Date: August 23rd, 2016
Distance: Parts run

The next morning the crew of students I was with found another van that was going to Ulaan Bataar. I was happy to be going. Of course the van didn't leave right away. There were just a few stops to make. Getting gas, picking up some extra stuff. Then we sat and waited for an hour. I think the driver was trying to cram in a few more passengers. We didn't actually get out of Tosontengel until after 1:00 pm. Well, that was another morning wasted.

From there it was another long slog of a drive. I was happy when we picked up the paved road again. Things were a little less bumpy. Of course, there were a few sections of bad dirt roads again. Places where the pavement was washed out, or they were working on the road. At one point we went over a temporary pontoon bridge managed by the Mongolian army. Nothing is ever easy.

Just after dark the van broke down. I was thinking "not again". Steam was pouring out of the engine. I figured the engine had blown a gasket. The driver was unfazed, though. He got to work and eventually the problem was located. A hose had burned through and was spraying water on the engine. This was fixed with a combination of glue and tape. There's a lot of that kind of repair work around here. Who am I to judge? I'm only in this mess because of my own work on a rear hub. Plus, it seemed to work at least. The van got going again, and I fell asleep to it bouncing down the highway.



-Dravis

Date: August 22nd, 2016
Distance: Parts run

I woke up sometime after midnight because the van had stopped. The kids were all outside standing around and the driver was working on the engine. Neither was a good sign. Eventually the driver got back in and started the van. The engine would run but there was something wrong with the transmission. I think the problem was the van wouldn't switch into first gear. It wouldn't be a problem on flat ground, but on these steep dirt roads it wasn't going to fly. The driver got back in and the young boys started pushing the van up the hill. I thought, they have to be kidding. There was no way we were going to push the thing to Ulaan Bataar. We did at least get it to the top of the next hill and from there coasted the rest of the way into Numrug.

In town there was a 24 hour mechanic. Really, that meant you had to pound on the door hard enough until someone inside woke up. That also woke up the kitchen staff for the 24 hour restaurant next door. The ladies in the kitchen got right to it and started making food for everyone. I watched them make pasta from scratch. It was an impressive operation. I consider cooking to be the time from when you want to eat to when you get to eat, so I was quite ready to chow down when it all arrived. After that everyone from the van found a comfortable spot in the restaurant and fell asleep. Except for the driver, he was still trying to fix the transmission.

I woke up again after daybreak. The driver had actually removed the old transmission and was waiting for a new one to arrive. He said it would be an hour. So I waited. It was much more than an hour. When the "new" transmission arrived it was similar to the old one, but not exactly the same. The driver and a local mechanic spent some time cutting and grinding, trying to make it all fit. Eventually they got it installed in the van, but it never worked right. They could never shift gears in it and eventually the driver admitted defeat. He gave us our money back for the ride, but I was annoyed that it had taken all day. Urgh. This trip was getting more annoying all the time.

The driver arranged for another van to come and pick us up. It wouldn't take us to Ulaan Bataar, but it would get us to a town where we could get transport out there. It was just an hour before sunset when that van arrived. The ride was bumpy, but uneventful. We arrived in Tosontsengel just before midnight. There weren't any more rides to U.B, though, it would have to wait until the morning. Once again I found myself trying to sleep the best I could in a restaurant.



-Dravis

Date: August 21st, 2016
Distance: Parts run

Getting a ride from Bayantes wasn't easy. It's in the center of a large section of non-paved roads, a couple hundred kilometers from here to anywhere that has asphalt. The closest town of significance to get to would be Murun. My hosts said that there wasn't a good way to get there, however. No public transport connects the two towns. Even if I got there it was no guarantee that I would be able to get what I needed. There was a van leaving for Ulaan Bataar, however. I'm pretty sure I can find a new wheel in the capitol city so I bought a ticket for the van, which was supposed to leave at noon. I wanted to get into U.B. and back as soon as possible.

The van actually left shortly before 6:00 in the evening. I wasted basically the whole day waiting for that, stuck inside with more than a dozen other people. There was the driver, of course, also a grandmother with two young girls. The rest were teenagers, university students I think. We were crammed into the back of this thing and the kids were yelling in Mongolian and slapping each other. I know, kids are going to be that way. I just didn't want to be the one stuck in the middle of it. The roads didn't help me feel any better, either. The van was rumbling and swerving around the dirt tracks in the vast expanse of grass. The worn out shocks did nothing to smooth the ride of the overloaded vehicle. The only thing keeping me from falling all over with each bump or rock was the fact that I was wedged in, my knees pressed against the guy across from me and my shoulders trapped between two teenagers. I don't get motion sick very much but I could feel a little of it on this ride. I wasn't the only one. One of the kids spent ten minutes with his head out the window.

The kids eventually ran out of steam and quieted down. It didn't help much. The stereo was still blasting Mongolian pop tunes as the car rattled and shuddered down the highway. I was somehow able fall asleep in the middle of it, my exhaustion overcoming the discomfort.



-Dravis

Date: August 20th, 2016
Distance: 14 Kilometers
Song of the Day: I Walk the Line - Johnny Cash

Nothing fun about today. I just made it back to Bayantes. There wasn't anywhere in town that had parts to repair the hub, which is pretty much dead anyway. My new plan is to get to stash the bike here and head to town to get a new rear wheel. I found a nice family to stay with, though. The father said that he was going to help me find a ride tomorrow.



-Dravis

Date: August 19th, 2016
Distance: 14 Kilometers
Song of the Day: Nowhere Fast - Incubus

Last night while I was falling asleep I had an epiphany. The bearings from the cartridge that died were too small for me to tighten up on, so I couldn't get the hub to hold. I had other bearings, though, and I could switch them around to hopefully make something work. I spent the morning working on this gambit. I was able to get something that actually worked... for about 100 yards. I can usually MacGyver anything, but here I just don't have the parts. In the afternoon I was back to walking the bike.

I also made it a kilometer before realizing I needed to turn around. The next town on my map was 100 kilometers away. Bayantes was just 27. As much as I hate going back, it really was the best idea. I wish I had turned around earlier. Sigh.

I didn't have time to get back to Bayantes today, so I found another fantastic camping spot. The river even had a nice sandy beach. I wish I'd found it earlier, I would have gone for a swim.



-Dravis

Date: August 18th, 2016
Distance: 26 Kilometers
Song of the Day: Breakdown - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

I still hate navigating in Mongolia. It isn't just that the roads aren't marked very well, it's also the people. When you ask for directions, they will give them to you literally. They point in the direction of where you want to go, but not to the highway you should take. It's kind of frustrating, and I don't know a different way of asking which might produce better results. Today, I started on what I thought was the main highway. It passed over two hills and then became a single sandy rut across the grass. The path then headed into some woods, branched out, and disappeared altogether. I wasn't lost, exactly. I still had the Teslin river to my left, and as long as I had that to guide me through the trees I was fine.

The woods were pretty cool. A singletrack in Mongolia; how cool is that? It would have been more fun on my mountain bike. On a loaded touring bike it isn't as easy to hop over roots, or pass nimbly between branches. There was a lot of stopping and pushing. Still, it was fun. I love bike touring for all the crazy, unexpected places you end up. This was certainly one of those places.

The fun didn't last, though. My hub repairs lasted exactly 17 kilometers before one of the cartridge bearings blew apart. I was not expecting that. Now I realize why the wheel was rubbing on the frame. It must have been failing the whole time. Damn. There is some consolation that it wasn't my work on the freehub. I tried to do what I could to fix it, but that wasn't working. I spent the last 9 kilometers of the day just pushing the bike. It was incredibly frustrating. To have a bicycle and not be able to use it is the worst.

At least the terrain kept me going. This is amazing country. A big river on one side, forested hills on the other. I ended up camping in one of the best spots of the trip.



-Dravis

Date: August 17th, 2016
Distance: 45 Kilometers
Song of the Day: Ain't it Fun - Guns N' Roses

The road leaving Tes was still pretty bad. I was hoping it would follow the river, which it did. Sort of. Instead of traveling along the flat flood plain, the road passed over the hills to the south. So it was a day of up and down on sandy roads. Slow on the uphill, scary on the downhills. What a slog. It didn't help that my gears kept slipping. The day was also feeling slower than usual for some reason.

Just outside of Bayantes I noticed what was causing things to be slow. My rear tire was rubbing against the frame a bit. Crap. Looks like my roadside repair from a few days ago wasn't working. I made it down into Bayantes and found a place to stay. It was a bit early to stop, but no reason to continue like I was. I spent the afternoon taking apart my hub again. I cleaned it all and tightened everything up. I hate wasting time, but better here than on the road somewhere.



-Dravis

Date: August 16th, 2016
Distance: 88 Kilometers
Song of the Day: Supermodel - The Presidents of the United States of America

There is something fun about waking up on a mountaintop miles from any roads or anyone. The morning wasn't bright, but the rain had given up hours before. It was mostly clouds with a few spots of blue poking out. I almost didn't want to leave, it was such a fantastic spot to look out over the world. The top of each hill was covered in exposed rock. In some spots the stones poked out in a big pile, other places it was just a trail of rocks running along the ridgeline like the seams of a coat.

I still wasn't quite sure where I was going, but through basic navigation I could figure out where north was. By deduction, if I headed that way eventually I should hit the east-west road there. I rolled down the mountain and the next valley didn't look promising. There wasn't anything there that looked like a road. My only hope was the next valley beyond. As I came around the shoulder of another hill I could see a power line in that valley. That was a good sign. Roads seem to follow the power lines around here. I was bouncing over rough ground for a kilometer or so before I started the reverse of yesterday's process. I found a well trodden goat track that wound down along the side of the mountain. Sometimes the track diverged for a bit and came back together. Eventually two of the tracks started to parallel each other. These were wheel ruts from a car, so I was really getting somewhere. Finally made it down to the power line and, sure enough, there was a road. There were even fresh tire marks in the mud from last night's storm. I was back.

That was pretty much my day from then on. Up one hill, down the other side, up another. On and on. I hit a little town at some point, but it wasn't even big enough for a shop. Too bad, I wanted some ice cream. At the least, it would have broken the monotony.

Eventually I crested one hill and I could see Tes in the background. I was so excited. It was another dozen kilometers into town, but man it was fantastic. The road led through a valley of grass like the world's biggest football field. Running through it was a gorgeous blue river, and on the other side of it was a ridge of rocky hills, the stone sticking out of the earth in amazing shapes. I could have spent a lot of time out there.

I made it to town and was, yet again, disappointed. I was hoping for something...more. Oh well. I found a place to stay at a "Byyrdal", which I guess is like a local hotel kind of thing. The family was great. They even got me some food. The grandmother insisted that I have some hot water. I don't know why, as I really wanted cold water, but she was very sweet about it.



-Dravis

Date: August 15th, 2016
Distance: 87 Kilometers
Song of the Day: Death or Glory - The Clash

I left Khyargas today and got back onto the road. The road itself had not changed much, still just dirt tracks winding through the steppes of Mongolia. Navigation wasn't much better. When the road divides it feels like I flip a coin to see if I am going to end up where I want to go. Once you make that choice you just have to go with it and hope you made the right decision. You can head along hill after hill and not see any indication that you are going the right way.

Early in the afternoon I got to one of my biggest challenges here in Mongolia. A river. I wasn't sure if there was a bridge somewhere else. Maybe this is one of the reasons the road breaks up and goes different ways? The river itself wasn't too deep, but certainly more than what I could ride through. I did a test run to see how deep it was and the water came up to the middle of my thighs. No big deal. I just carried the bike and my panniers across in two separate trips. I then got naked and took a swim. Why not? There wasn't another soul around for miles. It wasn't that much like swimming, though. The water wasn't deep enough to do more than splash around. Still, the water was refreshing and I got to wash a few days of dirt and sweat off. Enjoy it while you can.

A few miles later I arrived in the town of Turuun. At least my navigation had gotten me this far. There was another river to cross before getting there, but the town was smart enough to build a bridge. The town itself was disappointing. I thought it would be bigger. At least it had a shop where I could get some ice cream. While I was there I reloaded on a few supplies like bread, sausages, and Coke. I was good for another night and a day in the wilderness.

Out of Turuun the landscape and the roads were the same. Over one hill. Through the next valley. Over the next hill. The road also continued to divide. I thought I was on the main route, but a couple of drivers along the way told me I wasn't. The road would apparently go to Ulaan Bataar, but not Tes. That is the next supply stop I had planned to hit. Whoops. I was on a road more or less parallel to it, just south. One driver told me that I could still get to the road to Tes by taking a left turn after the creek coming up. That sounded better than going backwards.

The creek should have been easy enough to cross. It was pretty wide, but only a few inches deep at the ford. Sadly, I hit a big rock mid-stream and ended up having to put a foot down. Then in a genius move to try and keep that foot dry I put the other one in the water. I spent the rest of the day with soggy feet. I did find a small track that lead north after the creek, though. I was happy to see that. After a kilometer or so the two ruts of the car track disappeared. I was down to a single track path that might have been for motorcycles. It wasn't long before that vanished as well. Now I was really going off road. I was climbing a long slope up into the hills. I figured if I could get to the top I would see the road on the other side of the ridge. Whether I was on a path or not, if I just headed north I would eventually have to cross that road, right? I made it to the top of the mountain and the view from there wasn't inspiring. There was another little valley and a hill beyond. I didn't see anything that looked like a road.

I did at least see a great spot to camp. I thought of trying to make it over the next hill, but I was running out of energy and daylight. Plus the spot was too good. I set up my tent between two large piles of rocks. I cooked dinner while watching a storm come in over the horizon. Just as I got the tent buttoned up the wind started to howl. The rain began to drum against the fabric but it didn't matter to me. I had set everything up just right. I know by now that my little tent can take the rain and the wind. It's amazing how bright the lightning is. I could see it flash inside the tent with my eyes closed. I fell asleep to the sound of thunder rolling through the rocky hills.

-Dravis

Date: August 14th, 2016
Distance: 57 Kilometers
Song of the Day: Nothing I Can Do About it Now - Willie Nelson

Overnight the clouds moved in. I woke up today to the sound of light rain on my tent. More of a misting than real rain, actually. By the time I had finished eating breakfast that had finished as well. It left behind a decent tail wind, though, and I was excited for that.

The road I was on started leading up and out of the basin I've been in. I figured it would do that. The path began as a long, steady climb and got steeper until I was in a narrow canyon up in the hills. The wind couldn't help me here. The road was steep and twisting. Still dirt roads, but the rain had stiffened up the sand enough for me to have a grip on it.

On reaching the top, I arrived in a little town called Malchin. I could not for the life of me find it on my map. That was frustrating. I got directions from a local about how to get to Ulaan Bataar. My problem is that I don't know if they are telling me the best way to go, or just a way that might eventually get there. The biggest issue with roads out here is that they branch off and split. Sometimes it's easy to see why. One path might head left around a hill while the other path goes right or over. Other junctions aren't so easy to figure out. I usually pick the one that I think is most used, but even that may not be the right one. The secondary problem with Mongolian roads is that there are virtually no markings. Half the time I don't even know if I am on the main highway or not. With all the branching and splitting, what had once been a main road can very quickly turn into an overgrown cow path. What this means is that I spent the afternoon wandering all over the hills of Mongolia not sure where I was.

Now, it wasn't the worst place to get lost in. The vistas were gorgeous. The scenery was amazing. They even have some trees up here in the hills. Real trees. Not huge forests, but big enough. The day had also gotten sunny and warm, while the high mountain breezes kept it from getting too hot. That tailwind had me cruising right along. On the down hill portions I felt like a race car driver, picking my way through the sand and rocks, conserving my speed for making it up that next ridge. Man, it was fun.

My only complaint, other than being lost, would be the flies. I spent most of the time riding with a cloud of them hovering around me. I will certainly take flies over mosquitoes any day, but that doesn't mean I like them. When you are sweating up another large hill the last thing you want is a fly buzzing in your ear or getting sucked into your nose. Seriously annoying.

After rolling over hill after hill, I finally found my way back to what I thought might be the main road. I stopped at the next hill to have a bite to eat before taking off again. I didn't make it far. Shortly after the break I noticed that my rear tire was flat. Grumble, grumble, grumble. I had to remind myself that this is the first flat I've had on the tires since I put them on in Tashkent. Not bad. I found what seems to be to be the only thing that can harm one of these Schwalbe tires: a thin metal splinter. The frustrating part is how hard they are to get out. No sense in putting in a new tube until the problem is fixed. It takes a while to push enough of the metal out to get a grip on it. Once I got the splinter out, patching the tube and getting it in was a snap.

While I had the back tire off, I noticed that my cassette was coming loose again. Since that was off, it was time to grease up my home made free-hub. You remember that I had to build a whole new hub axle in Dushambe, right? Well a few months of rain and sand were finally getting in and it was making a racket. Time to pull it apart and put in more grease. Might as well tighten everything up again, too. All of this was taking time that I wasn't going to be on the road. Oh well.

I rolled into Khyargas about an hour before dark. Of course, I didn't know it was Khyargas at first. I had to ask around to figure out where I was. While I was figuring that out, a nice young man invited me to his house for some food, in English. I was amazed because communication in Mongolia has been hard. My Russian isn't any use here, so it was nice to find someone who spoke decent English. I got to meet his family. He even showed me a ger (yurt) that his brother had, and told me the names for all the parts. As it got dark I was also invited to stay with the family. The day had been one disaster after another, but at least the evening was wonderful. I had a great time with the family in Khyargas.



-Dravis