip. Wow, some wide open country. Glad you are OK Bagster. I need to get out an ride more. :-)

Steve

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Explorers we are, intrepid and bold,

Out in the wild, amongst wonders untold.

Equipped with our wits, a map, and a snack,

We're searching for fun and we're on the right track!

Bill Watterson

AKA Calivin and Hobbs

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CiD

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