Returning to the desert – Nevada and Oregon 2012

here's an example of the miles of typical 2 track roads, You switch sides a lot trying to find the best, Saddle bags are not the hot setup on these roads with the tough brush knocking them around. I wouldn't have wanted hard cases on this trip because it would have knocked the bike around more than what my soft cases would have. Scott had the wolfman system and was getting knocked around too, The giant loops the other guys had proved to be the best system in this stuff (but I packed the kitchen sink on the klr).

a desert dug out near the old cabin mike posted up thread, about a 1/2 mile of plastic pipe layed down the road to a faucet here, the other end shoved into a dry creek

this pass was pristine, pic doesn't do it justice. After riding a bunch of gnarly stuff to get here everyone was pumped.
There was a single track up that fenceline and to the top that was tempting. But riding a loaded klr next to barbwire? didn't go there, (I did later in the trip though on a missed turn fail)

last for tonight, cheers wB

Right on Mike! So looking forward to the rest of the adventure.

Hope all is well.
B

Sweet! Keep them coming fellas.

I fell in love with the Northern NV desert this summer and I want to plan an epic trip out there next year. I'll be PMing you with some ?'s after you get the photos uploaded.

Thanks!

I'll post some of my Day 1 pictures tonight from home, but these are two of my favorites. After leaving at 7am, we rode all day and didn't find camp until 8:30pm. 13 1/2 hours in the saddle. This shot is after 8pm as we ascended off the desert floor into the national forest.

Nice pics! I remember that moment. We were all absolutely whipped and ready to setup camp and were just figuring out that we needed to continue a couple more miles up some rough road to get thru the private land corridor to the Federal Land where we could camp.

I had already taken my dry bag off my bike when we determined our location...I did NOT want to get back on the bike and keep riding. I was tired (and grumpy). Final camp (and a nice looking Husky):

Ok. Home now and ready for some posting. As Mike said, our ride hit an immediate snag with my gas tank venting problem...something we finally resolved in camp that night (after we finally got setup at about 9pm)...

After leaving Denio that morning, we climbed up our first ridge into the next valley:



Looking back at Denio for the last time in four days:


One of the first water crossings. We kept thinking that the crossings would get deeper and deeper. We were only partly right:


Duckspanker on the gas. I guess freshly minted ankle was feeling good:




Mike and Bill confer on routes at our first break stop:


Bill closes the first of the 7,364 gates we passed through (I counted me, trust me on the math):

Mike shows his navigation and leadership skills:


Three corners as seen from above (three feet above). This place is just like Four Corners, only without any roads, scenery, or tourist draw of any kind.


A cool old ranch:


Climbing up from the ranch, Scott encountered some problems -- one of the few places his 250 didn't kick ass. In this case, the small displacement and large pile-o-stuff on his bike made gravity the winner. Bill, powered by awesome KLR power, roosts right past. Truthfully, it was a tricky solid rock switchback that was no place to want to stop (or fall).



Scott, Mike and Dan pause after picking up the 250.


The valley behind us was spectacular!

Mike. you weren't kidding about the 7,364 gates! Some were a PITA to stretch back closed. Our system started out, if the gate was open in through, it stays open, Pulled back it gets closed. We didn't want to let any range cows out, nor did we want to keep any of them from getting to water. Hopefully we didn't get any wrong....there were a couple I wasn't so sure.

there were some interesting gate designs engineered from what was at hand, most had to be secured with barb wire. Ranchers must have tougher gloves than my riding gloves, got poked more than a few times!



this gate came equipped with a Hamilton Beach toaster on it's post! I bet it still works!

I leave gates as I find them, but honestly ... they sometimes make it very difficult to do the right thing ...

After opening and closing so many barbed wire fence gates, an actual cattle guard crossing seemed like a gift. Sometimes I was amazed by the logic of placement, though. We would be miles down a totally overgrown road only to find a nice cattle guard crossing that obviously had cost some serious money to install.

So back to the pictures.

Next up on Day 1 was a very, very long section of flat open desert. Mike routed us along a buried pipeline, which added some interesting stripes to the otherwise non-descript route. Throughout this section I was worried about my fuel problems -- improper tank venting and general paranoia about gas mileage. With a 5 gallon tank, I figured my 610 was good for 200+ miles. But with the higher elevation (always >3000 feet and jetting for sea level) I was only getting about 35 mph.



Finally to our first serious water crossing -- the Owyhee. Let the fun begin!

Water! As Mike showed in his original post, they had problems with deep water last year. While crossing the Owyhee was a little daunting, it did not pose a serious problem. Mike and Dan crossed first -- before I was able to get there and document any potential mishaps. I crossed next, but not before shifting my very expensive SLR from my tank bag to my backpack.

Chuck (Duckspanker) went next:




He took the speed approach. Bill and the KLR took a more leisurely pace -- and had to dip his boots as a result!


ahh...the relief of a successful crossing. Onward east:

On more for right now: Dr Dan on the gas!

That looks like some pretty deep water but the end result must've been o.k. as nothing I noticed said anything about a stalled bike. Thanks for a great ride report......that's some pretty good riding that you guys did.

Gary "Oldone"

Grampa’s Lake Superior Ride
Grampa’s National Monument Ride

Marc cut me some slack in the post, I stalled the klr and got 1 boot wet dabbing. Which I had to pour out on the other side. Better I should blame it on the bike (excuses excuses) )I had not rerouted the vacuum carb vent high, When the ends get blocked the slide will not lift properly, if the throttle opened too far the bike will cough out. Fixed that the very same evening guaranteeing there would be no more deep stuff, LOL, and it worked!

cheers wB

Your right Mike, with my foot injury I could not do the massive route you had planned and I am very thankfull you changed it up some so I could join the ride this year. Just thinking about how much fun we had last year keep me working hard on my PT getting ready for this epic ride. I will gross a few people out and post some pics of my foot to show eveyone what I was dealing with on my end.




So now I am done making everyone sick, lets get back to the ride report for day 1.

I could not believe our luck, the weather cleared up a few days before the trip and stayed perfect, no rain gear needed.
We showed up the first night before the ride with time to unload the bikes and gear have a burger few beers and BS about the ride plans.

The next day we got up and went down the check list a few times and I remember Dr Dan could not find his Spot anywhere, so called his wife, she told him to look in his boot and bingo all was good.

Here are a few Pic from day 1







Some of the roads never seem to end.




We did end up running into more rocks this year.

Here we are taking a small break after the river crossing waitng for Wild Bill to empty the gal. water out of his boot.

Set up camp after a long day, foot is holding up well and can't wait to see what the next day will bring.

Just to catch up a bit... here is my take on Day-1... I posted a few photos from Day 1 earlier in the thread but you can see them all @ http://mototrailadventures.blogspot.com/.


We started out fairly early on our first day of riding. We were all pretty excited to get going and after a few group photos we all jumped on our bikes and rode off in a big hurry... anxious to see what adventures lay ahead. The excitement lasted less than a minute as Mark coasted his dead Husky to the side of the highway. We were literally within sight of the motel, sitting on the side of the road trying to figure out why the 610 wouldn't run. It turned out to only be a blocked gas tank vent and soon enough we were back out on the road.

Once we got on our way, things went fairly smoothly. We rode up canyons, through sagebrush laden desert and and across some cool ridge lines that provided us with great views. We made it to McDermitt, NV around lunchtime and were able to fill up on fuel and food.

The rest of the 185 mile day was filled with a lot of rough terrain and a couple steep hill climbs. Our goal was to make it close to Owyhee, NV before setting up camp and ultimately that's what we did. It was getting dark as we set up camp and I was completely exhausted so as soon as my tent was up, I just went to sleep.


During the first long day of riding, I learned an important lesson... Don't overload your bike with tons of crap you don't need. I had never really ridden on a multi-day, unsupported ride before this so I didn't realize how much a small amount of weight makes a big difference. When I loaded up the saddlebags and tail bag, I just kept stuffing items in that I thought might come in handy until the bags were full. I had ended up carrying roughly 70 pounds of extra gear that was not entirely necessary. This overloading caused the little 250 to be quite unstable, especially in rough terrain. It was kind of like riding with the neighbor kid sitting behind me the whole time. It was enough of a hindrance that I started to get very frustrated with my lack of ability to ride like I was used to. I even suggested on the morning of our second day of riding that I might just take the highway back to Denio Junction to unload the extra weight and maybe try to re-connect with the group later during the week. The guys thankfully talked me out of this idea as over the next few days the ride took us to some fantastic places and I was able to relocate some of the heavier items to sit lower on the bike. The lower center of gravity helped keep the bike a bit more stable than before and that combined with me getting used to the extra weight allowed me to be able to make it through the next few days without any major issues.