Mar. 28-31, 2013 Death Valley nOOb's Rally

I'll add another random picture just for the heck of it.

There is nothing random about that Bob with Beer/Food in his hand...random is the pic of him without it...



I am glad he doesn't know where I live..

Damn that is a good looking chef! Beer in the chili is always good!

A devil cat whispered it in my ear. I may not be able to use my left arm, but I know that you can't run. oser

Dammit now I have to get the bear load for the 12ga out in case you come knocking, at least you can only use the right arm so I have a chance...

:eek1

I wouldn't know about the chili because when I got there folks were scraping the bottom edges to get the pieces wedged in there.

It was certainly my fault for not considering that ~100 people were going to attack that pot when the dinner bell rang.

I still have one of those burgers covering the hole in my shoes. oke


Edit- Don't take me too serious Bob. You know me well enough to know that I'm just f'n with you. So feel free to tell me to FO.

Another random pic.

I call it "Making our Mothers Proud".

Farmland has its own beauty (although I still can't believe y'all haven't switched to no-till methods).

But just think how great it would be to also have a giant lake right there. I'm guessing you probably wouldn't live in the Fresno suburbs if you could have a lakefront house, with fishing and duck hunting right off your dock...

(still haven't finished my work/ride report)

I knew you were F'ing me up. We know each other better than that. Next time get your ass in line in time and the burgers will only be half shoe leather.

That pot looks EXACTLY like the porta-potties Sunday Morning. Man we destroyed those poor things!

Pity the fool that had to haul those things out, they were up to the brim!

Am going to have to go to casa de BOB and pick them up. I have been meaning to go to Ventura and checkout a cafe for breakfast.

Another awesome nOOb rally. Hats off to all the peeps who made this happen. It was a 1st class event for sure.

I arrived at noon Thursday and found out the place is booked...no more camp sites available. Luckily I found Matt, rider914 who arrived 30-min before me and snagged up one of the last two camp spots.



Thursday morning I went for a walk around camp and spotted some familiar faces...

Jimmy and Peter:


Bill (slugdad) getting ready for a ride:


Tay (SaintG):


Thursday we went for an afternoon ride up to the Osborne cabin.
Here's JonF. He's repaired and back on the trail! Way to go, Jon!


No actual riding pics. Here we are at the cabin...
Greg. Thanks for the beers Greg!


Johnny (jnyrav):



Peter (theGrinch):


Chris (browneye):


Vernon, Rob, Pat, Jimmy:








We bombed it on the way back down to the hwy...


The hwy is over there!


That's the end of Thursday. No night pics due to my crummy point and shoot.

All my pics may be found by clicking the "my smugmug" hyperlink below...

Friday coming up next.

I left the coast at 0'dark-thirty Thursday morning, trucking in made it a pretty uneventful trip, and I got there about 11:30. Inmate blaisew, AKA Kenneth Webb was gracious enough to share his campsite.

Home, Sweet Home for the weekend:


I started off the rally that afternoon riding with Browneye's group up to Osborne Cabin. It was a nice mixture of fast graded roads, some sand/gravel washes, and rocky trails. Good stuff to warm up on.




One of our group, Chad, was on a Vstrom. We waited at Osborne cabin for quite a while, and figured he had turned back. Gotta hand it to him. Chad persevered and made it all the way up there. Of course, as soon as he got there, the call rang out to saddle up and head back down the hill.



jnyrav greets Chad:


Back at the campground, I filled up on Lonestar's chili and burgers, drank a few beers, and got ready for Friday's ride over Hunter Mountain and points beyond.

Friday's ride would be my BIG ride. I've never ridden north of the hot springs and have been hearing of this big loop for years now. Jack Arthur (jarthur) is our ride coordinator and did a great job herding the cats. He split the group into two to keep us spread out better.

The day started out with a delicious breakfast and coffee courtesy of Dr. Ravera, Rich, and Diego. Thanks guys!



The line up:


Saline Valley:


Diego (perro-from-hell):


Gassing up at the hot springs. If it weren't for Johnny (jnyrav) and Pablo (espi) us FF's would never have made this long loop. Johnny and Pablo...I still owe you for fuel and a beer at the springs. Check your PM in-box.


Thanks again, Johnny!


Cheers Pablo!


For the ride up Steele Pass I mainly hung back with these cats:


Jack:


We started our long journey up the wash towards Steele Pass. The temps were warm and the constant lazy-S turns in the gravel wash were tiring. The warm temperature took its toll on Diego. He had too many layers on and was overheating.


Rob (KLRrob) and Jack (jarthur) hanging back with Diego:


This wash was long and rocky:




After stripping off a few layers, we continued on and it wasn't very long until Diego went down again. This time his face smacked the side of a berm and his hand got caught between a rock and a hard place (handle bar-end). This would prove to be a bummer because Diego would not be able to hold the bars with his left hand anymore. His palm began to swell with rushing pain. There was no way he was going to continue on up the wash this way. He decided to leave the bike in the wash and hike the few miles back down to the hot springs and to Pablo's camp. Low and behold as Diego was about to start walking a group of Jeepers came rolling down the trail. They were kind enough to give Diego a ride back to Pablo's camp.



We continued on up the trail and finally made it to the top of Steele Pass:


From the top of the pass we continued on down the other side...turned the corner and BAM! The Eureka dunes!




Go Jonathan!


Silt beds near the dunes:


KLRrob:


jnyrav:


We finally made it back to Scotty's castle where Jim (spafxer's) daughters were providing fuel for riders passing through. Thanks for waiting for us although we were 1.5 hrs late. Met a cool cat I was BS'ing with the night before at camp central. Sorry I forgot your name. Please chime in.


KLRrob and I slabbed it back to camp while the rest took the Tea Kettle junction > Hunter Mtn route back to camp.

Another good day of riding. The day's total was 200+ miles.

Thanks to Jack (jarthur), jnyrav, espi, and all the other cool peeps on this ride. You guys rock.

Next up...Saturday's ride to the Chloride cliffs, Beatty, Titus Canyon.

As always, all my pics for this ride may be found here:
https://m1jeep.smugmug.com/Motorcyc...-3-27/28745632_mx4Tgs#!i=2439889871&k=F5Zqv9W

thanks for posting your pics and your rr version....

i still have to upload my pics and do a rr. work sucks when no access to adv....

great to see where people went riding. i didn't really rode far, have to stay near the campground so you don't miss me for dinner and festivity.

great job everyone. special thanks to all the volunteers and ride leaders, likewise to all our supporters.

Another one of 'uncle bob'...thanks dood!!!

My 1 and only crash for the weekend , on the LostRider Crashfest ride to Lookout City
Broke off the antenna of my beloved 276 C Plus
No one was anywhere around me ( I was riding Sweep) so I had to capture it myself

Lior had that baby tuned up so good it ran perfect even laying down never died picked it up and rode away THANKS Lior


Anyone know where I can get a new antenna

Guys and dolls,

I enjoyed :huh coordinating the dinner on thursday. I tried to keep it cheap, more $$ for stewards of the Sequoias. I had tons of help. Burned up Spafixers grill, :eek1 Sorry Jim. Many people stepped up to make it all happen. From talking to Joel, it looks like we made $800 for the SOS . I did not realize how much work was involved. I crashed early Thursday and slept like a baby. Would I do it again? Only if I was not riding.

I was spent on Friday and Danny G was kind enough to convince me to go for a ride in the truck. Thanks Danny for showing me Beatty, lunch was killer , then back "Titus. I love it and I need to do it on the bike next year.

Joel, note for next years dinner.........very few people ate salad. No more than two bags of salad. More burgers and a second pot for the chili.

I got a real kick from watching everybody riding! OK, OK, I was jonesing for a ride so bad I was tempted to ride b*tch. I am looking forward to next year!

That half a beer was so cold...

You're welcome.
Had we known better we'd have saved you one.