Going to do Death Valley mid November about 16,17th

Is Titus Canyon. really a one way rd. looks like is for mine vans & priest

Yes.

You can only ride through starting on the N/E side (Entrance is closer to Nevada if that helps)

looking to leave panamint springs up threw racetrack wanting to make A loop back to panamint any suggestions

South Pass Hunter Mountain. Teakettle racetrack. Lippincott saline valley. South pass PSR. Nice loop. Check mileage though.

about 120miles round trip.
I try to do it every year, looking to do that on Sat maybe.

Do the Hunter Pass loop...out to Teakettle and down Lippencott. Very scenic. We did the route 2 days ago on xrs and a ktm 450. Scenery is off the hook. 117 miles if I recall. Only questionable piece was headed up Saline as you get into the canyon near the top. Some washouts. My favorite loop.

Can you be a little more specific on this do you mean South pass before you turn off onto hunter mountain road proper? I think that is what your talking about. I plan on doing this on the 990.

My son and I well be on the LC8s as well sounds like a good loop sat. maybe some side roads if the sunlight permits

Sorry about the hijack maybe rename your thread Going to do Death Valley next week

He already came and went, we are just dog-piling on him for intel on where to ride.



And he is being gracious enough to accommodate us with answers.

As you approach the Hunter turnoff headed south. Chewed up good in there. I took a pic of what I thought was a tuff area for bigger bikes. Found others worse than that. Guy came into camp later at nite on a silver 950. He was traveling from Eureka. He hit those rocks coming up south pass and had a pinch flat. Almost lost it in there then had to fumble in the dark to patch his tube. We gave him our patch kit as we left yesterday. As I said earlier, we only saw xr's and one other pumpkin off road. Lots of nice, shiny stuff in camps. If it were me and I had a lighter bike I'd take it for comfort sake. The guy who made it wasn't concerned about scratches..

Fwiw I took my xr600 thru there. The xr holds about 2.8 gal. I carried an extra gallon in the backpack. Left at 930 arrived at psr at 4. We did screw around at the Teakettle tho as it seemed there was some sort of goddamned xr's town meeting or something!

haven a hot toddy waiting for my son to show up don't know weather to dress cold or warm find out in a hour or so you can fallow on WhearAmIRiding.com or on face book

Back a day early from DV.

Saline Valley to Hunter Mountain was easy, Hunter mountain was a cake walk. The Cabin up there has had a lot of work done around it. Kinda sad but an easy ride.

Hidden Valley was easy, fast and clear all the way out the Tea Kettle.

Tea Kettle to Race track was wash board and some minor washouts, kinda sucked, easy but sucked.

Lippencott was tough on the 990, it was all downhill but the jeepers for some reason didnt know how to drive and kept parking in the midst of the trail often in the hardest parts. That sucked.

Saline back out to south pass was fine until the part right after the hunter mountain turn off. Then if just sucked.

Was able to get through on the 990, only had to stop and restart once on the really bad washout. It was a dogleg which didnt let you carry your momentum through the transition.

Other than that was just really cobbly.

So in conclusion. Yes doable on the big bikes, IF you a decent rider (I am not) it would prolly be easier.

Great weekend, weather was perfect and the nights we surprisingly warm.

Pretty sure they did that to save the cabin from the fire.

Sorry we missed your bitchin' campfire this year.

Spa and I rode from Fremont Peak near Ridgecrest to Trona, over Escape Rt, up Goler, Mengel, to Butte Valley and return....198 miles.

Goler step has been filled in and could drive a civic up there now. However the rock gardens, two of them, over the other side of Mengel are NOT noob or big bike friendly. Bulldogged thru, pretty gnarly but do-able on mid-size dualsports.

Weather perfect, not too busy. Kept leep frogging a poor guy on a honda that kept asking how to get to Furnace Creek. Yikes, no map or nothin' I guess. We got him headed out Butte Valley.

Escape route from Trona has some wild volcano baby-head fields as you get out to the end, pretty bouncy but nothing to stop dualsports. Spa said they did it on loaded big bikes a couple of weeks prior, would not have wanted to be there on bigger bikes.

Ballerat was a happinin' place, couple'a cold ones and took the hiway back, didn't get back to camp till well after dark. Hard to find our camp road, were it not for GPS probly still be out there.

Couple of accidents on 395 south of Johannesburg, and a life-flite chopper had Trona Road shut down. Went around it on dirt trails.

Pix later or in a RR.

Cameron and I did mengele on the 950/990 east to west I needed his help to move a few rocks He knocked off a box in the same spot but with a little teem work it was NOT that bad. 450 or similar doable, big bike bring a friend, all in all great ride 600mi two days with your son and hanging with good people , o did I say how much FFUUNN it is to ride the LC8s with your boy

Yeah that is what we thought but they really clear cut the trees around it, I think more than was necessary. Actually took trees down. looks like storm blew through the site.

:huh

I went up Mengal on my G650X with street tires with no issues.

My track is on the left side here:









If I learned nothing else from watching the Endurocross here in Las Vegas, it was "keep moving in the boulders and keep looking where you want to go."

Good advice there Tim. Just be careful with 'how easy it is' with noobs in mind. It's not easy, some will have a very difficult time. Having lots of experience helps you pick a line where your tires are going to roll. Getting through a boulder field is like eating an elephant...one bite at a time.

For DV noobs I would stress: don't go out there alone.

I just found out that while I wait for slower riders to catch up, I don't wait long enough for them to get the same break I had. Apparently it's demoralizing. :huh

I used your pic in my RR....thanks!!

Now I don't have to get off my butt and post the photos I took someone had been asking me about
It wasn't that bad, but then we were staying at PSR and traveled W to E. Lots of 4x4 people came thru as we were headed out. Lots of shovels and a really big crew calling themselves FBlife.com . One guy said they were going thru in their 4x4's one way or another, and they were prepared to dig.

Good time, great scenery. Thanks again for the pics.