On the trail at last

Once I was done with the last blog post, I headed down the 65 to start on the Trans American Trail. There was a gas station at the exit so I fueled up Envy and myself. Since the mishap the previous day I developed a new procedure at gas stations. I stop with the pump on the right side and once I get off I never let go of her until I'm between Envy and the pump. And it payed off as Envy tried to topple over again. 

I was a bit disappointed with the TAT at first. It was just a bunch of nicely paved back roads. Very similar to the ones I rode in Maryland. Those roads did take me through some nice country though. Eventually the pavement became worse until it was indistinguishable from gravel. Along the way I passed through what I think was a Mennonite farming community. At each house was a list of items they had (beets, pickles, baked goods, etc). I was very tempted to stop in at one of them. But, late start on the trail meant I had business to get to.

Eventually I got to proper dirt roads. Once I got the feel of maneuvering a heavy Envy I got into a nice groove. It helped a lot when I dropped the tires from the 30psi I was travelling with down to 25. Things were going nicely. I saw my first (dead) armadillo. And it wouldn't be my last. I got lost and chatted with some locals about how to get back on the trail. Then I got to my first water crossing of the trip. It was really just a flooded dip in the road, but the thing I'm most worried about are water crossings. Everything went fine and I dealt with a few more without a problem.

Then I got to Waterfall. A bit of backstory; I'm navigating via waypoints on my Garmin. Each of the waypoints is named. Usually it's a road name, sometimes not. I had a bit of trouble finding the right path for Waterfall and did a big loop and eventually found it. Great. Unfortunately I came to a big washed out section of road. It was clearly shallow and in all of my great "I've done a bunch of crossings today" hubris I took to it without testing it out. Oops. About half way through I realized the bottom was incredibly slick. Then with only a couple of feet to go Envy's back end comes around and down she goes. Nothing was damaged, but it was then that I found out how heavy she really is. I unpacked everything that I could (everything but the saddle bags) and she was still a bitch to get upright. My feet sliding around didn't help either. Eventually she was upright. So, simple matter of firing her up and easing her out, right? Wrong. The carb flooded a bit when she was on her side and it took longer than I was comfortable with to get her running. But eventually she fired up and I gently eased her out. So that's why they call it Waterfall. There's water, and you fall in it. 

I started off again and it wasn't long before I got waved down by an older couple in a Deere Gator. They asked me if anyone told be the bringe was out. My heart sank. The idea of dealing with the Waterfall crossing was the exact opposite of appealing. They then explained that they owned the house next to the bridge and I was welcome to crossing the creek on their property. Yay! I asked them if they knew of a good place to camp and they offered their field. This was after explaining that I was from California, and no I didn't vote for Obama. I decided to carry on since it was only 6:30 and I had plenty of daylight left. I came up to the bridge which was definitely not crossable. And found (on foot) a place to cross on the property. This time I walked the creek first. The local snake didn't seem to like this as he made a strike at me then took off to the bank. That was the most hostile Tennessee local I've encountered so far. This crossing was much less stressful despite the steep banks and I got through without incident.

Eventually I hit the end of the trail for the day which was supposed to have a gas station. They must have it hidden nicely. And the sun was going down. Thankfully I had cell service and found Savannah was only about 15 miles away. So, a quick run down to the Savannah Motel with a detour when I thought I saw a sign for a state park. Unfortunately both of the recommended restaurants are closed so I'm making do with a beer from the gas station for dinner.

A bit on the wild life today. Deer are stupid and they all was to commit suicide. I think armadillos only exist in corpse form (I saw three dead ones today). I really hope my boots are snake proof. And, I didn't expect to see so many tortoises on the road. I rode by three or four today.

Time to review the maps for tomorrow. If all goes well I should be out of Tennessee by the end of the day.

Also, after talking with Nate last night I was really regretting not saving my route so far. So, I started saving them today. I'll see if I can figure out a way to upload them to Google Maps so everyone can see my route.

Updated: Lets see if this works for a map of the route: TAT 2013