Trans Am Bike Race / TransAm / TABR

If she still has power for her GPS then maps (online or offline) aren't required. If she doesn't have an emergency power pack for the GPS then that's foolish.

The GPS should contain a track of the route. If it doesn't then that's just bonkers.

The GPS should contain her trackpoint history. If it doesn't then that's foolish.

So the GPS contains everything she needs to be able to backtrack to the point where she deviated. No maps required, just follow her history backwards until she is at the route again.

Her latest updates show she seems to be backtracking now. I wonder how far back she'll go.

[EDIT] It's about 2h back to Gibbonsville Road - where she turned off onto the dirt track. It's just over 30 mins to the farmstead where she could go East on a gravel track.

From a quick google it seems she's an hour from the 5.45am sunrise.

Just saw that this wasn't the first time she got lost, she took a wrong road after Whitebird too

Not only there, but also when leaving Grangeville:

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Perhaps she's only done rides before where you can pick your own route and wasn't properly prepared for this one?

(I find it more interesting when riders can choose their own route, e.g. TCR.)

She's certainly heading back now. If I were her, I'd head back to the "Gibbonsville Road" track, turn right and head for the route. Back at the main road she's just got 15 miles back (uphill I think) to where it all went wrong.

But the GPS could have exploded or melted in an extreme case. Still worth downloading some maps onto your phone just in case. The extra data weighs nothing*

* actually it does weigh something but probably not worth worrying about for a bike ride. This paper says 1TB of information weighs 1E-36 kg.

Also:

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(It took about ten tries to upload the file.)

You're clearly not a proper weight weenie. You'd be laughed at on certain cycling forums. :)

But the GPS could have exploded or melted in an extreme case.

Sure, which is why my post was based on: "If she still has power for her GPS then maps (online or offline) aren't required."

Planning for what happens if the GPS goes is a completely different kettle of fish.

The FB update said the Garmin led her down the dirt path, so it's reasonable to assume she still had the Garmin in Gibbonsville where she decided not to backtrack to the 93/43 junction where she first deviated from the official route. She paused for 10 minutes or so at the turning in Gibbonsville, I'm sure she's ruing the decision she ended up taking.

Anyway, it's what she does once she's back on the route that matters now.

And now I know the backroads near Gibbonsville, Idaho. What a time to be alive.

Right, I see what you mean. 2.2 mph at the moment, she must be walking the bike the whole way

Her deviation has caused a big hole in her route that has missed out the, erm, Big Hole Battlefield.

Also, hippy's moving again, currently in 18th.

Yep, still an hour of walking to get back to Gibbonsville Road (the first bit of which was cycleable, the rest looks ok as far as I can tell from satellite view). 5 miles along there to hit the 43 again.

Then she's got to decide whether to go back to the 93/43 junction (possibly going to Wisdom first to get supplies/rest).

Oof.

She missed her initial turning at Lost Trail Pass.

Irony can be pretty ironic some times.

Yes, Tanja had a rough couple of days before this by all accounts, must impair her judgement pretty heavily. On the Facebook thing, there are posters like Ron Nelson and Evan who add a lot of depth to the race, brings it alive for us who have never done this sort of thing. They can get in a flap at times though, guess it adds to the interest.

She's even better at this than I thought. :)

Looks like Mike Rushton just woke up from an epic sleep.

I wonder if this was his plan, - long stints, long rests - or if he has blown up.

Wonder if she recreated the route herself to load into her Garmin and just didn't check all the route properly. I know it's a lot of route to check, but preparation etc.

Either way, I hope she manages to finish the ride, DNF or not.

If that last tracker point is to be believed then she might be heading back to Gibbonsville.

Which is kind of expected if she follows the "backtrack to where you deviated" maxim.

What she doesn't know is that there's more climbing doing it that way, but the more direct route involves several unknowns, and I guess she's had too much of the unknown in the last 12 hours.

She seems to have stopped at the junction, possibly deciding what to do?

This is probably a good argument for only setting your tracker to update every 30 minutes a la hippy.

Wisdom
Big Hole Battlefield

These names are terrific. Story writes itself.

From where she is, it's 6 miles to rejoin the route the 'quick way', or if she retraces, it's 56 miles from her position to where her current road joins the route.