The Mobius Trip

isn't that the tree where Llewelyn Moss found 2 million dollars?

Nah, that one's coming up... stay tuned.

Today our route would continue west, possibly to Christmas Valley, or if we made good time, we'd skip that and just press on to Silver Lake where we'd been before on the TAT. We'd only be crossing one paved road in between, Hwy 395, not that there would be any services.

I'd traced most of the route on GoogleEarth, with the exception of a couple dry lake beds where the tracks sort of dispersed. Otherwise, I had the usual anxiety of getting turned around by gates and such. And I could in no way vouch for the difficulty of the terrain. Turns out, we didn't have a single reroute the whole day.

We awoke to overcast skies, and a few sprinkles.



We started with a short paved transit section that took us out on the Double O Ranch road.

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Through the refuge,



where we actually did see some birds,



I don't know why the birders get their undies bunched about motorcycles... we flush 'em out so they can log them in their little books. They should be thanking us.

was a gate that marked the boundary of the Refuge.



beyond which was who knows what. We made our contributions to the wetlands,



performed one last pre-flight check,



and pointed ourselves at the first dry lake bed crossing.

what to expect... but it didn't take long to figure out.

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Past the rise, there were a couple more lake beds, but they were more sandy.





Overall this section was visually striking, and I think the overcast weather and clouds contributed a lot to that.



Climbing out of that valley, we were on vague cow trails again (OK Mr. Jenkins, "roads")

Iron mountain (5800ft)



and the road that'll get us across.



On the next ridge there were some old structures,

when the trail looks like this:



To get to the next valley, we had to navigate some canyons,



the riding was technical, but not terribly so.



or maybe we were now acclimated so that mildly challenging, difficult terrain now seemed easy.



Looking back,

for a few hours...

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it was time to take a little break.



the canyon we just climbed into and got spit out of:



Riding away from this spot for a good five minutes and turning back yielded this view. We took our break where the road meets the canyon:

the top of the next ridge gave us the lay of the land:



then some long, straight, flat sections where we'd spread out on accouna the dust.



No country for big bikes, or street tires.



Speaking of tires, we'll be sporting rear trials tires for M10. Pirelli MT43's

this time to defleece.



In the above pitcher, can anyone tell me why the grass on either side of the trail is different and there's no sage bushes? It's as if it had been mowed once upon a time, but I can't imagine that's the case as there were rocks and such that wouldn't have made that easy.

By the way, I think a runway may have been the explanation for yesterday's wide graded section.

Maybe it's done so that in photographs which include motorcyclists, they stand out with better contrast against the lighter colored grass:



Here's another view:



and a closer look at the actual trail:

By this point, we'd been riding what Dave refers to as "sustained" technical riding for the whole morning, and we were starting to get tired. Morale was flagging. Riding was getting sloppy.

During our pre-ride briefing I'd mentioned that we'd be passing a place called "Happy Camp", and LDF latched onto it like a 4-year old in the back seat on the way to Orlando. "Are we at Happy Camp yet?" she'd ask over the intercom every mile or so. Finally, we'd arrived. Unfortunately, she was way ahead of me, and blasted past, so I stopped to take a pitcher.



KerTHUNK. I look down, and my front wheel is in a hole up to the axle:


Does this look like a Happy Camp to you?



didn't think so.

Llewelyn Moss tree...



as you can see,



this one comes complete with a vulture nest.

required deconstructing and reconstructing a gerry-rigged double corral gate that took us about 20 minutes and forced us to scavenge wire and twine to make the fence / gate better than it was before.



the herd was ruled by this guy who gave us the stink-eye the whole time we were working on the gate:



Looking back on the corral:



Have I said I love the long sight-lines out here?

into Dry Valley,



and onto Little Juniper Rd.



which was long, straight, and fast. Another lone tree:





I can't remember, I think we may have passed a car on this road. Or maybe I'm imagining it. We hadn't seen another soul all day.

LDF called out a stop to refleece.



temps were cool, but it was perfect weather for riding. We finally snagged a glimpse of the Alkalai Lake valley where Hwy 395 was.



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We were headed off into the far horizon towards Christmas Valley and Silver Lake beyond.

"In the above pitcher, can anyone tell me why the grass on either side of the trail is different and there's no sage bushes? "

It's likely the areas where the grass is was once the road bed. During the wet season ruts get torn into the road and a new road bed is created by dodging the ruts. The old road bed, with it's ruts acting as catch basins for rain and run off, makes a good habitat for the thirsty grasses. The grasses grow quicker than sage, too, so they get to dominate the disturbed area. If you walked through the grasses, you may have even been able to feel out the old ruts. Or get snake bit. Snakes like grass.

I agree that the dark clouds really make plains visually stunning. I am thoroughly enjoying the vicarious travel, too!

I've had the pleasure of riding Xmas Valley/Silver Lake area a couple times when I lived in Central OR. Seeing these pics brings back so many fond memories. Makes me wish I'd taken the time to ride more of it. No riding like that is Georgia! Is Questor riding a DRZ too?

I'm not a regular poster as you can tell from my odometer but I do read a lot. Mobius reports I've read from Day 1. Excellent is about the best word to describe the adventure and the reports. I know many have said it before and I'll say it one more time, thanks for bringing us along.

on Hwy 395 to jog 4 miles south and pick up the dirt trail to continue west.



A couple miles past that, we turned off the graded gravel onto a one-lane, threaded Twin Buttes,



followed shortly by a turn onto this:



and just like that, our little liason section was over.

LDF went down, and a cloud of something burst forth. When Dave & I rolled up she was asking, "what caught my wheel?" Anyone wanna guess?

on the "Horseshit incident"

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Sheep Rock:



I'd penciled in a waypoint marking a possible shorter route... my plan was to gather ground intel and decide which road to take, the shortcut:



or the longer way:



we took the longer.