Road to Bodie CA

I understand the last 3 miles are dirt. Anyone with current info on the road conditions? Travelling with crusiers if that helps your road assement.

Thx

-Steve

Can you spell washboard? If the cruisers are harleys, I doubt they will even notice.....

CAJW said:

Can you spell washboard? If the cruisers are harleys, I doubt they will even notice.....

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Ouch, that was mean John..... but damn funny

I would suspect washboard is correct but if yer man bold enough to ride in I can tell you it's worth it! Bodie is an awesome experience and take the tour if you can, a real eye opener to how brutal it was to work there. Bodie is worth the dust to get there and bring the sunscreen, you will thank me at almost 8,400 foot elevation it's kinda closer to the sun.

I'd say it's more like 8 or 10 miles of bad road--each way. But it is rideable, and cool to see.

It's been many years, but I think it was around 5 miles of washboard dirt. We were in a rental car, so the care-factor was low! The reward was worth it though. Bodie is a very cool destination.

Absolutely go to Bodie. Try to get there early in the morning. BRING WATER, LOTS OF WATER, there is a fountain but I wouldn't count on it. Bring hiking shoes and remember that Bodie is at 8,000', you will feel it after a while. We only had about 4 hours in our schedule and that wasn't enough to see everything we wanted to see.

On the road to Bodie there were several Gypsy trailers that watched over sheep herds that were mowing the road side. Every herd of sheep had working dogs and a lookout while the Gypsy herder soundly slept on a shaded hill side.





The 3 miles of unpaved road mostly looks like this, it has some short stretches where it's worse and a few where it's better. This road is part of the reason I now have an ES, the BMW K1600 I was riding made us a believer on this road. The tire tracks are hard and ok, but it gets softer and a bit squirrelly on the edges with some surprise big rocks. Note that I was able to do a lot of passing of slow cars because cars and trucks sucked on this surface.

In the distance, just barely in sight is Mono Lake.



More Bodie roads.





























This is just an over view sample of the area, there are an endless supply of interesting mine equipment and the mines themselves as well as the processing hammer mill. You can look in the windows and sometimes go inside buildings. When the people left Bodie they left everything behind, plates are still on the tables, furniture, clothing and store supplies are still in place as well as the fire department equipment. The bank was blown up, then burned so it is about the only empty building

From what I can remember, they call it a "state of arrested decay", meaning they do just enough to stabilize things, but almost nothing has been repaired. There are one or two exceptions for park ranger accommodations and an educational building. Also, we were advised that we were not to take anything from Bodie, not even an old square nail we might find laying on the ground! It was all quite fascinating, including the cemetery just outside of town.

I almost took a square nail from the parking lot but then remembered the "Curse of Bodie"...I left the nail on the ground.

Half the fun is looking in the windows and seeing all the personal possessions they just left behind. Kind of creepy and sad when you look in the funeral parlor to see adult and kid size coffins. Well worth the time to go there.

Nice pictures Alan, I haven't seen the road in as we rode into Bodie from the Nevada on dualsports. I can assure you that is not the way to go on street bikes.

Do it! Lots of history and coolio mining equipment too. Like said earlier, allow plenty of time and water. Your bikes will do just fine. They will be dirty though..

wnyfjr said:

From what I can remember, they call it a "state of arrested decay", meaning they do just enough to stabilize things, but almost nothing has been repaired....we were advised that we were not to take anything from Bodie, not even an old square nail we might find laying on the ground! It was all quite fascinating, including the cemetery just outside of town.

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Bugnatr said:

I almost took a square nail from the parking lot but then remembered the "Curse of Bodie"...I left the nail on the ground.
Half the fun is looking in the windows and seeing all the personal possessions they just left behind. Kind of creepy and sad when you look in the funeral parlor to see adult and kid size coffins. Well worth the time to go there...

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Both true and accurate. We were told tales of people making a special, unplanned trips back to Bodie to return things they took. One park ranger had a list of the stuff returned, some just little bits like the square cut nails and others large mechanical machines as well as dishes, books, etc.

Bodie had one of the first electrical power installations in the country to run the mines. It was at Bodie that they proved that when the over head wires went around a corner the electricity would conduct around the corner too Except that it is just another tale and not actually true.

The previous time we were in the area we rode across the magnificent Sonora Pass (Rt 395 N to Rt 108) as it was getting dark and wanted to do it in the daylight this time so we had to cut short our meandering through Bodie but we will be back to Bodie at some point.

ionbeam said:

On the road to Bodie there were several Gypsy trailers that watched over sheep herds that were mowing the road side. Every herd of sheep had working dogs and a lookout while the Gypsy herder soundly slept on a shaded hill side.

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Good pictures, but what the hell kind of a dog is that?

And Bugnatr. I got a flat in the parking lot there. Square nail. Thanks a lot.

SacramentoMike said:

ionbeam said:

On the road to Bodie there were several Gypsy trailers that watched over sheep herds that were mowing the road side. Every herd of sheep had working dogs and a lookout while the Gypsy herder soundly slept on a shaded hill side.

Click to expand...

Good pictures, but what the hell kind of a dog is that?

And Bugnatr. I got a flat in the parking lot there. Square nail. Thanks a lot.

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That critter in the center is the lookout, the dogs all stay in roughly a circle around the outside of the herd. Trust me, if something is wrong that little animal all by itself makes more noise than a rock concert. If you have one of these as a pet your neighbors will have you evicted from the neighborhood.

Yes - a good 5 miles of solid packed washboard dirt, BUT, well worth the visit It's all ^^^^^^^ been said, plus some great pics from Mr IBeam.

The last time we were there, three of the 20 or so Harleys in the parking lot had parts shaken off them! The guys were looking for wrenches and duck tape.

Thx to all for your feedback/info.

The people I will be with will not put a tire on that road surface.

I will have to save this trip for another time.

Again, thx to every contributor.

-Steve

Send "the people you will be with" down the road to Mono Lake to sight see while you explore Bodie. Fixed.

Thats a nice suggestion, but SWMBO is one of "the people", and I like sleeping with her.

Just have to do it on 4 wheels this winter or next spring.

-Steve

Can't argue with that!

My dad dragged our family to Bodie back in the late '60's. I think it was more interesting back then - i think the entire road from 395 was dirt, and we were travelling in some ragged old '60's vintage station wagon so it seemed like the drive took hours. But when you got there, it was raw! There weren't any ranger stations, water fountains, gift shops or anything (at least as I remember).

And all of the buildings were sun-beat, weathered, and leaning over. And you could just walk up to the gold mining operation without coming across fences and tour guides.

I do like some of the restoration work, especially the church, but back in those days it was still pretty much a ghost town, and less of a touristy place then it is now.

Still cool though, and would go again if I happened to be driving north out of Mono Lake.