We had just crossed a railroad crossing and a big rock got kicked up by my front wheel and nailed my foot. It hit so hard it knocked my foot off the peg! I can't descibe how bad it hurt, I thought for sure that I had messed something up bad.Luckily it only hurt for an hour or so.

This looks nice doesn't it. It was until a little ways after this pic was taken. It got super sandy and I had a ton of trouble. At one point the sand threw me around and I went off the trail and kinda got stuck on top of a berm. Bryan wasn't having much trouble on his DRZ and was a ways ahead of me, gaining distance every second. I got back on the trail and almost bit it again. I started to get so pissed off so I just shut my bike off and took off my helmet and got something to drink. The heat was intense and I was in a real foul mood, not how you want to feel on vacation.
I decided to limp along and keep the bike upright and when I got to pavement, I was going to ride pavement for a while, unless the trail got alot better.
After what seemed to be an eternity, I met Bryan who had turned around to come look for me. He said that we were close to a road and it wasn't bad. We got on some gravel roads and headed on to a nice bar that was a gas stop. We stopped there and met some A-hole ATVers and some local babes and generally enjoyed the air conditioning.

A little pit stop along side the trail. Sometimes you just gotta get off that bike! I'm really glad i did this trip with Bryan. Bryan is ex military, actually used to be a Colonel in the Army! If it wasn't for Bryan, I don't know if I would have hung in there, he is good at keeping his cool and keeping you motivated. He made me push my limits and it made me stronger ...thanks Bryan.

Bryans sweet DRZ taking a little rest.

AN old abandoned Grocery store, pretty neat place.

Getting close to the end of the trail. We weren't sure how far we would make it today and figured we would be camping another night. We made some good time for the most part and I think we both decided we were gonna push it, just to see if we could finish it. We had a few navigational errors because we decided to take a longer route instead of riding one section which is a straight railroad bed.

Getting close to Iron River! Bryan coming through a tunnel.

Just outside Iron River we found an area there ORV's must play so Bryan had to blast up this steep hill. There was no way I was going to do that on a loaded down bike. The pic I took of Bryan going up the hill didn't turn out too good so you'll have to see him going down it instead.

Here we are, just before dark, where we started 4 days earlier.

After Eagle River we hopped on the highway and rode for and hour or so in the dark. We stopped in Leona, near Bryans uncles cabin and picked up some celebration beers.
Can beer taste better than after a long day in the dirt?

After 15 hours and 15 minutes after we started in the morning, we arrived at Bryans uncles cabin. We logged in 399 miles today, the most I had ever done in a day.

Here you can also see part of Bryans navigation system. He went through his gazeteer and highlighted the entire trail and then put it in a waterproof case that was clipped to his gear. Whenever he was unsure of the route, he'd check out the book and be on his way. worked great!