Exploring a whole lot more of Nevada – 2013

Nevada is a very cool place to ride a dual sport bike. This trip is my third time doing a week of riding in Nevada over the last 3 summers. Every summer it is incredible. Each winter’s rain and snow bring different conditions to the summer and change the landscape completely.

Here are links to our past trips. Have a look while you are waiting for this story to get going.

2011 [thread=713333]Exploring Amazing Northern Nevada and SE Oregon 2011[/thread]

2012 [thread=827735]Returning to the desert – Nevada and Oregon 2012[/thread]

Here are some teaser pics from the trip this year. It was fantastic!

All In----thanks for sharin your ride!!

Awesome!!! Nice pics. You've got me .



jordan

I'm looking forward to this.

Wowser what awesome scenery. Friend sent me the link to this RR. Thanks Dano619.

Subscribed!

Subscribed.

Dano619, jglow, Bob, benwiggin2 and Motokirby,

Thanks for following along. I promise there will be more scenic shots for you to enjoy. We had an amazing ride and we stood atop many amazing vistas.

In 2012, I had come up with a huge 8 day loop for us to ride in Nevada during the planning stage. When I showed it to Chuck and Dan, they told me I was crazy. Plus Chuck had suffered a pretty bad foot injury while we were trail riding at Gifford Pinchot National Forest the summer of 2011 so he was not up for that kind of exploration. So I scaled it back to a 4 day loop. While planning for the 2013 ride, that ginormous loop kept crawling back into my mind. Finally I decided I was going to do that this year. We would see who was crazy enough to do it with me. I got to planning. I searched ADV, called other riders, sent Private Messages for info, called all the district offices of the Toiyabe National Forest for Motor Vehicle Use Maps, called several Nevada county offices for road info and spent many hours gazing at Google Earth and Basecamp plotting and adjusting the route. Just before we were to take off, I made a major edit to the route cutting off several hundred miles that would have taken us over to the Bonneville Salt Flats. I knew we would be lucky if we made it anywhere close to the full route and I wanted to make sure I got us down to the mountains in the middle of the state. They were calling me. I really wanted to explore them.

This year would be a bit different. (Aren’t they all?) We would have 2 groups of riders out on the ride. Not everyone was as crazy as me about the huge loop so I set up a shorter loop for them. Chuck would lead 3 other riders on a shorter loop staying north of I-80. I would lead 3 others on a loop that would extend far south of I-80. We would all ride together for the first couple days or so to Charleston Lake where Chuck’s group (the Short Timers) would head off to the west and my group would continue on toward the south into the unknown...

Great pics Mike!!

Thanks Dan! More coming.

You might want to update your signature.

Here is the cast (I had to poach pictures from some of the other riders to come up with these):



Short Timer group

Chuck

He rides a DRZ400.




Dan

He rides a DRZ400 just like Chuck’s except it is blue.




Dale

Yet another DRZ rider.




Scott

He dares to be different and rides a Yamaha WR250R. He added a larger fuel tank this year to extend his range even further.





The long distance riders

MasterMarine

I have a new bike this year. 2013 KTM 500 EXC. I hope it works.




Bill

KLR650




Mark

Husky TE610




Don

KTM 450EXC




We would start at Denio Junction Motel and Bar and Grocery and RV Campground and Airport and Gas Station. Oh wait. No gas was available this year. Hopefully the pumps will be getting replaced soon.

I had prearranged rooms for the 4 of us doing the long ride. Chuck had taken care of arrangements for the Short Timers. We unloaded our bikes after the long drive and got things ready to go. We were all excited. It was almost time to go! Tomorrow it begins!

This is looking good! I will be watching.

Im over in Chico CA and have spent some time running around in Nevada,but not near enough. I hope to get out there before the snow flies this year.

Although we have gotten snowed on like a big dog in late June out between Gerlach and Denio,you just never know.

I'm in! Can't wait. I'll be taking notes for my ride next summer. Have fun guys.

Hi Foot dragger and Overcomb3. Thanks for following along!

You never know what the weather is going to do. I heard something about snow from one of the Short Timers. I am excited to read about their trip in here as the days go by.








I brought some flags and had planned on going up to the Crash Site to put them up there on Friday when we arrived but I left too late and we drove too slow and there was too much to do when we arrived at DJ so there was no time for that. I left them with Bobby at the DJ bar. If someone is by there, maybe they could take them up??

this is going to be good.

Hey Idahosam. It is good to see you are following along. I hope your leg is healing up.





Day 1
June 15, 2013




We left DJ at around 8am.




Had a good ride over Denio Pass.

One of the last pictures of my bike with the stock kickstand.




I had come up with a plan on how to communicate what to do with gates from the front of the group to the back of the group. I tied some pink flagging tape onto a bunch of clothespins and carried them on my bike. The plan was for me to mark the closed gates with the pink ribbon and to do nothing to the gates which were open. Then the last rider would close the pink ribbon marked gates and take the clothes pin off. When we met up later, all the clothespins would be returned to me to use again. This technique ended up working very well. At least until my kickstand broke.

I broke my kickstand off the bike before Orovada so spent some time removing it and sorting out why my horn, turn signals and fan were not working. It was a blown fuse.

Next we rode over the Santa Rosa Range on a new route for this year. It was beautiful. We skirted to the north of Granite Peak. The route had a bunch of climbs up the ridgeline. Great riding!


















We continued thru the hills and crossed the Calico Mountains at Mahogany Pass.

In this picture looking from Mahogany Pass back toward the west where we had just come from, you can see Granite Peak in the middle of the range in the background.




Just after the pass, there was a side road that went up to a radio site.




Here is the view toward where we had just come from.




And here is the view of the Owyhee Desert and way off in the distance the Bull Run Mountains that I hoped to camp in later in the day.




From there it was a long dusty ride across the Owyhee Desert.

I had a wipeout that unfortunately made my Montana quit working.

By the time we reached the intersection with 728, we were pretty strung out.




Bill arrived, then later Mark. he brought news that Chuck had crashed and was having trouble getting his bike to run. We waited more hoping they would show up. Finally we decided to head back. Luckily we did not get too far before we met the rest of the group. Chuck was ok and his bike was running so we headed off to find a place to camp.

We rode and rode. The sun was setting then it was getting dark. I kept looking for spur roads off the road to camp on. All of them were posted as private by IL Ranch / Newmont Mine. Finally we passed a Toiyabe NF sign. I took the next turn and found a nice flower covered spot.

Finally we could set up camp in the dark. Everyone was tired and we all crashed out.

212 miles today.

Today’s route:

It's taking way too long to heal-up ....... I lost this summer but had a hell of a good spring.

Man, you are sure pushing the distance and spreading out, but hell of a great route you got going.

I am up to riding on back roads but not anything rough too painful to stand on the pegs (ankle pain) but I'm OK with FS roads now; I'll get there.

Some mighty lonely terrain Huh! So, Have you ever been out riding the back country all alone stop on a plateau with a view, kill the engine to take it all in and listen to gentle breeze and observe the flora and listen to the indigenous fauna, when................ that eerie, subconscious feeling creeps out and says what if the bike won't start......... then that Ephemeral moment of panic sweeps over you; I hate it when that happens! but then you punch the Start button and she comes to life; so you ponder "what the hell was that all about" and as you ride off it fades from your memory as quick as it had entered.


You may continue

Having been a boat mechanic for many years, I am confident in my ability to fix something with nothing. The concern that creeps into my mind more is the possibility of injury to me or my machine due to a crash. Anyone who has ridden with me can tell you that I enjoy the thrill of traveling at high speed on my bike.

I am relying on the other riders in my group just as they are relying on me to work as a team to conquer any challenges that we face on these trips whether it is an obstacle on the trail or an injury or an accident we may happen upon. This is one of the many reasons I enjoy them so much.

This is just the first day of 8. It was a long day but there are still quite a few left. Now I will give the other riders a chance to share their stories. We were really spread out across the Owyhee so I missed out on some of the drama.

Great intro pics. And the story line is developing nicely . . .

:ddog