Nathan B. and I headed out on a Thursday to the Mono Lake area. Fantastic riding with fall colors and the past weeks rain had calmed the dust down overall. The Middle of Nowhere is defined as opposite of the Bay Area - In my mind! Day 1 - 153 miles Day 2 - 142 miles Tracks to come. General views were great We planned routes but were not concerned with being exact - that's for mon-fri at work. Snow from last weekend tops out The sandy roads were a blast as the past rain had firmed them up a bit. Nathan on the X - I had the XR Nevada - north of Mono Lake Hard to believe the weather was so great. When the track ends - the adventure begins. Pure desert. the way up to a lunch spot. Aurora Mine Hill Track getting hard to follow - again. Fun! We popped out on a pole line road. Nate rippin it up Lunch spot at 8,000 ft. Aurora Hill Mine Where we came from... Where we are going....? Views, views, Marker We went down into some color which was pure yellow - towards Bodie. Lead poisoning The fall colors were popping everywhere Then.....WTF???? The car was running, in reverse, locked, and nobody to be found??? We rode up a few miles and a Spaniard was huffing his way towards Bodie. He said he drove into the mud hole, freaked out, and accidentally shut the door - LOCKING the car and all of his possessions inside. Phone, Cannon DSLR, Backpack, suitcase - -EVERYTHING. He said he tried to break the window but it didn't work. I volunteered to ride back to the vehicle with his blessing and gave it another try. I was successful - - at least in breaking the window out (again the guy asked me to get his stuff out via breaking the window). Hopped in the car tried everything I could to get it out of the mud. Rocks, wood, under the wheels. Nada.. Oh well, it was fun trying. I took the keys, his phone and put them into my pocket. I locked the rest of his valuables in the trunk and rode back up to give him the bad news. The good news: We wrangled a ranger in Bodie to go back to tow him out. After he got done laughing he rescued the poor guy. Ummm... can you people READ? i.e. rental cars should not attempt the largest mudhole in the area. Onward Nathan lovin it The XR was performing great at over 8,000 feet We tackled a road up over 10,000 ft above Mono Lake next - the views were unreal. Pissing with a view.. We rolled up on a dilapidated structure - ala Charles Manson. hmmm. anyone home? Hey - somebody was hard at work, and had an idea here. Who knows when they'll be back for the deposit. They even left the pipe at the "scene" I see dead people.. Time to get the hell out of there.. Fall colors Sunset after day one Day 2: Yippie - Wash, rinse, repeat. Eastern Sierras in background - can't beat that. Hardly any dust! General beauty Lots of color... What a track! Nevada you say? Time for some dry lake action A few fences had to be opened and closed We had to hit some pavement for 8 miles or so. Wanted to check out Benton Hot Springs Benton was a bust - we didn't want to pay for a soak so we rode on and up. Hey this road dead ends at the top of a mountain....cool. The clouds kept the temps in the 60s....nice! Owens Valley Up up up in elevation out of Owens Valley, back into the trees. Devil's Punch Bowl Oh - and how better to finish off a long day of riding? JUNE LAKE BREWING. Some boring fast dirt - just because I can. Enjoy! This is the best time of the year to see fall colors in the Eastern Sierras. Highly recommended to get out there before the first big snow!!
nice Report Chris.. sorry I could not make it. The HUBB meeting was great. See you in 2 weeks for some KTM 990 Fun... Mendo ?
Ha - too funny. You truly knew those roads, and we appreciated your sliding skid marks on some of those turns. The XR was chugging it at altitude compared to your KTMs. PM me if you have other cool tracks in that area as we are going to go back for sure.
we are always in a rush.. lol.. we only actually have ridden out there 2 other times and usually we were going in the opposite way on a organized ride, the sierra safari.. after we got where we were going and chatting about the day we both were thinking of stopping and chatting with you but we barely made check in at the mono resort in twin lakes.. we dont have any tracks really ...just a map! ps.... nice trip dudes!
Nice report Chris and great looking pics. Are you able to email me the route or suggest an alternative to viewing the route? I'm unable to open from your link.
Nice write-up and pics. Appreciated your story on the car in the mudhole -- too bad you couldn't get it out on your own. As you said, it was fun trying. Great riding and exploring style. Thanks for posting up. Hats off!