Read day 16 first. 6AM and slept really well considering. Beautiful starry night, woke to cows a few times. If things go smoothly today, this whole experience was actually a little fun. It took 45 minutes to cover 1.4 miles back to the bike. At that rate it would be 6 hours to walk out. I forgot to mention, the elevation is about 6000 ft, so it might be making things harder. I have no idea what kind of situation I would be in without the compass on the GPS. I had set a waypoint before leaving the bike yesterday so it was easy to follow it back, as well as ones for fences, the trailer, landmarks etc. Would not have been easy to find either otherwise. Decide I will do the secret hard lean of the bike to the side (almost as far over as you can) to tilt the little bit of gas I know hides in the corner of this tank over to where the fuel needs to be. Just enough to go another couple miles. I drive up a fence line and back, no place to cross. I drive down a trail, hit a river and need to turn back. I follow another trail, this looks well driven the tire tracks are about a foot deep. Success, I find a road I recognize again. Pass the point I dropped the bike, this is the most difficult part to ride. Once past here it gets better.
I had studied the maps well last night and predicted a few spots where ranches might be. Past three more empty cabins, each I mark on my map in case I needed to double back to them. One had a solar panel, so thought it would probably be the best, the other two were abandoned. I figure the cabins might be hunting lodges. Maybe the same with the trailer I was at. The roads are getting better. I made it out to a ranch. Drive up to the house and ask for some gas and how to get out. Thanks to the kindness of the owner to give me a gallon of gas and point me in the right direction.
I make it out to the highway just before 11. It took 5 hours to get out. Sent a message home and drove to nearby town to get 4.1 gallons of gas. My tank holds exactly 4.1 from empty, never had it that low. Ask gas attendant where I can get steak. Discover I had the beginnings of a search party out for me since I wasn't able to broadcast a location for close to 24 hours. Big thanks to the local PD for the effort I am sure they went to, and for stopping by at the steakhouse to check on me. Also thanks to family and everyone else for their worry. All is fine, and I am back on the road. I think I handled that pretty well and did everything right... other than foolishly getting lost.