Taste of Dakar (Nevada)

[wachs]

Life is funny sometimes - when things seem just plain tragically down, some cool friends grab you by the collar and help bring you back to what it’s all about. In this case it’s about riding in Nevada and truly getting a ‘Taste of Dakar’.

I spruced up my XR650R with some new rubber, sprocket, case saver and skid pan anticipating the typical rocky/sandy nastiness around Pahrump and hopefully Death Valley too.






It will never look like this again!



Our buddy Steve graciously pulled our bikes in a horse trailer behind his super plush Beaver Coach.



Cold and windy most of the way down. It wasn’t looking too good around Goldfield, NV.



By the time we neared Amaragosa and ‘Big Dune’, the weather looked perfect for riding. We’ll hit that dune later in the route.



Friday we were supposed to snap some pics of Jimmy Lewis’ class on riding those big GS and 990 type adventure machines but ended up on a self guided 140 mile lap of the surround playas and desert. Steve gassing up his righteous KTM Factory Rally bike.





Steve had never ridden on a playa and exclaimed, “MAGICAL!”





We tooled around through Ash Meadow and found this just sitting out in the middle of nowhere!



Better take a few laps!
(Stan’s photos)








Didn’t take too many photos but we ended up on a really fun powerline up to Amaragosa for fuel.



No, we didn’t have time for any ‘entertainment’!



The wind was howling and I screwed up and got us on this old race course which was hammered for about 15 miles or so. Glad I wasn’t on anything bigger than my XR.



Stan on his immaculate 640



Steve coming up the wash. Pretty much the whole thing was deep sandy gravel and trophy truck whoops. It actually started getting fun through here, you just had to stay on the gas and ride it hard.



At some point we abandoned the race course and headed south in this big wash. Imagining Dakar and knowing that even having worked out for the past 3 months there’s NO WAY I could do this for 12 hours without a serious upgrade in training.



This powerline looked like went back towards town and was super fun but eventually got back on the race course. By now we were used to it and charged the deep gravel and whoops for several rocky miles.



The wind was mostly in our favor dust-wise.



Rolled this big powerline back to the playa and returned to the event with no flats or serious crashes just before the sun went down.




Next . . . getting passed by Johnny Campbell - twice in one day!

[deadbird]

Dave,
Looks like another epic trip, waiting for more!
-Ezra

[poolman]

Dave,

Looks like an awesome trip, looking forward to the next installment.

Cheers,

[killurtv]

MAN!!!! While I was out skiing all the sick powder that fell last week, you were out riding??!!!! Bring it!!!!!!

[brad21]

[swamp]

get'choo some!

you brought back pain when you uttered the words "trophy truck whoops".

beautiful pictures and bikes.

[Hayduke]

[J Lewis]

Dave, If I told you there is a smooth sand wash that parallels that whooped-out buggy trail you'd be pissed, right?

I rode that one time, like most of the race course out there.

I ditched Johnny Campbell in the morning so he couldn't pass me.

JIMMY

[J Lewis]

Oh yea, how was the "little rut" in turn four at the raceway?

[tundradirtbiker]

Great post!!

[Hotmamaandme]

[wachs]

Originally Posted by J Lewis

Dave, If I told you there is a smooth sand wash that parallels that whooped-out buggy trail you'd be pissed, right?

I rode that one time, like most of the race course out there.

I ditched Johnny Campbell in the morning so he couldn't pass me.

JIMMY

I knew it! I looked a couple times thinking there must be a spectator quad track but didn't find the dang thing.

Originally Posted by J Lewis

Oh yea, how was the "little rut" in turn four at the raceway?

HA! It was pretty soft so we just hit the same line over and over till it 'smoothed out' a little bit. You could sure burn up some fuel out there going round and round!

[Shaggie]

in!

[wachs]

There was a very thorough and informative riders meeting on friday after dinner where Jimmy explained the routes, described the varying difficulties and shared his fountain of local knowledge about everything from the surfaces, trail etiquette to warning of the potential danger of walking up to the wild burros - they’ll probably not be all snugly.

Jimmy and Johnny very efficiently went over some of the same info the next morning. Everyone was prepared to roll and knew that which ever route you chose, it would be a long day if everything went just right.



I still don’t have a stinkin’ GPS so this was in my pocket:



My group were all going on the red track. All the routes should make to lunch about the same time. I figured to just follow Jeremy and had been looking at the mountains both on our maps and while riding around the day before so felt comfortable that I could figure it out should we get separated.
A wide range of machines for this gathering. I felt like a bit of cheater on a thumper but there were a bunch of Baja worthy XRs in the group.



But then there was Johnny’s little 450 so . . . I didn't feel too bad.



As we were assembled and ready to get going, there was no Johnny Campbell? Someone saw him rolling around earlier - Jimmy made a few calls, we waited a little bit then decided he could probably take care of himself and we split for the mountain pass just northeast out of Pahrump.

Once up into the hills and in a pretty obvious drainage, I went ahead to snap some pics. Jimmie’s rear tire is about half gone, should’ve gotten a shot of that.



There’s my buddy Stan



Butler Maps guy on his 950SE



Ryan on a KLR



Jeremy LeBreton floating the ALTrider 1150 GS



Sorry, don’t remember this guys’ name but he was hauling ass.



Wish I had stopped down in the canyon below for the 1150 challenges - some ice with new snow on top, Jeremy made quick work of it though. Jimmy was long gone ahead on his 990. Ryan was handling everything on this KLR no problem. I was SOOO glad to be on my XR.



This guy rode like it was perfectly groomed soil with NO SNOW!



We stopped on the pass for a re-group then headed down the northwest towards a big 40 mile power line.



Scotty Breauxman has some pics of this area too?






The wind was honking up on the mountain. I was just trying to keep up and not slow down the group so didn’t get shots of the snow billowing up on the ridge tops but it was quite beautiful to be riding these fun desert tracks below snow fields that were still covered in fresh powder.


Jimmy



Jeremy




Ryan




more . . .

[PacificPT]

Really liking it so far!