After a group meeting we decided to soldier on if at all possible. The next morning Jerod and I hit the Napa store and bought 2 more pumps, just in case. I tried Les Schwab to see if they had any tube that might come close to carry as a spare. The TW200 has a very unique rear tire and by a stroke of incredible fortune, he found a dusty box on a back shelf containing the exact tube I needed, HD no less. Hats off to John Day Les Schwab.
We rode back down to Seneca to reconnect with the trailhead. Trails were kind all the way to the Malheur River crossings. My ignition got flooded out midway through the first one but otherwise we all plowed through.
There were a couple points where the route was either impossible to follow or washed out so there were a couple reroutes. I was using OnX Offroad and can't imagine making the trip without it.
We ran some awesome single track on our way to Phillips Lake. We were still a little behind schedule from tire drama, but catching up.
About an hour of trail in the morning got us to Sumpter for water, gas, and breakfast snacks. We headed to Olive Lake where we had planned to camp. It was beautiful but state workers were installing a gate. We presume it was at the direction of Oregon's turbo-Karen governor.
We sidestepped to Ukiah for fuel and food. The guy that runs the gas station there has a reputation for being...eccentric. It's well earned. We ate at The Thicket and it was well above expectations. Hammer down to Indian Lake.
We were relatively certain we could finish the next day...so we did. Hard riding to cross 84, then over to Elgin for more fuel.
The flowers at high elevation were pretty spectacular.
The route technically ends just short of the Washington border but we rode to the airport to call it even.
It was about 40 highway miles to Jerod's house in Pendleton where we trailered up and went our separate ways. 1142 miles in 6 days. Still not dead yet.