We found Mud Turtle Rd. Which was not a road, just a muddy trail with a couple of creek crossings. It was exactly the kind of trail we were hoping to find. Some bikes went down. I’m not naming names. But it wasn’t me.

The trail dumped us off onto Rt 25 which was exactly what we were looking for to head to the southern portion of the White Mountains. We found a diner and stopped for a long lunch to let Ben catch up and finally put an end to the cat and mouse game we had been playing the past couple days. After a couple hours at the diner we finally heard from Ben. He was six miles down the road. And his bike was broken again. Ben had pulled off the road next to a house and Arnie, the guy who lived there came out to help. He was super nice.

We headed over to find him. He said his engine was making an ugly noise and he thought it might be the valves. After a quick valve adjustment we fired the bike up and it sounded great. Finally we were off to Maine. Until a mile down the road and his bike shit out again. Alex towed him down the road to a gas station and we tried to find a mechanic that might be able to fix the bike. We were pretty sure the cam chain was stretched. No one had XR parts available. Ben accepted his fate. He was done.

In the meantime, Arnie and his wife road by on their Harleys and stopped and offered to let us camp on their property. After drinking beers behind the gas station we headed back to Arnie’s and set up camp.

Arnie lit a fire in a washing machine tub on the front lawn and we sat around drinking beer and cooking hotdogs on the fire. Arnie’s buddy Roy came over and entertained us with his stories of flirting with young girls in Walmart. Good people.

Andrew was going to drive up the next day to pick up Ben and his bike. We decided that since all five if us would be together finally, Alex, Dana and myself would stay in town another day so we could all camp together. And the three of us could spend the day riding trails without all of our gear weighing the bikes down.

Earlier in the day I told Ben and Andrew to meet us in Hanover, NH. They never met us. Turns out Dartmouth is in Hanover. We found a campsite, ditched our bags and headed into town for a Friday night of drinking with college girls. Wrong. Turns out Dartmouth is the lamest college town on the east coast. There wasn’t a decent bar in the entire town. We drank in a basement BBQ joint with a handful of very boring, well behaved college kids. Fuck Dartmouth.

Our campsite was 10 miles up Rt 91. We jumped on the highway around midnight and it was covered in a thick fog. I could see maybe 20 feet in front of me. I just stared at the center line and hoped for the best. It was harrowing.

Ben was pushing on through the night, but had a problem with his headlight so he had to stop in NY. Maybe he’ll catch us the next day…

After six months of planing, working on the bikes (mostly Ben’s) and spending way too much money, the trip began.

The plan was to leave Philly at 6:00am, blast up the highway and get as close to Maine as possible in one day. Then get off the highway for backcountry dirt rides and moose hunting.

Leaving at 6:00 turned into leaving at 6:45. We left my house in West Kensignton at 8:30. By 10:00 we made it as far as… the Philly Cycle Center! Ben’s bike shit out. After a brief moment of thinking there was a simple fix (broken sidestand switch, nope), the reality set in that it was a bad pulse generator pickup. After calling nearly every cycle center and salvage yard on the east coast the news was grim. The closest we could find the part was Idaho.

Then Bobby, the slightly crazy but very helpful service manager, remembered they had a XR650 engine in storage. We could hit the road in an hour. Nope. When they tracked down the engine, the pickup had already been pulled out.

After a few more last ditch calls to find the part, Ben did the only thing he could. Order the Idaho part and have it overnighted.

At about 2:00pm Dana, Alex and me hit the road. Andrew stayed with Ben. We plan to meet up at the end of day two if Ben’s bike runs.

Having lost hours we jumped right on 95 and headed north. Once we got up near NYC we jumped onto 17 and I started freebirding a route. We got to 84 and then the Taconic State Prkwy. That was a great ride.

We decided that there was no way we were not making it to Vermont. At around 9:00pm we crossed the Vermont border in darkness. With no place to camp we headed for the Green Mountain National Forest. Riding through the mountains in darkness was sketchy as fuck. We finally found a dirt road leading into the forest and we set up camp alongside the road in a little cutout. Beer, bullshit, sleep.

A terrible start turned into a great day of riding.

Day 2, we plan to explore some dirt roads in Vermont.

Ben, Andrew, see you on route 91…

The 5 of them are riding honda 600/650 enduros up to Maine and are going to live/travel off road for a bit over a week. They’re leaving today.

Pretty awesome, I hope they can make some posts from the road. Can’t wait to hear about how things go for them.

Adam and I hung out with them the past couple nights to watch them make some final tweaks and pack up some stuff. Have fun guys.

Andrew picked up some really nice topographical maps which show all the off road trails. The pic below is Jackman Maine which is an area Adam and I went through 2 years ago. There’s nothing up that way except logging trails and drunk people.