This travelogue describes a July 2016 motorcycle trip through northwestern Mongolia. We were seven riders, one passenger, and five support crew in two support vehicles. Riders were Chip Greening (Portland, OR; retired lawyer); Mark Jennings (Sedona, AZ; veterinarian); Joe Laumer (Cleveland, OH; industrial property manager); Mike Mathews (Greenville, NC; engineer); Dan Murphy (Durango, CO; retired anesthesiologist); Tom Nelson (Portland, OR; retired architect); Andreas Neuhold (Zurich, Switzerland; architect), Linda Sikorowski (retired public involvement specialist; Denver, CO) was the passenger riding in a chase vehicle. Chinzo Chuluunbaatar is a principal in Drive Mongolia (http://www.drivemongolia.com/) and Mongolian Outdoor Travel (http://mongolianoutdoortravel.com/), and was to be our primary guide to ride with us on his motorbike. Anar Bold was our assistant guide (and a graduate of Arcata, CA, high school). Batzorig Chuluunbaatar (Bazo), Chinzo's younger brother, was a support truck driver, mechanic, and the only one other than Chinzo who had ridden a motorcycle on the tracks and roads planned for our trip. Chulunabat Byankhishig (Chuka) and Uchral Bayanmandel (Uchka) were mechanics, and Munkh-od Munkhtsetseg (Muugi) was our cook.

The trip began with our arrival in Ulaanbaatar (UB) and subsequent flight to Ulgii (one of several acceptable English spellings), capital of Bayan-Ulgii Aimag (province) . The motorcycle trip ended with our return to UB on July 17. Mongolia is the 19th largest and most sparsely-populated country in the world (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolia). About 850,000 of 3 million Mongolians live in UB with the rest scattered over the country. Ulgii, our jumping-off point, has less than 30,000 people; Erdenet, Mongolia's third largest city has less than 80,000.

Mongolia has few two-lane, paved roads. Most travel is over dirt or rocky tracks. There are no road signs outside of UB, and very little of the country is GPS-mapped in detail. Very few people speak English, making communications nearly impossible without our English-speaking guides (Chinzo, Anar, and Bazo).

This short motorcycle trip therefore provides only a tiny glimpse of this vast country and its different ethnic groups. While it's impossible to convey the vastness of Mongolia in either pictures or words, enjoy this tiny glimpse.