Shifty Drifty - Solo Ride Across Russia & Mongolia

I'm in Mongolia. I'm putting my entire trip at risk. Yeah, it's probably one of the most difficult decisions I've made in this entire trip. I'm Mark Wallace. I'm a full-time traveler. In 2016, I left the United States with the goal of riding my motorcycle across every continent except Antarctica. I wanted to see the world and because nobody was crazy enough to do it with me, I decided I'd do it alone. It took me three years but I finally did it and then I just kept going. I'm still riding, still exploring and my wanderlust is untamed. My name is Mark Wallace and these are my stories. This is the story of Shifty Drifty. That's the name of my motorcycle. It's also the name of this channel but it means a lot more to me than just that and so to help you understand, I'd like to set the stage and tell you the story properly. We have to go back in time to 2017. I was riding around the world solo on my motorcycle and it was time to cross Russia and so I was planning to cross all of Russia down into Mongolia back into Russia and then all the way over to the Sea of Japan and then hop on a ship and go to Southeast Asia. I made it all the way to Moscow, Russia where wouldn't you know it, I got acute bronchitis and I had to stay in bed for a few days and that was not good news because I was already late back in my previous journey in London. My motorcycle was stolen and so all the costs of repairing the motorcycle and the time it took to get parts had delayed me by about two months and that just had a domino effect. Getting all the permits and everything to get into Russia delayed me again and so I was planning to be in Russia in June but it was already August so I was getting reports from people in Siberia that it was starting to snow, the rivers were rising in Siberia and just things were not looking good. Well fortunately I stayed in bed a few days, a doctor helped me out and I did some touristy things and I was finally ready to get back on the road. So I rode eight long days to Novosibirsk, Russia. It's the geographical center of Russia and really the beginning of our story. Once I got into Novosibirsk I met this amazing person. Her name is Agata and she was an English student at the university in Novosibirsk and so we met coincidentally and she said hey let me show you around town. None of my friends have met an American, much less an American that's ridden in on a motorcycle. We'd like to take you out for drinks and well here's what happened. These are my Russian friends. It's a video. Yeah it's a video. Okay. We just, we just had this. What is this called? I don't know this word. It's whiskey on the pigs. Like a pig. How it was? How was it? It was like bourbon. One, two, three. Well we kept drinking and the night became a little bit interesting to say the least. A few more university students showed up and because none of them had met an American before they wanted me to say some American slang phrases and so they were asking me stuff like hey say rock and roll man and so I'd say okay rock and roll say it's cool and be like okay it's cool and they say okay say the what's up say what's up what's up and they're like say say the shifty What? Say shifty drifty. I'm like I have no idea what shifty drifty is and these kids were telling me no no no shifty drifty our favorite American phrase is shifty drifty and I didn't have the heart to tell them that that wasn't an American phrase but I was really curious like what the heck is shifty drifty so I got to my friend said well shifty drifty sort of means you know if you had a good day it's shifty drifty you had a bad day it's shifty drifty. How'd the test go? Shifty drifty. How's your new car? Shifty drifty. It's a catch-all phrase that could mean anything. Well the next day I had a really nice hangover but I was able to get some really awesome coffee at the coffee shops in Novosibirsk and I was also able to find some military rations which I knew I would need when I got to Mongolia. So I had another great night's rest and then I began my ride south through the Ural Mountains toward Mongolia. This ride was spectacular it's one of my favorite rides in all of my rides around the world. Zipping along and then I see this that does not inspire confidence I am at the Mongolian border we're waiting here for somebody to let us through the gate We're in Mongolia. I've been told 10 kilometers is a very bad road. Let's see what happens So when I got to Saganur I could not find the hotel that was on my map and I met this really interesting little guy and he told me he could take me to the hotel and after riding all over town I finally realized he was just taking me to his house where he wanted me to stay but I decided to camp out in his gigantic yard and it was really fantastic Hey I have camped out in Mongolia. Whoa let me fix that. I'm in the middle of nowhere look at this Right behind me here's a rainbow. That's got to mean good things. How amazing is that? Here's my tent here. I got it all set up. There's a big storm that's supposed to be coming so I am cooking my MREs right now. Supposed to get below freezing and very cold I'm gonna bundle up and try to stay warm until morning and the riding today was incredibly hard and tomorrow it's supposed to be worse so I hope I can make it maybe 200 miles tomorrow but that's I think a stretch goal. We'll see After a night of sleep I headed east toward Ulaanbaatar. It's been raining for the last two days or three days so the roads that I'm on in the low spots have turned into little lakes so I have to cross this murky in there so the back tire gets stuck and I am stuck so I've made little uh routes here to sort of get from the muck to solid ground back and then farther on down hopefully there's uh some washes I walk through that are all just gravel in the bottom. I did it but what you don't know is I've been on roads like this all day 40 miles and I'm already exhausted and I'm sure there's a bunch more of this there but man that was touch and go I almost went down During this crazy ride across the muck and mud and water and gravel I was drifting all over the place and I was really having a tough time shifting gears and I thought this is sort of shifty drifty. I started thinking about that and then I found this little note that Agatha had snuck into my motorcycle top bag and it said don't forget about shifty drifty and the whole day became sort of a shifty drifty day and that's when I realized well my bike needs to be called shifty drifty because the entire ride around the world was shifty drifty. Okay I'm going through my first official river crossing there's no way this bike is going to go across with it weighted down so this guy right here he's walking across is uh getting my back to pay him some money to do that and he's helping to guide me across the river so he he rode across the river twice on his very light motorcycle twice without a helmet in sandals while he was whistling so no pressure I pray that's my last river crossing of the day uh I think it is but behind me I can see a rainstorm coming so uh I'm gonna get some water here purify it drink it get some more purify that and get out of here. Suddenly the weather got really bad just a ton of rain a huge storm so I was able to ride through that storm to the top of this hill where I was able to finally make camp for the night. That night in my tent I spent hours talking to my brother Manon via satellite communicator a very difficult process because we had to do everything by text. We were looking at weather patterns and alternate routes back into Russia trying to decide if the roads to the east were safe and if I could make it before snow started to fall. I had crossed some really difficult roads but by every indication things to the east looked even worse. I decided to sleep on it and make a decision in the morning. After a really really difficult day yesterday some river crossings lots of marsh lots of lots of deep gravel sand um I just started to doubt the wisdom of trying to do this alone and so I uh I decided that I'm going to turn around and go back to Russia and the reason for that is the um I just don't think the reward is worth the risk. I'm in the rainy season right now I've been stuck in some rainstorms for the last two days I'm at best making 50 miles in a day and I just think you know if I fall or hurt myself my trip is over um and there's nobody that's going to be there to help me there's no no assistance if I drop the bike if it gets stuck in a river there's no getting it out I'm putting my entire trip at risk and my my uh my health at risk and so I really thought a lot about it because um I just thought I you know I could just man up and and do it and get through it I think I could but uh you know I just think the risk is too high and I feel like I'm disappointing a lot of people that you know I talked to about doing this they've done it themselves but in the end I have to make sure I take care of myself and so I'm going to turn back um yeah it's probably one of the most difficult decisions I've made in this entire trip uh I'm really not sure how I feel about it right now but um I think I should go back so that's what I'm going to do I rode down from the hilltop to a tiny town of Baixent and there I met another English teacher by the name of Juancha and he told me that because of the heavy rains the day before the river that I'd crossed previously was impassable I couldn't get across it on my motorcycle it was just too deep but he did have a friend that had a four-wheel drive and a trailer and they could take me across Juancha is a English teacher here yeah and uh he's going to help me get across the river yep this is my ride across the river right here these are the roads we are off to cross the river yeah my name is Juancha who's this guy? well I rode for hours and hours and finally made it back to Saganor where I was able to find that original hotel that the little guy said didn't exist and I had a fantastic night in the hotel got some rest and then finally turned north and headed back to Novosibirsk so what is Shifty Drifty? Well for sure Shifty Drifty is my motorcycle and it's this channel on YouTube but for me Shifty Drifty personifies everything about travel it's the attitude it's the mindset of just knowing things are going to be okay even if you don't make it across Mongolia or you lay your bike down or your car breaks down or you run out of money or whatever it is it's Shifty Drifty it's going to be okay and so Shifty Drifty for me has become sort of a mantra for living daily life and I love it I won't forget about Shifty Drifty and I hope you won't either