Less Talkin', More Rockin' 2012 LA to GC ADV Ride

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i was uncertain whether ride the bike or truck it from home.

excuse #1, it was raining that morning at my place
excuse #2, mesquite nv is 350 miles away, and i don't want to put fresh tires on the bike
excuse #3, there was a strong sandstorm along hw15 that friday morning
excuse #4, and just getting better, i've learned that on the last day of the trip, i have to put 500 miles to get home with daytime temp forecas of 100F.....

ok, we truck. here i pick up frank at his house @ 8am; you gotta love those LC4s. these bikes on the pic are our 2nd LC4s



the rain was on and off that friday morning



the haze you see is actually the sandstorm



by the time we got to barstow @ 12:30, the PPs were already gone, you got to try the gyro....



we finally caught up with the PPs somwhere between vegas and mesquite



no doubt, they are the PPs



saw more interesting dirt riders who prefer their drinks straight from the fridge

[NSFW]

there was a strong wind advisory that day. my truck got blown away side to side; just imagine being in a motorhomes or big trailers.

poor peeps, but glad to see no one got hurt






more later!

[FYYFF]

I'm also dying to see Aram's video collage. He has footage from Elbow Canyon to Masquite's crazy night life...

[bigtodd]

Looks like a great trip ... I was half way tempted to roll my bike on to Aram's truck the afternoon I helped load his 800. After seeing the pics so far, I am kicking myslef for not ditching out on the committments I had during your trip.

Will be out that way in July hoping not to cook my brain inside my helmet.

Nicely done - Cheers!

[STU CAZZO]

DAY 1 Part I
Day 1 did not begin as planned. We started off as a group of 10 riders but eventually split up into 6 and 4 by the time we exited Elbow Canyon. Other than the troubles we had on Elbow Cyn we had a very smooth sailing trip. If there wasn't any challenging sections, then what kind of adventure ride would this have been!! Elbow Canyon was very rocky which made it difficult to gain traction and a straight line going up some step sections, in addition to the loads of gear and extra fuel in our tanks. I made it up with 2 crashes and a many close encounters with some boulders. The only way out of there was gain some momentum and just gas it outta there!

I made it up the canyon and waited for the others for a bit but didn't even hear other bikes in the distance. But I figured 6 competent inmates behind, no worries! So I continued on and eventually caught up to Browneye, Rugger & Riddler at the fork by the abandonded cabin. There we waited and decided that we should move on to make the 1pm lunch reservation Joel scheduled at Bar 10 and to claim our sites at Toroweap before it filled up. We were still another 70-80 miles away from Bar 10.

So off we went through some spectacular forest roads. On our way to Mt. Trumball Jon had some bad luck with a nail in his rear tire and a lost camera. We stopped at the old schoolhouse and made the scheduled time at Bar 10 hoping that that the rest of the crew was not injured. Everything turned out fine!

MAKING WAY TO ELBOW CANYON (Aram & Ersin waiting patiently for a little bit of torture.)


MY SECOND NAP!


RUGGER AND RIDDLER- LAYERING UP WAS GETTING CHILLY @ 7K FEET!


HELMET FOR YOURSELF BUT NOT THE KITTYS???


25 MINUTES WITH THAT 909 AND WE WERE OUTTA THERE!!


HERE WE ARE AT THE OLD SCHOOLHOUSE WAITING FOR THE OTHER KIDS TO SHOW UP!!!


BAR 10


PART 2 OF DAY 1 COMING LATER TONIGHT!!

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this is the loop we just did, counter clockwise @ 800 + miles

mesquite - bar 10 - toroweap - fredonia - indian hollow - point sublime - north rim - jacobs lake - lee's ferry - vermillon cliffs - navajo lake - cedar break - ponderosa - zion - hurricane - st. george - mesquite

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Originally Posted by bigtodd

Looks like a great trip ... I was half way tempted to roll my bike on to Aram's truck the afternoon I helped load his 800. After seeing the pics so far, I am kicking myslef for not ditching out on the committments I had during your trip.

Will be out that way in July hoping not to cook my brain inside my helmet.

Nicely done - Cheers!

july should be ok too, and geomoto knows the place very well that you'll all have a good time.

don't be too hard on yourself (yet)....wait until you see the end of the RR.....

nice pics from chris and frank. sorry, i'm getting behind, will post my continuation next.

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after we checked in to our hotel rooms at virgin river casino, we headed out for a good dinner

my favorite mex restaurant in town went out of business, so siri (jon's iphone) told us to go to los lupes



the preconditioning for the ride started here....



cheers!.....



too much margarita sometimes is bad for the eyes

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everyone was at the meet up place on time; breakfast before 8 but subway didn't open until past that...




there was a snow forecast that weekend, and john has to do his best to alter the outcome so as not to freeze our butts



obligatory pic of the gas price



a little pavement to the trailhead



jon was the designated ride leader; i didn' have any choice...haha, don't want the sound of the SE following me...



by now, you can see that mesquite is about 12 miles away



aram and his loaded gs800

[MasterMarine]

Looks good. I can't wait to see how this ride develops!

[NSFW]

hey rich, do you always ride with that bent handlebar?........




the trail was still pretty mellow here



as always, the rocks are bigger and more numerous than they appear



tim prefers to take the green lane



there were 3 huge boulders in the middle of the trail, and waiting for frank's touratech panniers....





rich doing along fine






we all made it through the first challenge, and all of the sudden my bike acted out of control as i went up the hill. sorry sweetie, i have to lay you down



tim came and helped me and noticed that i lost my fork bleeder; pic was taken after i got home



ersin still in charge



so is rich



frank had the heaviest load and when they're all on the tail end going uphill, something is bound to happen



nice smile



teamwork at its best




more later.

[JAB]

Good stuff. Amazing scenery.

[El Zorrillo]

i'm sad i couldn't get away from work long enough to do this ride. but i will do everything possible to do it next year if it happens.

the pics posted so far make it look like even though it was challenging in some areas you guys managed to still have a lot of fun.

heck, a fella could have so much fun on that ride, he could crap himself if he wasn't careful.

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after we got frank going, we sucked in this guy on a jeep to join the fun






not having a working front suspension, it became apparent that i have no longer control of my bike....










i think this is my fourth......



eventually, with lots of sweat and determination, we conquered elbow canyon

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paul and i got separated from the rest of the group. i've been on this route before, but this time i relied on my garmin montana, thent at the critical turn, the screen turned white....

i picked the wrong trail and off we went south that is back to mesquite....

we took a 40 mile detour to get back on track. it was a fun experience but everyone got worried. sorry.

riding towards bar10



when we reached bar 10, we immediately ate our pre-paid lunch at 5 pm, then got more gas to find out that i used up 4 gals.

on the way to toroweap, rich and i stopped at the school house briefly











we all made it to toroweap without any issue. ranger todd stopped us on the way in and started asking questions. showed him the camping permit and he let us through. with a parting message that he will go out there that evening and check on us....hahaha.

i was so tired and didn't take anymore pics. went to bed while the PPs explore the area and chat a little more that night. i missed the beautiful evening sky.