The beginning of the Old Summer Road was very close to Kadykchan and soon the sombre mood lifted as we began riding the road we came to ride!
It was so nice to be away from the Kolyma Highway. The road was easygoing and we were up on the pegs almost from the beginning.
We came to the first river crossing and it was one of the widest ones of the whole road. The water was quite fast flowing and my heart was in my mouth. We had to cross diagonally into the current, onto a shallower bit, but still in the river, then cross the main body of water.
This is the river behind me
That's the broken bridge behind us.
Then there was another bit to cross, then up a bank, over some logs and dips and back up onto the road.
Many people had told Gary that there was no way the jeep would make the trip. He decided that he'd come with us as long as he could make it through the dodgy bits with only little help from us, just in case we came to a bad bit and he'd have to turn around and go back alone. He'd need to be able to manage on his own.
It didn't take long before we came to the first bit where the road had been washed away. It's hard to describe and the photos don't do it justice.
Hard as it was for us on the bikes, it was really tough for the jeep and trailer.
I learned a lesson this first day. Don't take the lead! Having someone in front means they take the hit if there's a hidden dip!!
There was a deep dip right across the road and I didn't see it until almost too late. I pulled up on the handlebars and almost cleared it but I hit the other side and managed to stay on but hit my chest off the faring and broke it off. The lads behind thought I was a goner
There were many dips and puddles. We were lucky that we'd had really good weather all week so the puddles were relatively shallow.
There were also many many river crossings, some with bridges, some without!
We came across the hunters lodge where a drunken hunter had shot at Kev and Mark when they did this trip in 2012. While we were standing there looking at it, out came the same hunter he wasn't drunk though and clearly had no recollection of ever meeting Kev before
We didn't do too much of the OSR on the first day as we had spent a while in Kadykchan. We came to a river where the road was completely washed away and we had to go down a steep bank to get to the river. There was plenty of space to camp and so we decided to stop there. As Gary came down the steep bank the drawbar on the trailer snapped in two
He decided to leave it on the bank and that we'd deal with it in the morning.
We got up the next day and had another hearty breakfast
The boys started fixing the drawbar. First Kev cut down a tree and cut a 4 X 4 splint to go inside both ends of the drawbar. Because it bent before it snapped the 2 ends were pinched closed so they had to try and open them up to fit the splint in. There were plenty of tools on the jeep but they weren't charged. When Gary tried charging them it wouldn't work! Turns out the inverter was broken so they had a chainsaw and a lump hammer and some strong tent poles with which to fix the drawbar
Every night we dried our boots by the fire. Not sure why because we always set off starting with a river crossing
5 hours later we set off. The river was pushing hard and quite deep.
About 15km later the drawbar broke again.
There was nothing for it except to leave the trailer there. We were still 178km from Tomtor. We left all the rear spare tyres on the trailer, as it happens all of the spares for Thomas and Fritz bikes were left on it too, all the camp chairs. The fuel bladder for my bike which as it turned out was a lucky thing
Gary decided that when we got to Tomtor that he'd get the drawbar fixed and he'd return for the trailer.
So, off we went again. There were many big, huge, mucky, deep puddles. Initially we decided to go around them. But while we managed ok, Gary got stuck twice and it took over an hour both times to get him out. It was very hot, but as soon as we stopped the mosquitos started attacking!
After the second winching we decided that we should just ride through the puddles. Again, never go first
Then just as we were about to set off, Gary realised the jeep wouldn't start!
It was some kind of problem that affected the fuses. Gary had no spares, everytime he turned off the engine he had to replace a fuse before he could start it again!
Some pics of the puddles
More washed away roads, and steep banks down to and up from the river beds
This was where Gary found David Zimmermans pouch with all of his documents in
Some dodgy bridges too
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It was so nice to be away from the Kolyma Highway. The road was easygoing and we were up on the pegs almost from the beginning.
We came to the first river crossing and it was one of the widest ones of the whole road. The water was quite fast flowing and my heart was in my mouth. We had to cross diagonally into the current, onto a shallower bit, but still in the river, then cross the main body of water.
This is the river behind me
That's the broken bridge behind us.
Then there was another bit to cross, then up a bank, over some logs and dips and back up onto the road.
Many people had told Gary that there was no way the jeep would make the trip. He decided that he'd come with us as long as he could make it through the dodgy bits with only little help from us, just in case we came to a bad bit and he'd have to turn around and go back alone. He'd need to be able to manage on his own.
It didn't take long before we came to the first bit where the road had been washed away. It's hard to describe and the photos don't do it justice.
Hard as it was for us on the bikes, it was really tough for the jeep and trailer.
I learned a lesson this first day. Don't take the lead! Having someone in front means they take the hit if there's a hidden dip!!
There was a deep dip right across the road and I didn't see it until almost too late. I pulled up on the handlebars and almost cleared it but I hit the other side and managed to stay on but hit my chest off the faring and broke it off. The lads behind thought I was a goner
There were many dips and puddles. We were lucky that we'd had really good weather all week so the puddles were relatively shallow.
There were also many many river crossings, some with bridges, some without!
We came across the hunters lodge where a drunken hunter had shot at Kev and Mark when they did this trip in 2012. While we were standing there looking at it, out came the same hunter he wasn't drunk though and clearly had no recollection of ever meeting Kev before
We didn't do too much of the OSR on the first day as we had spent a while in Kadykchan. We came to a river where the road was completely washed away and we had to go down a steep bank to get to the river. There was plenty of space to camp and so we decided to stop there. As Gary came down the steep bank the drawbar on the trailer snapped in two
He decided to leave it on the bank and that we'd deal with it in the morning.
We got up the next day and had another hearty breakfast
The boys started fixing the drawbar. First Kev cut down a tree and cut a 4 X 4 splint to go inside both ends of the drawbar. Because it bent before it snapped the 2 ends were pinched closed so they had to try and open them up to fit the splint in. There were plenty of tools on the jeep but they weren't charged. When Gary tried charging them it wouldn't work! Turns out the inverter was broken so they had a chainsaw and a lump hammer and some strong tent poles with which to fix the drawbar
Every night we dried our boots by the fire. Not sure why because we always set off starting with a river crossing
5 hours later we set off. The river was pushing hard and quite deep.
About 15km later the drawbar broke again.
There was nothing for it except to leave the trailer there. We were still 178km from Tomtor. We left all the rear spare tyres on the trailer, as it happens all of the spares for Thomas and Fritz bikes were left on it too, all the camp chairs. The fuel bladder for my bike which as it turned out was a lucky thing
Gary decided that when we got to Tomtor that he'd get the drawbar fixed and he'd return for the trailer.
So, off we went again. There were many big, huge, mucky, deep puddles. Initially we decided to go around them. But while we managed ok, Gary got stuck twice and it took over an hour both times to get him out. It was very hot, but as soon as we stopped the mosquitos started attacking!
After the second winching we decided that we should just ride through the puddles. Again, never go first
Then just as we were about to set off, Gary realised the jeep wouldn't start!
It was some kind of problem that affected the fuses. Gary had no spares, everytime he turned off the engine he had to replace a fuse before he could start it again!
Some pics of the puddles
More washed away roads, and steep banks down to and up from the river beds
This was where Gary found David Zimmermans pouch with all of his documents in
Some dodgy bridges too
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk