Up and over the Sierra's to Bodie...

With this being my first RR I just want to start off by saying I appreciate all the hard work from you other FF'ers who have come before and you're an inspiration. In that vein, I hope you enjoy this short RR...If not, piss off...
Redog1 and I have been planning a TAT trip for September and this was our shakedown run on new bikes and with new gear to make sure we weren't forgetting or screwing anything up big time before being a couple of thousand miles from home. That being said, I think it came off pretty well except for some issues with the GPS/devil box and a few close calls and spills...Anyway, onward and upward...

Here are the bikes loaded for bear at our breakfast meeting spot in Jackson California...I'm on a 2009 TE610 and Redog1 is on a 2008 KLR. I think I ended up paying for breakfast...You know how cheap those F'ing KLR guys are...

[/url][/IMG]

So the bikes are loaded and ready to go Thursday night...The weather has been beautiful all week and we're excited and ready to go...Friday morning I wake up and what do I see outside??



Ugh, I hate riding in the rain. You can call me a wuss, et al, I don't give a rat's ass. I've had a couple of miserable experiences riding in the rain and don't care for it. I'll do it if needed but it's not on my list of favorite activities...

We enjoy breakfast in Jackson and head up Highway 88 towards Pioneer as I have the RidgeRunner 200 tracks loaded in the devil box and we're going to use them to cut from Highway 88 over to Highway 4 near Bear Valley. Sounds easy right? That's what I thought. Of course checking and double checking the routes the night before didn't work somehow and the first half of the route is missing from my 60Csx...:eek1

No big deal, we'll just cruise some forest service roads past Salt Springs Reservoir and find our way over to where the second half of the route starts. Then we'll be home free right? Wrong!!

Here is the Husky next to a stream on the way out of Pioneer...



Here is Redog1 contemplating a good place to take a dump after all the coffee at breakfast...You did remember toilet paper right??:eek1

popcorn makes me thirsty :slurp

(so does waiting for the next installment)

Our original plan for this ride was three days round trip. Day one was to head from Jackson, Ca. over the Sierra's via Highway 4 to Topaz Lake. We were going to camp near the lake then head South to Bodie out in the desert. We would leave Bodie, check out Mono Lake, then head to camp near the Buckeye Hot Springs for a nice soak before heading home the next day.

We came close to making that all happen, but not quite. It is an adventure right? Everything was going along smoothly as we made our way past Salt Springs Reservoir...



And along the powerlines while admiring the low hanging clouds nestled amongst the hills...





The rivers and creeks in the Sierra's are flowing a lot of water right now as this was a great snowfall year. All of this water is coming from the higher elevations and running down towards the reservoirs in the central valley and eventually the ocean.




This was the first time I've had the Husky loaded up like this and I was very pleasantly surprised by the handling even with the extra weight, etc. Of course I had just reinstalled the suspension a couple of nights before the trip after a revalve and freshening up from Les at LT Racing. What a huge improvement over stock. That investment definitely paid dividends later in our trip...

Does this make my ass look fat?

It's an '09 KLR and yes you bought this breakfast, and I paid for gas at our first gas stop, campgroud fees for the second night and breakfast Sunday morning. Other that that we each paid our own expenses to the best of my knowledge And yes I'm a cheap F----r! OOPS, you bought the beer, but I brought brandy, not my fault you don't like brandy. Never leave home without the TP.

Redog1 had explored this area before with his wife a few years prior and had a general knowledge of how to get out of here. Our first mishap was while blasting along a rocky stretch of forest service road and I felt something hit the inside of my left thigh...Looking down I see my that my Iphone had come out of the map pocket on my Wolfman tank bag, hit my leg and promptly bounced off onto the trail without a further goodbye...

Sorry, no pics of this as I was a bit upset that 1)the velcro on the pocket didn't hold together well with all the rain pouring on it and 2)that I didn't see this coming and put the phone somewhere more secure. I found the phone but the screen was cracked and the bottom half of the case was apparently eaten by trail gnomes...Ugh!

We continue on our merry way to find new dead end logging roads...Ooops...He didn't actually go down, just got a little throttle happy going over a big bump and the luggage went one way while he went the other...


As well as lots of forest service roads blocked by downed trees...
We rode around quite a few but soon faced a couple that we couldn't work around. Well, if not over or around we go through right? Redog1 thankfully brought a hatchet along with the kitchen sink and soon wanted to demonstrate his manliness against the vicious fallen pine trees...

Hey, you woke up... I was wondering when you'd chime in...Yes, we divvied everything up as we always do and had a great time. In case everyone hasn't noticed I'm a bit of a smart ass and Redog1 is just as bad. We also both suffer from a bit of OCD and CRS sometimes. Those are Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Can't Remember Shit in case anyone was wondering...

We've been friends for about 12 years now and you couldn't ask for a better guy to ride with...Of course he snores like a drunken bear which is annoying but that's later in the story!!

but in the meantime something that lionsroaar forgets to mention is that his low fuel indicator has come on. At this time it has been on for about 10 minutes, if he doesn't elaborate on this as we go, rest assurd, I will.

The portion of the trip from Highway 88 to Highway 4 should have been about 2-3 hours...Instead it turned into double that and I was running on fumes...I'll be taking a couple of MSR fuel canisters with me on the TAT but figured my stock fuel tank would be fine for this trip. After backtracking numerous times to find our way around snow blocked trails, trees down, dead end roads, etc we found ourselves at a fairly deep creek which was flowing nicely...
Our trail was supposed to continue on the other side and should route us directly South to Highway 4. I made my way through the creek, nailing a large rock with the front wheel and almost going down while Redog1 followed right behind. We found ourselves at another dead end (the GPS was wrong again...Ugh) and had to follow some other knobby tracks to find Highway 4.
It all ended up well but was a bit frustrating while worrying about my bike running out of gas in BFE. We hit Highway 4 and headed back down the hill to Camp Connell to pick up some petrol and a few snacks...I also ended up with a six pack of Fat Tire in my backpack...Hmm, I wonder how that got there??

We're both big guys. Both about 6'1" and 260lbs. lionsroaar has more muscle than I and I've got 12 years of age on him. We've known each other since 1997 and just this past year began riding together after I reconnected with my dual sport roots. I've been riding since I was 9 but never any high performing dirt bikes. Honda trail 90's and such. My first dual sport was a 1974 Honda XL350.

Yep, thank goodness for the great mileage with the fuel injection...I think I was still averaging 45-50mph off road and had a bit of a cushion when we hit the gas station. It would be great if Aqualine would finally come out with a bigger tank for these bikes though...

patience was running out. It took 6 hours to get a cumalitive of 50-60 miles from where we startedoser I'm just glad it all worked out in the end. After filling up lionsroaar had 1/2 gallon of gas remaing and I had 2 gallons. Wether you like the KLR or not, you have to love the fuel capacity of that pig

After filling up with fuel we high tailed it over Highway 4/Ebbetts eastward...The views over the pass and coming down the eastern side of the Sierra's are amazing...


We found a nice uncrowded campground at about 6k feet and promptly set up camp...


It was a long and physically grueling day so we scrounged up some firewood (turns out that sage roots burn really well) and got a fire going...Sorry this pic is a little blurry...


After a dinner of Mountain House spaghetti with meatsauce (suprisingly good) and a few Fat Tires I passed out in my tent and slept like a baby...I guess Redog1 didn't sleep very well that first night...I have no idea why...

all night long. Tents were about 30 feet apart and the sound of a rushing creek just down the hill and I could still hear him. Jeesh!!! dude have another beer :ddog

We woke up Saturday morning, had a little breakfast, packed and were on the road by 7:30am or so...We continued up Highway 4, then caught Highway 89 over to 395 near Topaz Lake. Highway 89 has some amazing views and it's still like a late springtime up there. Everything is green, flowers are blooming, etc...

Here is a view from Hwy 89 looking West...


Some of the many roadside flowers...


I also got to see my first aspen grove which was pretty amazing but I didn't get a pic...I know, I know...I believe Redog1 got one of them but it didn't turn out well...We finally made it over the pass to Topaz Lake...


Where we filled up with fuel and water then headed South to catch some forest service roads I had routed...They looked like pretty mellow dirt roads but you know how things on Google Earth aren't always what they appear right...? Well, here's a little teaser until the next update...:huh

Awesome first report! We are planning a trip to the same area at the end of July. Thanks for the preview and moving those damn trees out of the way!! I am watching...

Those scratches will buff right out!

They didn't:huh . That's ok, they will remind me to learn to ride better in the sand. There was more damage, just cosmetic but we'll get to that when lionroaar gets back to the ride repaort. We went up today to see where we went wrong in our quest between Hwy 88 and Hwy 4. We were so close to where we needed to be but fallen trees blocked our way on both ends of the road we needed to get to. They're still there and about 18" in diameter. Good fire wood for somebody. It was an adventure afterall, right, right?

Seems the forest service is understaffed and not too worried about clearing the roads. We did find today that there is some logging operations going on it the area so watch for that. Saw 1 new gate put up but it was open, sorry I don't remember which road it was on. Most of all, have a GREAT ride!