Off-Road Incident Response Strategy

If you venture off-road you need a rescue plan. If you are off-road with a vehicle, SxS, bicycles or motorcycles you also need a rescue plan for the vehicle. Don't break down or get injured with no way to get help. I always ride the motorcycle in groups, or with at least one other. I ride the eMTB alone at times but I always have communications and a plan. 

Communications

 I wrote a blog post a few years ago about rider-to-rider communications: https://jimroal.blogspot.com/2023/11/rider-to-rider-communication.html . After riding a few years more, both on the motorcycle and the eMTB, I realized that communication when off-road is very important. This includes communication with friends and family, and with emergency services. Too often we have accidents or break something when off-road. When this happens, we need a reliable way to contact people for help. 

Satellite

The best way to communicate with people anywhere when outdoors and out of cellular service is via satellite. Some newer cellular phones have emergency satellite communications, and some even have broader use than emergency. Of course you can get a satellite phone but that is expensive. There are several satellite communicators made for outdoors activities from Garmin, Motorola, and others. I use the Garmin InReach Messenger for its relatively low cost, crazy long battery life, small size, and the InReach SAR rescue plan. It is important to setup and test this to make sure communications get through to the people you need them too. I have seen many with Garmin InReach but they have not set it up to communicate with family and friends. I highly recommend doing this! The InReach is not just for emergencies. 

Garmin InReach has a feature that includes the GMS coordinates in every message. I highly recommend keeping that feature ON. It comes along for free with the messages you send.

I use the tracking feature in the Garmin InReach and I share every ride with my wife. Every 10 minutes it updates my location that she can see on a map. I also share my location with her on Google Maps at all times, which works great until I am in an area with no coverage (which happens often). If I even just stop communication (tracking) she will know my last location within 10 minutes. The blue dots on the Garmin Explore map are those 10-minute updates.

GMRS Radios

Many of us only have messaging over satellite, so it is good to also have a GMRS radio. For this to work, you need multiple people to have them. The radios can be inexpensive and the 10-year FCC license is cheap and does not require a test like HAM. The radio give you a way to have voice conversation with multiple people from a reasonable distance of each other (several miles generally).

Cellular Phones

Cellular phones are great as that is now our primary communication device on a daily basis. However, off-road coverage can be spotty so don't depend on this. Ideally ride with a group that has a variety of carriers so at least one might have service at any given time. Someday (fairly soon) coverage will expand through low-earth orbit satellite systems.

Helmet Intercoms

Helmet intercoms (Cardo, Sena, etc.) are very short range, about a half a mile generally. Some can use cellular networks but that of course has the limitations described above. These devices are generally not for emergencies, unless you happen to have cellular communications at the time. However, the best way to survive a crash is to prevent the crash in the first place. The great thing about helmet intercoms is you can engage in fully hands-free conversation the whole ride. This does not mean you have to spend the whole ride talking. You can easily mute/unmute. The rider in front can warn the other riders of obstacles and vehicles ahead. This helps reduce the chance of accidents. This is very useful in dusty conditions as the riders behind the front have dust to deal with limiting their vision. If a rider does have a problem, they can immediately let the other riders know. This helps prevent a pileup when visibility is limited. You can also communicate navigation to the other riders as you approach forks in the trail. This helps prevent people getting off-route and lost. 

Cardo and Sena have mesh systems which connect all the riders with their system making a daisy chain. This helps extend the communication distance as it hops rider-to-rider between the front and back. Unfortunately these 2 mesh systems are not compatible, but they are bridgeable. Each rider with a mesh intercom can also bridge in another rider with simple Bluetooth. It can be complicated to setup, and unreliable even when you get it setup. The mesh systems are the best so use that if you can. 

I have a Bluetooth GMRS radio that connects to the helmet intercom (Cardo in my case) so I can use the radio while riding. I added a Bluetooth push-to-talk switch on my clutch lever making it easy to talk even while riding.

Starlink

I don't have Starlink so I can't speak to it much but this is another alternative communications mechanism.

Navigation and Maps

Never go off-road without mapping and navigation tools. I have several I keep on my phone including Google Maps, GAIA, OnX, and Trailforks. I also have Garmin Tread and a Zumo XT2 motorcycle navigation device. All of these have the ability to download offline maps which needs to be done before you get out of cellular coverage. When I plan hikes or rides, I always download offline maps before I leave the house.

When planning anything off-road, share the route with family so they know where you planned to go.

Rescue Plan

Think through what you will do when things go bad. It could be you get injured or your bike is unrideable for a variety of potential reasons. What now?

I made a Google Doc of my emergency plan and shared it with my family. It explains how to contact me with InReach and GMRS. It explains how to find me as well. I bought a pickup with off-road capabilities and equipped it with everything I would need to recover a motorcycle or bike off-road. I have 2 loading ramps, a winch, and plenty of tie-downs to secure the load well enough to haul it on rugged off-road trails.

If you get injured in an area unreachable by ambulance (pretty much all off-road) things can get crazy expensive fast. Medivac can run well over $50k and may not be covered by insurance. I have the Garmin SAR plan for this. I personally have never used it but I have heard of many who have. It is $40/year. 

Rescuing

If you ever get that call or message that a friend is in trouble and needs a rescue, go prepared. Take the 10 minutes to clearly see where they are on a map and download any offline maps you will need (see "navigation and maps" above). Google Maps has some off-road navigation capability but it is not really good at it. I use OnX primarily for off-road navigation since it has much better coverage, and trail ratings. Next, get a clear communication plan with the person, including what GMRS channel they will be on and InReach address you can contact them on. Make a test InReach message to ensure you can communicate when you are offline. Have them share their GPS coordinates so you can navigate directly to them. Make the communication plan clear while you are in contact with them. Share this information with others before you go. Have a rescue plan for yourself as well in case you run into trouble yourself. Bring food and water for both yourself and the people you are rescuing. Also bring any necessary tools, parts, and first-aid supplies. Go prepared as you would when heading off-road. 

Ideally the group needing a rescue would have shared their route plan before the ride. We generally do this with a Facebook event, sharing the OnX or GPX route, or both. It is best to follow their route to navigate to them and tell them the route you plan to take before leaving home.

I got that call from a friend who was on a group ride where one of the riders broke their leg. I was about 3 hours away. In my haste to get their quickly I did not properly prepare. He had shared the route but I did not download it, not did I download the offline maps of the area. Instead I just navigated to the GPS pin he shared using Google Maps. I quickly glanced at the route and it seemed correct (when zoomed out). I had ridden in that area a few times before but the area does have a bit of a maze of roads and trails. Luckily I brought my Garmin InReach and I always carry 2 GMRS radios in my truck. Google Maps took me off the more main roads, onto a rugged trail that became impassable (red detour road to the East of the main blue route in the map below).

This wasted precious daylight and time. Lesson learned: Make the communication channels clear. Make your rescue plan clear. Give updates along the way if/when you can. Follow the proper route and clearly explain the route you are taking. Download offline maps and use the right navigation app for the route you are taking. In my case I should have switched from Google Maps to OnX once I got off maintained roads. I should have used the Garmin Zumo XT2 to navigate the route since it has a larger, brighter screen than the phone. I also lacked a phone holder. 

A rescue is bad enough, don't make it a double rescue! Leaving someone waiting with little to no communication is a big problem. At what point do they need to get out before dark? How long do they wait? They are left wondering if you are still coming at all. Ideally have at least 2 people at the location where the rescue is needed. Don't leave a person waiting there alone. 

Husqvarna 701 Enduro 5,000 mile update

 

I now have 5,000 miles on the Husqvarna 701 Enduro. Love this bike for sure. 

Here are some upgrades from my last update at 2,000 miles. 

• Replaced the Continental TKC 80 tires with Michelin Anakee Wild. I have also replaced the rear again with another Anakee Wild (front was about 80% still). Performance is very similar but the TKC 80's lasted almost twice as long (2900 miles versus 1700 miles). I replaced them when the center of the tread is down to about 4mm. The only reason I switched was due to availability of the TKC 80. I will be going back to TKC 80 when these wear out.
• Added a Garmin Zumo XT2 navigation system. My old smartphone navigation had some flaws, mainly screen brightness and size. The Zumo XT2 has excellent screen brightness and several other useful features. 
• Removed the kickstand sensor guard due to intermittent issues with kickstand sensor faults. I also had the sensor replaced under warranty. Worked fine for over 1,000 miles but the fault happened again just once. It has been another 1,000 miles with no issues. 
• Due to heavy dust on most of our rides, I went back to a factory paper air filter. No real evidence the K&N was not doing the job but just concerned it does not catch quite as small of particles as the paper. 
• Replaced the front bag due to the other one failing the zipper.  
• Seat Concepts Comfort XL seat. This does make a big difference. When you first sit on it you wonder if it was worth the $400. I long ride down the highway confirms that it is. Actually any ride where you are on the seat. 
• I added an external mic and fuzzy wind socks. I put the mic on the front bag to isolate it from all vibration. Now the audio in my videos is drastically better. 

I track my fuel economy and I am averaging about 50mpg.  It can drop as low as 35mpg on long fast highway segments. The worst I got was 33mph on a highway segment into a strong headwind. The best has been 65mpg. 

I finally learned how to use the quick shifter and it is magical! It is just a habit for me to let off the throttle when shifting, a habit very hard to break. The way you ride a quick shifter is stay even on the throttle and just make the shift. It even works great at full throttle. It works both up and down, automatically speed matching via engine control. It cuts engine power very briefly to make the shift but it is so fast it feels like constant power delivery. 

I hit 5,000 miles near Tecopa California on a Red Rock Rumble ride sponsored by Red Rock Harley Davidson. YouTube playlist from that ride: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ4ONVypz2fZAOWldAgCFsl1RgZaQYVnw&si=01wwFbDfKNxm9ApB  

Off-road Trails in Southern Nevada

 

I ride electric mountain bikes and a dual sport motorcycle in southern Nevada. Luckily, over 85% of Nevada is public lands, and there is lots of off road riding available for both motorized and non-motorized machines. I wanted to create this blog post to make others aware of some great resources to find all these available trails.  While many of these resources claim to have maps for both, coverage of motorized versus non motorized varies quite a bit within each of the apps/websites. Some have free access levels and others support both subscriptions free access levels.  I will say that none of these mapping tools has complete coverage.  Most are less than half the actual trails in most areas.  

I also use an old smartphone for navigation for both mountain biking and motorcycling. It is very important to keep your eyes on the trails to avoid an accident, like this one: https://jimroal.blogspot.com/2024/02/oops.html . Stop to view the navigation. 

Update 1-2025: I now have a Garmin Zumo XT2 which is much better for navigation. Much brighter, larger, and clearer screen as well as some great navigation features.

Apps & Websites

Trailforks - This is my go to app for Electric Mountain biking, and any mountain biking. While it also supports motorized off road trails, it is not particularly good at that. For mountain biking, it is great because crowdsourced trails are available. I have found the coverage in my area to be better than any other apps I have found for mountain biking. It supports offline maps for navigation when out of cellular range.  Part of Outside+. Here is my Trailforks profile.

GAIA - This is a pretty decent app in general for finding trails. I have used it for both motorcycling and electric mountain biking, but I tend to find other apps a bit better and so it is not my go to app.  GAIA is more of a mapping utility and navigation tool than a way to find existing trails. It supports offline maps for navigation when out of cellular range. It is one of the few that support off-road turn-by-turn navigation.  Part of Outside+. Here is my Gaia profile.

OnX - There are several variants of OnX. I use the off road version. It seems to be the best in my area for motorcycling. It is a subscription only app and website and has no access without a subscription. It supports offline maps for navigation when out of cellular range.  

AllTrails - The AllTrails app and website claim to support all kinds of off road trails and activities. It does but I have found the coverage to be not as good as trail forks for biking or for onX for motorcycling, at least in my area. It supports offline maps for navigation when out of cellular range.  

Kamoot - Supports hiking and biking.

Strava - This is more of a social networking app for bicyclers, but you can look up other people's ride segments and find some routes this way.

Garmin Explore - Garmin explore is an application used with many Garmin products. Garmin has other similar apps to Garmin Explore as well, depending on the product that you are using. It supports offline maps, navigation, and integration with several Garmin products such as InReach satellite messenger.  

Google Maps - Google Maps actually has features for navigating off-road too.  Well, somewhat anyway.  It has biking and walking modes that include trails.  While it is not a main feature it can work surprisingly well at times.  Often you will need to put it in biking or walking mode and also add some stops along the way to enforce your desired route.  Here is an example taking a Jeep trail over Wheeler Pass.

Google Earth - Google Earth has some great tools for searching the Earth for all kinds of detail. It also includes some great measurement tools that will show you the elevation profile. Another great feature is tilting the map to see a perspective from ground level or anywhere in between.  You can also import GPS data from Garmin Connect and other trip trackers. The satellite imagery is good enough to spot many trails that may not yet be mapped.  

RideWithGPS - created as a bicycle route planner it is generally a pretty good route planner.  

Local and national government sites

Each local area likely has its own resources for specific parks and places where there are trails. things like the U. S Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management cover many parks across the United States. Below are just a few that I use around Southern Nevada.

US Forest Service mapping 

Bureau of Land Management and BLM maps landing page

USGS mapping store

Off-Road Nevada

Nevada Trail Finder

Related Resources

Backcountry Discovery Routes (BDR). Back country discovery routes are specific routes that have been created by the BDR community. They connect multiple trails together to make a long route, generally through part of or an entire state.

Once you find places to ride on the map, the next thing you wonder is how challenging and fun will it be. I generally search the trail name in YouTube where many people have posted some great videos of their rides/drives so you can actually ride the trail before you get there.  I contribute many ride segments on my YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@jimroal .

Oops - I crashed

 I had a fun motorcycle ride plan mapped out.  We would start at Apex (a.k.a. Nellis Dunes) and ride across to the Old Spanish Trail which connects to Bitter Springs.  Basically the route in purple on the map below. A big loop that returns to Apex.

OnX link to North half of planned route: https://webmap.onxmaps.com/offroad/share/content?share_id=01HNNZ4MSD8Z9VKDXGFW01MHRP  and South half: https://webmap.onxmaps.com/offroad/share/content?share_id=01HNNZ6R78S90W9A76WT85QXR3 . 

The weather was perfect.  We got to Apex which is a large open riding area of mostly sand dunes.  We needed to get across Apex to start on the Old Spanish Trail (blue arrow on map below).  We started at the left of the map below.

Apex is a web of trails and dunes so not so clear to navigate through.  Since we were on off-road focused motorcycles, the obvious route was as straight as we could go, sort of.  The blue trace below is from my Garmin Messenger which sends updates every 10min. We made it to somewhere in that red circle below.

Here is a closer satellite look below.  The crash happened somewhere in this area, likely that dune drop just below the 2 blue dots.  You can see the semicircle where the dune drops off. That will have a sharp edge and drop where the sand blows over the dune. Of course, these dunes shift all the time so the image below my not represent what it was like when I crashed.

Here is a higher resolution map of the area: https://maps.clarkcountynv.gov/ow/?@844538,26805354,8 

In hindsight, this is the route we should have taken (below)

That is where things took a bad turn, or drop.  I was riding with a friend Jeff who explained that I rode off the sharp edge of a dune which was about an 8ft drop.  I landed in the riding position still but the bike and I had fallen over on the left side.  It appears I fell hard on my left shoulder and head.  Still in the riding position, my left leg was under the bike now.  Jeff got down to where I landed and pulled me out from under the bike. I was a bit out of it but conscious by then.  He said I complained of shoulder pain and wanted to just rest for a few minutes.  Almost 30 minutes later I was ready to get going again. When we got back up I insisted we needed to just find the easiest route back home.  After some basic checks of my state, we headed home. At this point we were still out in the dunes and the best route back was not clear.  At one point we were on top of a dune with a fairly steep drop.  Jeff told me to wait there while he finds a better route down.  However, I just rode down it anyway.  He was a bit surprised I did that given my shoulder pain. At another point Jeff had me turn off my bike while he searched for the best route out.  When he returned and we were ready to go again, I could not start my bike.  I kept trying but the kill switch was still off.  At this point he began to worry that I may not be thinking straight.  He could not see how bad my shoulder was and had no idea I had a concussion either.  Before we got on the highway, Jeff asked some questions and took a closer look to access my state.  I was able to answer all the questions fine so we headed home.  

I do not remember much past pulling off Rt 604 where we started off-road. The next memory I have is riding home passing the I215/I95 interchange.  This would be about an hour I have no memory of now, including the entire accident.  

We got home and removed my riding gear.  At that point Jeff finally got a better look at my shoulder.  I do remember this.  The look on his face when he saw my shoulder was not good.  It's that kind of look you never want anyone to have when they are looking at you.  It was that "of man that looks really bad" look.  Kelly got home shortly after and took me to the hospital.  They found several cracked ribs, a concussion, and a broken Clavicle bone (a.k.a. collar bone).  

A couple weeks later I had surgery to repair my clavicle (collar bone). It took twice as long as they had planned since the bone was in 3 pieces.  Now I have some new hardware holding that bone together, as well as a scar from my neck to my shoulder.  

Its a good thing that I had all my protective gear on that day. I had a helmet, chest protector, motocross boots, proper riding pants, knee pads, and my jacket, everything. Dunes can be very deceiving, and it is easy to miss these deep drop offs. However, I have ridden dunes often, and I know this. I really wish I could remember the accident. Looking back to what I do remember, I know we were trying to navigate across the open dune area to find the trailhead on the other side.  I had a phone on the handlebars for navigation.  Since we were not on a defined trail, I was looking at it periodically to ensure we were still headed the right way.  I suspect I looked away at just the wrong time.  I think distracted driving is the cause here.  I am a huge opponent of distracted driving.  I never text while driving.  My phone stays in my pocket.  I rarely even take calls, and never initiate one when driving.  In the future I will come to a stop before looking at the phone to navigate off-road.  Things just happen too fast, even at slow speeds off-road.  Of course, distracted driving on-road is a huge menace already and causes many bad accidents.  

Thankfully, the bike survived nearly unscathed. I have a Insta360 X3 camera I mount on the handlebars, which was still there and unharmed. Unfortunately, I had not started recording. There are some new scratches on the front of the front fender, and also on the left hand guard.  I think the front forks took much of the impact.  

I had ridden Bitter Springs itself just a couple weeks before. (YouTube playlist of that ride)

I had not ridden the Old Spanish trail or much of the rest of this route. When I rode Bitter Springs before we had taken I15 all the way to Crystal.  Bitter Springs itself is a fairly easy ride.  

Once I get healed up and riding again, we'll have to try this again, except maybe we will bypass the dunes altogether and of course stay very focused on riding.

3-14-2024 Update

Finally got my post operation x-rays.  You can see the hardware they added.  Bones aligned and healing nicely. This was taken 1 month after the surgery.

Some have asked if that hardware will remain in there.  Yes, it stays.  Made from titanium and meant to remain in there forever.  

Use an old smartphone for bike navigation

 

I enjoy mountain biking off-road and often in areas with no cellular.  Sometimes I ride in areas with many established trails that cross each other and navigation would help.  I looked into bike navigation but they have small screens, are costly, and many of the features are redundant with my Garmin fenix 6x Pro Solar watch.  I also never trade in my old smartphones so I have several fairly recent ones laying around.  I decided to use my old Motorola Z4 smartphone as a biking navigation using.  First I needed a real robust mount.  I started on Amazon and found this one. 

It grabs all 4 corners and locks in place.  

I cleared and reset the phone, removing all unnecessary apps to minimize battery consumption.  I also put it in airplane mode, and keep WiFi and Bluetooth off to save power.  The Moto Z4 I am using also supports MotoMod batteries, of which I have a few.  I am using the 2200mAh unit primarily and I can hot swap in others if it gets low on the trail (which is unlikely).  I could also connect the phone to the USB port in the bike display to keep it charged if I wanted.  I removed the SIM card as well so it would not search for cellular even out of airplane mode.  Then I installed Google Maps, Trailforks, Garmin Explore, and GAIA maps.  All of these offer offline maps of bike trails.  There are many others too.  So far I found GAIA to be the best for bike navigation as it can ever store satellite maps offline. 

Here is how I organized the home screen.   

Here is what GAIA maps looks like.

Here is a video showing the use of this riding some trails.

This first ride was on a pretty easy trail.  I have yet to test it on harsher rides but so far it seems solid.  I am of course by no means the first person to do this.  I wanted to use an old phone, and not my current phone, just in case that mount breaks or I crash the bike.  Also, I didn't want to drain the battery on the phone I use normally since I want to be able to make calls, or message through my Garmin satellite messenger in case of trouble.  

Garmin InReach Messenger Review

 

I like to ride my mountain bike up in the mountains.  Sometimes I am in canyons between mountains where there is no cellular reception.  I decided I needed a satellite messenger so I could always communicate, and for safety.  I already have a Garmin fenix 6X Pro Solar watch, and a Virb Ultra 30 camera so I decided to stick with Garmin for this as well.  As I was looking, they just introduced this InReach Messenger device so I bought one.  

This device integrates with the Garmin ecosystem so the watch can trigger tracking and well as SOS and other features.  This device also pairs with my smartphone so I can use the smartphone UI to create, send, read messages and other functions.  Using the smartphone is very handy as it has a nice big screen and I am very used to interacting with it versus learning a new UI that is far smaller.  The device uses a Messenger app to connect and interact with the device.  The device can be used stand-alone though which is great.  If for some reason I did not have my phone I could still communicate.  

I had read some reviews about this device as it was just coming out.  One of the pro's was great battery life.  I have found the battery life to be stellar actually.  I am writing this article in April and I have not charged it since last year.  It is still over 70%.  I use the device about 3 hours a weekend most weekends, year round.

Messaging is pretty simple and it can automatically switch between WiFi, Cellular, and Satellite as needed to minimize satellite charges.  I have never used all my messages in a month.  It also sends my location every 10 minutes so my family can see where I am regardless of cellular connection.  This is great for safety.  

Overall I would highly recommend this device for people who like to go places where there is no cellular.