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

M1Jeep.

Thanks for the RR. I was not able to take any pictures due to riding sweep. Maybe next year someone else will be the "leader" so I can smell the sage.

Ahh! Hey, Jack my hat's off to you for herding the cats and keeping us moving forward or else I'd still be on the side of the trail smelling the sage.

I'm up for it again next year. I want to get more of that gravel wash riding in. That section wore my 'out of shape ass' out!

See you on the trail.

-Rich

very nice rr from a noobie pov.

long, i hope you're feeling better and looking forward for your quick recovery. once you're ready to ride again, let me know and i can take you to some places, we'll do baby steps....

getting dirt oriented tires will surely help too.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Heidenau's performance at Olancha Dunes:



I have also been surprised by the Sahara III's in snow and mud at WARPED:





Can't say the same about my carb... needs work! Almost as much work as my ride report needs.

Death Valley Noobs
Wednesday:
Easter was going to change plans for us this year and make for 1 less riding day so I decided to come out 2 days earlier to make up for it

Myself, Justin, and Scott hit the road about 9:00 a.m. on the way we spotted a dual sport bike about 30 feet off the road a few miles before Red Mountain so I pulled over and walked back to see if he needed anything turns out it was heirhead changing a rear flat and was almost done. I offered to carry some of his stuff or at least the 2 spare tires he was carrying to PSR to lighten his load but he was determined to carry it all, all the way
he said he was fine and thanks for stopping so we said goodbye and got back on the road

As soon as we got there I paid for the site unloaded the bikes and we immediately took off towards Darwin, this was my friend Scott's 1st time riding in the dirt in 20 years so I wanted to do a shortish ride to see how he would do in some different situations and the ride I had planned to Darwin had it all, steep uphill, steep downhill, potholes, rocks, sand, pavement none of it was super hard just wanted to see how he did in all of those different situations he passed the noob squid filter with flying colors
THIS is going to be a GREAT weekend

Terrific view of the way we came in








lots of mining going on in this canyon at one time










NOT going in there


GOING in here










Not sure what they are but they looked pretty cool


Definately NOT going in there






getting back to what we really came here for



　
　




Beautiful Downtown Darwin


　
Really how bad do you have to screw up in school to end up living here




what Darwinian's do for fun


Father Crowley Point on the way back to camp

THRASHER & Justin, aka - airbornson, aka - groundedson, maybe one of these days he'll get a real ADV fake name




　




　
　
　 Jimmy
My BarbyQ will never be the same :d
everytime I look at it I think of how awesome the food that came off of it that week was especially the Lamb chops :dg
　
　
Bikes gassed up for tomorrows ride to the Charcoal Kilns, Mahoghany flats, Augueberrry Point,　
Great food, Great Company
kick back time 　
　
　

for sure this ain't friday night....

scott and justin didn't hesitate to volunteer and joined larry and geoff to rescue an injured rider at the hot springs that friday night. got back at camp @ midnight or was it 1am?

thanks for pitching in...

nice report keith.

nice pics david. the 640 rocks.

it seems a lot of riders like the heidenaus even tough to install. they're excellent tires and imported by the good moto-amore. i will not hesitate put those, also the sahara 3s and mefos on the rear. but for the front 606s...baby. noobs like us need all the advantage we could get....or buy.

About 1:30 or so. I think I got to bed about 2:15 after having a couple of beers to wind down. Not a sole was up except Grinch and that kid with the equally big beard.

You may be right Joel - I grabbed too much front brake going around the dry lake at the foot of Goler and dumped the bike on my foot... still hurts. Maybe the 606s would have helped save me from my mistake.

And yes, I do dread trying to unmount/mount the Heidenaus with short irons!

Glad to do it. Adventures don't stop when I get off the bike.

The long and winding road
Thursday Morning we were headed to the Charcoal Kilns, Mahogany Flats, Augueberry Point small group of 3 Myself Scott and Justin were scheduled for this ride had a very welcomed last minute addition to our group Greg ( CLIKING ) on a KLR 650

Everybody needs to go here at least once ( my 3rd trip)
Justin, Scott


Found some snow near Mahogany Flats
Greg, Scott, Justin,


Slight delay almost to Augueberry Point
first of 2 flat fixes on the trail
the trail stand I made worked great
Justin gettin busy

Great views


...Click
....\/

watchyourstep








98 mph on a XT 225 I think not

the 99.9 miles was acurate though


Thursday Part 2
Got back to camp just in time to top off the gas tanks grab a quick snack and head over to find Finn and Nancy, luckily they were running just a couple minutes late to start the Lostrider ride to Lookout city,
when we got over to the Shell station to start the ride Finn asked if I would ride sweep, I said no problem, then JohnGil showed up and we both shared sweeping duties

Lots of crashing on this ride, got lots of pictures unfortunately 99% of them looked like this
(found out Friday my setting changed to full brightness while bouncing around in my bag)

luckily I took some pictures with my cell phone also

randomly placed SUPER soft sandy rocky sections would yank the front tire out for a lot of riders



the view was worth the trip for sure
















The Grinch always prepared for a good time


had my own little gravity attack and broke the antenna off of my GPS

yesterday 4/12/13 I got a small package in the mail from a very generous ADVer with a new antenna in it

so so happy
made my day
THANK YOU VERY MUCH JA






heading back to PSR after collecting the LOST





Full moon riding

Beer:30

@airborndad.

Great shots. The one of me at Aguereberry point looks like I'm on the edge of a cliff.
Glad to hear you got an antenna. I know you were bummed about it.
Spent a few hours today with Garrett in BBL. Heading out with Shana tomorrow. Nothing spectacular, but they really like it.

Very cool ride!! Great photos!

I rode Titus Canyon last June by myself...wish I had a tour guide to show me around and see more stuff. It was over 100f when I was there!

Definitely would take a bit of the fun out of it.

Looks like you guy's had a great ride, I should have hung out with more people. Next time, if I am not in Baja.

thank you everyone for participating in the eighth dvnr2013. i had a great time, and i hope you all did too. congrats to all for making this the biggest noobs rally so far. we filled the list so quick that in 2 weeks, we had 200 riders from all over the country, including canada. the psr management was thankful to all of us for the business. they see events this big only 2x in a year.

the ride planning here, the response was overwhelming. aside from the regular participants, we saw a lot of first time posters and delurked a few dozens of shy riders. our sponsors did a magnificent job donating cool prizes that we have to raffle them for 2 nights....:eek1

drove up wednesday afternoon so i can rest up that evening for the thursday morning ride.

are we there yet?


now, i'm officially there....




when i made it to camp, i could not find a place to park. apparently, that week was very popular to many outdoor enthusiasts. sorry folks that most of you have to leave by thursday morning, we could have shared but we will need the entire campground to ourselves.

thanks to these 2 riders for letting me parked in their site....


pablo and the official support vehicle found a place to settle in


met 3 canadian riders on thursday morning


got an early greeting from mr.g


m1jeep enjoying his bed


matt, nancy and finn...beautiful smiles



campground and sunrise

thusday morning, leading riders to some easy places to start the weekend.





larry volunteered to help me to break in the noobs slowly








indian ranch road. so many very nice landscapes in dv, and one like this gets easily ignored



took them to easy sandy sections


made it to ballarat




met meat and advford on their way in to the rally. long ride for these 2 riders...........

york approves...lers ride more


more easy dirt road and on the way to goler wash












https://h8c.smugmug.com/Other/130328-Noobs-DV-Rally/i-cNWL766/0/L/IMGP0445-L.jpg


more easy sand practice



geoff on the attack position



a berg sweeping.......:huh



you know if they're getting better if they can kick dust...

LOL - didn't know I looked that saddle sore.

Joe & Rachel, two great kids with a lot of improving skills.