Death Valley January 19

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Bugnatr

Well-known member
Joined
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Location
The Woods of Peardale, CA
My report from the other sandbox...
Heading over Donner summit to Nevada and points south. Robert is checking on his DR650, darn good snow pack this year-eh?

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We made it to our cosmic destination

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Everyone ready to get dusty

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The Chloride Cliffs over look into the park. The boys on the big adv bikes did some fine riding to get up here. Let's see how bad I can screw this up. L to R

Abercrombie on his sweet Beta 500, Gregory on Africa DCT, behind him is FJrob on a DR650 (Robert and I have ridden many times together in DV as we live in the same area), next to Gregory is his buddy Rick from Oregon on a Triumph 800, he's not on this forum but a veteran to many Ruben runs with his wife Karen on a FJR. Gramps the stud back there on his Triumph 1200. Highlander Dave on a Yamaha 250 and Russperry on a KTM 690

Yes it was windy as a mofo up there but that makes for clear skies and forever views.
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Take a good look. Those snow covered mountians in the distance are about 100 miles away. Mt Whitney is there, the highest point in the the lower 48 and belowin the foreground is bad water basin the lowest point in North America.

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Here’s Gramps and Abercrombie passing the “eye of the needle “ going up Echo Canyon.

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The going became rather difficult for the big adv bikes so they wisely turned around. That left the singles to press on. Echo canyon has a dry waterfall that requires a bit of work for even the smaller bikes. This picture does not do justice to the difficulties we faced but we did get up through it.

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The local VFW had the best burgers and libations in town. Gee, I wonder why the picture is fuzzy??

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Bust would have been in heaven with all the action outside the hotel.

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Here’s Gregory at Red Pass in Titus Canyon

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The park service had just bladed the road and it was smoooooth.

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Here’s the selfie with Kevin and Russ for FYB at the Crater.

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The mighty KLR dwarfs the Beta and KTM at Teakettle junction.

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I have to load more pictures from my camera but this was taken close to the end of a 200 mile day.

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Here's one for Spklbuk and his love for the Suki. We had fun checking out the mining ghost town of Leadfield.
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Riding point has advantages. I came across Mr. bobcat in the sagebrush, he wasn't in a hurry to scramble off. I suspect it's energy conservation as this has to be a tough place to eek out a living.



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Robert and Kevin joined me for a first time ride up Cottonwood canyon rd. I like this picture as you can see Telescope Peak (11,000) feet in the background. That's Robert ripping up the road.

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Cottonwood Canyon and a smaller off shoot road to Marble Canyon are dead end roads. When riding in DV it's like riding in a gravel pit and sometimes sand mixed in for fun. We are riding in dry river beds called a wash because when it rains all the rock comes washing down through the bed. This ride had lots of loose sand mixed in and made for some real pucker moments but we did survive with no tipovers. Damn close for me a few times.

Really liked Kevin's "let's go" attitude. BTW I sat on the beta, even tippy toes won't work for me on that bike...damn it!
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How we left Cottonwood canyon was through a narrow wash to the right in the picture where the road goes. Clear as mud. eh?

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The first two days were less than 150 miles each but the third day was going to be in excess of 200 miles. Most of the guys decided to ride shorter days but Russ, Kevin and I were in for the long haul. Around 100 miles in we were half way through Hidden Canyon before we started up Hunter Mountain.

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The pounding out there is hard on the bikes and Russ discovery a couple cracks in his rack holding the extra fuel so he decided to pour the fuel into the bike to reduce the weight on the rack. Lucky for us we had a fireman to supervise the pour
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It's the desert right?... so when Yazerman made a comment about mud and such I figured he was on the crack pipe again...WRONG. Up on Hunter Mountain at 7,200 feet elevation we ran into a fair amount of mud and what looks like snow was really ice. We did battle on and off for miles before we finally knew we would get through to civilization.

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Mud on the KLR in the desert? Who knew??? It was much worse by the time we finished in the high country.

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The mighty KLR under the even more majestic Pinyon Pine still above 6,500 feet, that tree was no youngster by any means.

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Knowing Kevin had to return to the great frozen North Dakota I wanted to stop in the Joshua Tree forest for a nice sunny picture but it appears Russ was trying to hold hands with his Alien Inn Nodak room mate....not that there is anything wrong with that.
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Before my last picture I must give a shout out to FJRay and Weluvbikn plus Steve too. They were there to ride street and hang out with us during the liars association meetings in the evening, thanks for coming down to the desert. By that time my picture taking was over, perhaps someone else has a few pictures.

I snagged this one on the way back to Nevada with the setting sun behind me, damn good ride my friends. My thanks to all who showed up for some dusty desert fun. FJR peeps rock!!

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Certainly highlites the difference between a Dirt Bike - Abercrombie, a Dual Sport - Dougie Howser, and an Adventure bike Gramps and Gregory.

 
Certainly highlites the difference between a Dirt Bike - Abercrombie, a Dual Sport - Dougie Howser, and an Adventure bike Gramps and Gregory.
The guys on the big bikes were pretty whipped looking. They get a lot of credit for giving it a shot but I don't know that it's the kind of Adventure they talk about in the sales brochure. I had a hell of a time getting the wing back on the wheels with help so picking up a big adventure sled in the dirt would suck.

 
Certainly highlites the difference between a Dirt Bike - Abercrombie, a Dual Sport - Dougie Howser, and an Adventure bike Gramps and Gregory.
Yep, but my gen 1 KLR went everywhere the Beta and KTM did.

Albeit not as stylish by any means...
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Single track is another story
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I'm glad you weren't trapped under the Hondapotamas Ray, the coyotes and ravens would have been all over you.

 
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Certainly highlites the difference between a Dirt Bike - Abercrombie, a Dual Sport - Dougie Howser, and an Adventure bike Gramps and Gregory.
Yep, but my gen 1 KLR went everywhere the Beta and KTM did.

Albeit not as stylish by any means... :uhoh:

Single track is another story :weirdsmiley:

I'm glad you weren't trapped under the Hondapotamas Ray, the coyotes and ravens would have been all over you.
It only got one foot. Not broke but funny colors. I had enough ammo to hold them off for a bit but a couple young Japanese guys rescued me.

 
So I've finally had a few hours in front of my PC and I've put together what I think will be the first of 4 videos from this trip. I was hoping to keep it shorter but in the end it ran to 8 minutes despite my wish to keep it to 3 minutes or less. I wanted to give a full flavor of the trip through Echo Canyon so here it is. I'll try and keep the others more manageable so all you old fogies don't all fall asleep
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I did happen to catch Abercrombie's attempt at the waterfall but I was looking down when his front wheel reached its apogee!

Echo Canyon - January 24th 2019



I've tried and succeeded a few times in the past to embed videos but its been awhile and I've forgotten how to do it. If anyone wants to PM me with some instructions I'll revise the post...

 
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Wow at the 1:50 mark Kevin took a heck of a blow against the canyon wall, good thing he's young! That could have been so much worse in so many ways in that remote location.

The camera just does not do justice to how difficult the dry waterfall really was.

BTW I didn't see the mighty KLR on it's side. Must be something about old and slow...or damn lucky.
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Good times indeed!

 
Thanks for the Video Russ! Its too bad you lowered your camera just in time for the good part. That was about my most spectacular 0 mph tip over I've ever accomplished. My ambitions definitely exceeded my talent trying to ride the Beta up that nasty rock step water fall. That rock step portion looked much worse as you walked up to it than when I was riding up to it thinking it was doable.

 
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Nice video Russ! Didn't realize what you guys were up against. I was thinking as the sun was getting lower in the sky I was in the hotel drinking beer complaining it wasn't cold enough!

 
Damn good thing I turned back when I did or you guys would still be tryinh to push my fat ass up that set o stairs!

 
Please kick me right in the gonads if I try to come up with some excuse for not making next years run Doug.
We'll be happy to jimmy kick you either way, JSNS!

Please kick me right in the gonads if I try to come up with some excuse for not making next years run Doug.
Done deal, where does she she keep her purse?
Find Dougies nuts, you'll have found the purse too! :)

 
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