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  1. I think this is very interesting read from a many angles. One of them would be not to underestimate the "desert". It is a beautiful place yet very dangerous if you make a mistake. Second one is the proper search, reading clues and how important is to understand a person's mind when in death and life situation. This is great read, however very tragic and sad. http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/ This is the tale of what for me was a rather remarkable adventure. It was assembled on the basis of my personal recollection and experience, emails, GPS logs and some official documents. It represents solely the perspective and opinions of myself, in my more lucid moments. It is in no way intended to represent the position of the Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit, nor any other agency mentioned. Further, my usual writing style tends to be somewhat lighthearted and flippant, which would be somewhat at odds with the serious and tragic nature of the incident being reported. I have attempted to remain sensitive to the underlying events, yet retain a certain level of casual narrative that some might find entertaining. And if not entertaining, then at least informative. As part of due diligence I need to add an important note. In the past I’ve kept certain locations regarding this incident fairly well cloaked for a variety of reasons, explained as part of the narrative. Mainly, it’s a very difficult, even dangerous, area to get into, and there are a lot of armchair desert adventurers possibly tempted to try it. However in the interest of completeness I’ve decided to include images showing the GPS tracks of the various search efforts. I’ve also refrained from my favorite trick of photo-reversing images of the site. What you see it what it was. At this point, there is nothing left at the site for souvenir hunters, so I see no need for maintaining its secrecy. Anyone reading of the difficulties encountered in this search should consider any visitation very carefully. As a point of reference, if you’re not physically capable of doing a day hike to the top of Mount Whitney and back, and aren’t a skilled, off-trail hiker, you should stay out of this area. My opinion, anyway. That’s a measure of how hard it is to get into the area on foot (and out, safely!). At this point I know the location and surroundings probably better than anyone, and I’m not going back. The area scares me just a bit. Introduction, July 23, 1996 The original search and interim years I get sucked in (It never seems crazy at the beginning) A pretty stupid day hike, 10/27/2009 I concoct a theory “Tom, we have some bones here….”, 11/11 – 12/2009 Intermission The Big Search, 12/5 – 6/2009 The craziest day hike, ever, 3/23/2010 Up the N3 canyon, 4/15/2010 Water Carriers, 10/30/2010 A whole lotta nuthin’, 11/13-14/2010 Epilogue
  2. Rich and I are headed up to PSR today in his Jeep with the bikes on the trailer. A bit nippy today as well as windy! Our friend Ken Mooty passed away last December just a month after he rode with us here. I want us to remember him and to appreciate what we do just a bit more given every day is a gift. Some photos so far... All loaded up Pic from PSR's website Pic of Chris Hunt's little mud adventure on his way down through Nevada And Randy is coming on his KLR Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
  3. A few months back my family and I scheduled a trip to Portland, Oregon to see my wife's dad who was turning 95. Frank is one of the remaining WWII vets who saw battle in Europe, including the Battle at Anzio. Frank Watts holding sand from Iwo Jima Beach. The sand was personally collected by his grandson who was in the Marines at the time. He gave it to Frank for his birthday last month (7/26), thanking him for inspiring him to serve his country. Awesome moment! We love you Frank! As luck would have it, my best friend (Steve Claus) also had to be in Portland for his father's 73rd birthday. We've known each other for over 35 years and have logged many, many off-road miles together. However, for the last 5 years, we've not lived in the same state, so we don't get to ride together. Wait! Once we take care of family stuff, this is an opportunity to ride! I called Steve and told him that we needed to rent some bikes. Of course, he was all in (as always). I did some googlin' and zero'd in on a rental company in Portland that looked like they'd be able to hook us up with a couple of ADV bikes. I soon discovered that even with 60 days notice, everyone was booked out! I guess staging in Portland and riding to Alaska is on the bucket list of just a few, and it was killing my riding plans! I dialed my butt off and found one bike, but not a pair, or dates/times that would not work. I was getting discouraged! Then, a name popped into my head; someone that I came across in running ThumperTalk.com: Uwe Deimer, the owner of AdMo Tours! Duh, why didn't I think of him first? I'm old, so it happens... Long story short, Uwe was also booked up, but he took the time to broker out a deal with a vendor in Klickitat Washington named Cascade Back Road Adventures & Rentals. I got to know the owner (Coit Stone) a bit, learning that he's a passionate off-road guy that started the business not all that long ago, so that he could live close to his mother with health issues. Not a big outfit, but he did everything promised and the two BMW F800GS machines he brought were well outfitted, maintained, and ran flawlessly. Good job Coit! We'll do business with you again in a heartbeat! Oh, and Coit delivered the bikes 100 miles each way to us just outside of Portland, Oregon for a reasonable fee, so don't hesitate to contact him if you stage in Portland. He'll make it happen. At Love's Truck Stop in Troutdale Oregon w/ Steve Claus, where we staged from. So, where'd we go? That's where Rever comes in... As luck would have it, the day we rode was the hottest all week, with temps reaching the mid 90s in some places. Being from central Florida, a welcomed retreat from the summer heat/humidity. Steve, being from high elevation and dry Colorado, didn't necessarily agree! One problem that I have in gathering content for ride reports is that I'm having so much fun riding, I don't take as many pictures as I probably should. So, I'm sure that this report simply won't do the ride scenery full justice. But, I suppose that's probably the case with most rides. Crown Point was our first stop of the day. Unusually calm winds and very, very clear. Pic is looking to the east. Steve Claus and yours truly. Pic is looking to the west, towards Portland, OR. From Crown Point to the last on-ramp to I-84 there are several beautiful waterfalls, some of which you have to hike to to see. We were out to ride, so we only took pics from the road... Steve Claus @ Latourell Falls Bryan Bosch @ Multnomah Falls Sorry, didn't notate the name of these falls. Just a couple of miles east of Multnomah falls. PS - Don't park in the dirt anywhere along the Columbia River Scenic Highway. Ranger Rick almost lit us up with some federal tickets for this "stunt"! Smooth operator Claus silver tongued our way out of it. Getting closer to Lost Lake on the NE side of Mt. Hood (Steve Claus) Lost Lake, Oregon Interesting fact! Lost Lake drains itself every year! Steve testing out some non ADA compliant wonky-ass steps Da money shot! - Lost Lake, Oregon w/ Mt. Hood in the background Solera Brewery in Parkdale, Oregon for some food, relaxation, and cold beer! Ok, no beers. They sure sounded good given the hot day, but not a good mix with motorcycles. Service was a bit slow, but we were in no hurry, food was excellent, and I really like to frequent local establishments vs. chain stores. Walk out the back of the place and there are tables overlooking a fruit tree orchard w/ Mt. Hood in the backdrop. Great setting! Timberline Lodge Ski Resort - Mt. Hood Oregon (looking south towards Mt. Jefferson) Lodge look familiar? I didn't take any pics going down the mountain b/c I had my Go Pro running. But, I later learned that they suck at filming with dead batteries. Where's the face-palm emoji? Before I forget, a big thanks to the folks at Sena for hooking us up with a pair of SMH10 bluetooth headsets. I've known how awesome they are, for whatever reason, I've never taken the plunge. Old habits I suppose. My ride with Steve really took on a whole new dimension by being able to talk and laugh during the whole ride. Don't get me wrong, it would have been fun regardless, but the Sena communicators seriously added to the whole experience. Don't wait to get some like I did. I've been missing out! We finished up the long day with a dip in the Sandy River. Water was coooooooold for this now Florida boy, but after getting used to it, it felt refreshing. Great way to end an awesome day with my best friend! But, now I'm itchin' something awful for the next adventure! It's never enough, is it? 👍 Steve, what's next? COBDR is in your backyard my friend. Or, maybe the Tennessee mountains?
  4. Hey guys and gals, thanks for the add. Fairly new to the larger ADV bikes as I recently purchased a used 2014 KTM 1190 ADV-S. I also own a 2016 KTM 500EXC. Since the purchase of the 1190 I've added the rottweiler performance stage 4 intake and stage 3 SAS removal along with dyno tune. I recently made a mount for a Garmin Montana 680T and look forward to many miles on the back roads. Arizona born and raised. Adam.
  5. In Tampa FL, August is our winter; not only the hottest month, but the wettest. So, most of our trails are 100 yards followed by a dicey at best water crossing. Might be a foot deep, might swallow a GSA. Makes riding loops almost impossible. I wanted to ride with buds, so we did a street run around old Tampa Bay and up the coast (St. Petersburg & Clearwater Beach). It turned out to be a dry day and not all that hot (by Florida standards). 👍 You Colorado and Pac NW guys would have melted. John & Pablo, looking NW towards the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. They show this bridge in a lot of shows/movies for Miami, even though it's 5 hours from. This replaced the old bridge that was struck by a ship, where cars went into the water when the accident occurred. About half way through, we stopped at Fort Desoto Park for a swim. Water is awesome this time of year! Probably 85+ degrees. Not a huge fan of street rides, but the worst day riding is better than the best day in the office, right! Soon our killer winter weather will be here and we'll get to ride as much as we can handle. MickyDs stop at Clearwater Beach. Can't believe how the bikini babes ignored all the crotch rockets and cruisers, gathering around our bikes to meet us. ADV bikes baby! Not from the ride, but drove back down to the beach that evening with the family. Nice end to a fun day riding with good people. Pass-a-grill Beach John's Pass Village
  6. Story by Rob Dabney. Photos/video by Stephen Gregory RawHyde is known for off road instruction and tours. ADVPulse put together this stunning video and story about this tour you should check out. I'm on my way to ride CO in a few days so this got me really pumped! Read the whole thing here
  7. Meeting at Village Inn Restaurant @ corner of HWY 54 and 301 (Zephyrhills) at 8am sharp for a little breakfast/pre-ride planning, then heading up to the trails thereafter. So far it's just me and John Hutches, but if you want to come along, just show up. We WILL be riding off-road, so if you try avoid sand or even easy water crossings at all costs, might not be for you. We won't be trying to kill ourselves, but we'll only ride the dirt roads to connect to the next trail. Let's ride!
  8. Hello, stumbled upon this site while following one of the members while he make the trip through Idaho. Currently riding a 13 Super T with all kinds of goodies on it. Purchased it this year from a co-worker who bought it new and only put 30 miles on it. I have just rolled over 600+. love it Leg 1 and 2 of the IDBDR are just in my neck of the woods so if your close by hit me up. Joshua Mtn.Home, ID
  9. Can't say for sure, but it SEEMS like not are there just not a lot of ADV riders in central Florida and those that are have a hard time finding others to ride with. That's been me the last year, but through this website, I met up with a great bunch of riders yesterday. Not that I lost my passion for riding, but riding with a good group added back in the dimension that my solo riding has been missing. So, needless to say, had a great time yesterday getting dirty. We met up for breakfast at IHOP. The plan was to talk about where we'd be riding, but we ended up eating good food and just bs'n. SWL knows Richload the best, so he kindly led the group. I never see Tigers here, but they were half our group Our challenge for the day was water. As in, too much. So many of the trails were covered in water and while I love water crossings, most have been crossed by 4x4 trucks with 38" tires. So, if you don't pick the right line, you can get in deep, fast! I had installed new TKC80s, so brimming with confidence, I decided to bomb just a "big muddle puddle". Yup, found one of those 38" tire holes with the front end of my Tiger that that was all she wrote. Dropped her on the left site and got a bath in brown soup! The new waterproof Samsung Galaxy phone? Pffffft. Don't need it! My old S3 came out of my pack dripping and covered in mud. She still works great! Damn! I wanted a phone! There is always a lot of sand at Richloam and we found our share. Everyone did just fine. But, we did encounter an older rider on a GSA that looks like he broke a leg. I hope that he heels up soon! He didn't look none too pleased. He was not from our group. Rider Down! On the smoother, damp sand sections, drifting with the throttle was an absolute hoot! I think I think that I got 10mpg yesterday! But, I was just having too much fun. XMXVET thanked me for roosting him with sand; he said that it brought back some pleasant memories of his motocross riding days. Only a true dirt bike guy would say that! 👍 Later in the ride gsadvrider also decide to bomb one of those black water holes that are like a box of chocolates (never know what you're going to get) and he dropped in DEEP. When he hit the other side, when he tried to throttle out, the big girl dug a hole and the sand created suction on the rear tire & wheel. The more he tried to ride out, the worse it got. The big girl was stuck! Even with all four of us working at it, she wasn't budging! SWL, the man that has all the critical stuff with him busted out a tow strap and between his Tiger 800XC and some sweat, we managed to liberate the big girl. She fired right up, shooting water out of the exhaust. We dumped the black water out of our boots and continued the ride. Coffee Crossing Wet, dirty day and had an hoot of a time. Nice to meet all of you fellas! Let's do it again soon before FlyingTiger is off to Colorado for good. Lived up to the sticker Looking her best! New boot drying rack that I designed and am testing for market.
  10. Small group of us are meeting up at IHop this Saturday for some coffee/breakfast/planning and ride until whenever. So, show up and ride with us! Don't care what you ride, fast or slow. We will be getting in some off-road, so if you avoid sand at all costs, this might not be the ride for you. We're going to hit sand for sure. IHOP 13100 Us Highway 301, Dade City, FL 33525 8:30am EST Sharp Hope to see you there! This is what it's all about!
  11. So this is an 8 minute vid of the prep and ride up to Overland Expo West 2015 near Flagstaff, AZ. I ride up from Orange County, California with Eric Hall, Kim Krause, and Jessica Washburn. No pics of the snow, but I'm sure the other folks have some they'll contribute. Enjoy ...
  12. Been looking around for a couple weeks and like what I see and read, especially the lack of certain words, (lets try to keep it that way). Got back into riding about for 4 yrs ago finally got the bike I wanted a couple yrs ago, ktm 990 adv, haven't had a lot of time to ride it off the beaten path, which seems bad since I lived in central Utah for 1 1/2 yrs, I'm back in Tn for now but heading to Mexico end of year, for an extended stay to help a missionary build an orphanage, if anybody wants to come help we have extra beds and plenty of floor space, then will ride through copper canyon on my way back, then my plans are to ride up to Utah, I did find plenty of places to ride in the mtns, spent plenty of time on horse back in them, also know good places in the Green river area of Wyoming, so anybody looking for something to do end of winter or early spring come on down and join me for the ride back I'm never in a hurry and usually have no dead lines anybody in middle Tn or southern Ky area want to ride give me a shout.
  13. Rob Day of Los Angeles, California contacted me in February to see if I may be interested in being his guide for the Idaho BDR sometime in the summer. With all of the commitments I already had on the books the first available dates were the 16th-24th of August. I put it on the calendar and Rob started talking to other guys to see if they may be interested in joining. Guy committed and uncommitted on almost a weekly basis. With about three weeks until kickstands up, Brad Barker of Ride of My Life joined the ride. He wanted to bring along camera equipment and a camera operator to shoot footage to make a film. He talked for about am hour and hatched a plan for me to donate a rental from my company Into the Horizon Adventure Motorcycle Tours and Rentals for the cameraman as well as to equip myself, Rob and Mark McClellen with Sena 10c and prism cameras. About five days out Brad had a conflict with a paying job and left the filming to me and the guys. I was confident that we would be able to get some great footage and gladly excepted the challenge. We had nine days and planned to complete the Idaho, Washington and Oregon BDR rides. Rob, Mark and one of Rob's occasional riding buddies from Malibu Chris showed up at my house in Boise on the afternoon of the 14th. We got the cameras all fitted to the helmets and bike and new tire mounted and made any last minute preparations on Saturday. We had be experiencing a wildfire free summer until the week before departure, but on Sunday morning the smoke was as thick as pea soup. We all agreed that it was really about the ride and not the views the guys, one of my regular riding mates Robbie Musheno and myself put the bikes in gear at sunup Sunday morning. In leu of the southern leg from Jarbidge, Nevada to Trinity Lookout we took a dirt road a couple of miles east of Boise through Blacks Creek Canyon and the tiny town of Prairie up to Trinity. We all decided to give the 1.5 mile side trip up to the lookout a go. These roads have not been maintained in decades and are very eroded. Mark and myself are the only ones who made it too the top, and Mark being the kind and wonderful gentleman he is turned straight around and went to help Chris who he had noticed had dropped his bike. I took the time to shoot some footage and photos before heading down. That night we ended up at Deadwood Reservoir to spend the night. On the Saturday before my group was unable to find a campsite and had to make due pitching our tents behind a road closed sign on a deserted logging road. This night we had the entire lake to ourselves outside of a guy from Florida on a Royal Enfield. The next morning we broke out our Jetboil stoves and made some instant oatmeal and coffee. Yes it was Starbucks. Chris had damaged his front brake line and saddlebag in his tipover and we repaired it the best we could before heading out to Yellowpine. Experience has taught me that you never pass up the opportunity to get fuel so we topped of there. On the way to Big Creek I was run off the road by a pump truck which pumps septic tanks for the summer homes up in this area. the road is basically a two track and we met on a blind corner. My bike and I were unhurt and I waited for the guys to catch up to help me get her back on the road. Unfortunately Chris was to busy looking at my bike that he failed to see that Rob had stopped and ran into the back of his bike. The crash broke the front end of his 2000 R1150 GS up petty bad including putting a hole in his oil cooler. We managed to McGuiver it together by removing the oil cooler and cutting an ear off of it to connect the incoming and outgoing hoses together. It would not cool as well, but it would run. It got us on down to Burgdorf where we made camp for night two. The next morning Chris elected to abort and see about getting his bike fixed back in Boise and Mark went with him. The rest of us carried onward toward Canada. From Burgdorf we dropped down to the Salmon River and then up the other side to Florence, an old ghost town with a rich mining history dating back to the 1860's before finally stopping for fuel and lunch in Grangeville. One hot meal a day is about all you can really hope for on the IBDR. Later that day we decided to give Burnt Knob Lookout a go. This too was a 1.5 mile road that might as well be a river bottom. Again I was the sole surviver to the top, but the other guys gave it a good go before good sense prevailed. We camped that night at Magruder Crossing on the Magruder Corridor. The next morning we stopped in Hamilton Montana and had breakfast with fellow GS Giant and good riding buddy of mine Phil Anderson. Phil was going to join the ride at this point, but had hit a deer a few days earlier and broke his collarbone, six ribs and deflated a lung. It was nice to see him and wish him a speedy recovery. We carried on back over to Idaho and I took the guys on a nice little deviation from the BDR giving them some more technical riding. I could see their riding skills improving by the hour. Robbie rides a 2014 KTM 1190 and Rob was on a 2006 R1200GS. Have of the battle is trusting that these big bikes can do the stuff we ask them to. I was having no trouble with my 2014 R1200GSA. But with 1.5 million+ miles on a bike in my lifetime I have become very comfortable on a bike. I learned to ride on a 1970 Kawasaki 90 when I was 6 years old and have been riding bikes that are too big for me ever since. At 5'8" and 165 that is not hard to do. That night we found a lovely campground on the North Fork of the Saint Joe River north of Avery, Idaho. The next morning we were turned back by fire north of Wallace. Unfortunately we had to take the I-90 to Coeur D 'Alene and the US95 on up to Sandpoint where we stopped and had lunch with the lovely Martha Forget of Black Dog Cycleworks. After lunch we detoured over to Priest Lake and over the mountain to Sullivan Lake in Washington. There we got the bad news that all of the Washington backcountry was closed due to fires. We had no choice but to call it for that trip and make our way back toward home on the tarmac. We totaled up 1650 miles from Boise back to Boise with 1150 on dirt in six days. Rob road home solo and traded for a brand new 1200GSA as soon as he arrived in L.A. We are already starting to plan the next adventure either for Southern Utah of down the Baja to see Kurt and Martha later this year. A lot of that will be determined by whether of not I am riding the GS Trophy in Thailand in January or not.
  14. Main Divide Road - Cleveland National Forest - Orange County, CA Beautiful day for a ride in the dirt. After having knee surgery earlier this year, I've been doing some short conditioning day rides like this. Rode Main Divide this past weekend from hwy-74 going north. Didn't initially intend to go all the way through, till I got past the halfway point and things were working really well for me. Road was in good shape, scenery and temperature was great, and the knee was holding up really well. At the top of Santiago Peak the clouds were low and it was really pretty. Was all going well, till I got to the north end and the gate was locked. This is about when the thunderstorm started to show its teeth. High tailed it back the other way to try and beat as much rain as I could. Then it just started dumping... It wasn't more than a few minutes and the trail became a river in many places. I was cursing myself for potentially getting in over my head, when I turned a corner and found two fellow riders seeking shelter beneath an oak tree. After telling them the gates were locked to the north, and chatting about the quickest way off the mountain, we decided to head to Indian Truck Trail together. Stopped to get this shot at the top before heading down to the north gate. No rush at this point since I wasn't expecting it to be locked. Made it out safe and sound, even if soaked to the bone... at least it was a warm rain. There were some pretty gnarly hill climbs in the rain, and the trail was pretty flooded in some sections. Thankful to have run into those two, it made the next couple hours of riding through the rain much better. Wish I'd gotten their names though... Didn't drop the bike at all so overall I'd say it was a great day!! Definitely will be checking for locked gates online before heading out around inclement weather, I learned my lesson.
  15. Last year we had this ride scheduled and then Franco Testa approached me and said he'd like to provide two dinners and two breakfasts and then charge a fee for that we could donate to Lost for a Reason (lostforareason.org). Well, gourmet food was all it took to get people coming out of the woodwork. I think we had maybe 5 people going and then BAM! 30 ish people showed up! We had AMAZING gourmet meals of lamb, tri tip, etc... It was absolutely amazing. And if you've never hung around 5 or so Italian guys busting on each other all day well then you're in for a treat. This is the OFFICIAL ride planning thread so chime in if you're going. $45 is the official price. Menu will be posted shortly. Gonna be great food! July 24-26. Fish Creek overflow campground.
  16. So about a month ago one of my riding buddies invited me on a 5-6 day run from our home in lovely overcrowded Los Angeles to areas around Zion National Park. As all trips of this nature go we had more people wanting to go until the details were getting sorted out and then a few people dropped out for the usual reasons of work/family/fear of adventure/alien abduction etc. The trip turned into a group of 3 of us, Orbel the route maker, Dusty and Myself. Some usual last minute maintenance problems, banter and one brand new GS1200Adventure later we hit the road. Day 1 Nice and early 6am meet-up at Starbucks in Upland, CA for a quick shot of java before we slab it out town through Vegas to Saint George Utah. Now is when the smaller range of my Super Tenere started to play a roll, the GSA can manage an easy 350 miles a tank VS my Tenere’s 175-200 mile range. Our first break in Primm, NV so that we can blast through Vegas without stopping. On the way up It was a pleasant 92F or so. Not bad for June in the desert! Then back on the bikes and through Vegas stopping in Mesquite for gas and lunch. Some really empty boring sections on 15N through this part of NV. Orbel leading the way Dusty who just got his 600 mile service done a couple days before on his brand new Beautiful GSA Passed a test car getting put through it’s paces Then lunch in Mesquite where I sent the mandatory check in photo to the wife, showing I wasn’t really hiding out at the local strip club for a 5 day bender again. Then a stop at the BLM office in Saint George to inquire about back country camping permits for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, however the storm clouds we had been flirting with apparently left that area pretty wet and mostly a muddy mess that we weren’t up to dragging our bikes through yet. Then we left Saint George through Hurricane, UT and I see a Drive Thru Pawn Shop Which continues to baffle my imagination, but I guess when you need to pay the rent getting cash for your Rolex is easy that way.
  17. I ride with a small enduro group thats basically out of Auburn California, we'll do some trips out of the area from time to time. For this meet, we met up in Truckee California around 10:00AM. The plan was for a 4 to 6 hour ride with a lunch stop. The ride consisted of water crossings, hill climbs, long large deep tunnels, and good views. Only one incident that day, a guy on a DRZ 400 in front of me launch himself off a cliff. It was a steep hill with large rocks covering the whole trail, what I'm guessing is his rear tire hit a rock funny and that caused him to goose the throttle then it launched him and his bike right off the trail. Video of the recovery below https://youtu.be/fOYOa6dzzHE I had the only big adventure bike that day! I kept up with them all day!
  18. I know that XL is teenie tiny at this point, but I'll give it a shot... Anyone in the central Florida area? I've only been in Tampa for a year and still don't have a network of good people to ride with. Looking for people to ADV with, so speak up if you have room for another rider!
  19. Today I did what you're suppose to do with an ADV bike... I rode it to the bank to make a deposit for the wife. Happy wife, I took the long way home. Lake Lola. Tigers and Gaters don't get along, so I kept my distance. Nursery Hill. 243ft above seal level. I felt a little dizzy. The highest point in all of Florida is 345ft. Glad the bike has FI. Yes, I went beyond Starbucks. Withlacoochee State Forrest. Wet Sand = hero traction, even on 90/10 Pirelli streetish tires. I do have new TKC80s to mount, but ride or work on the bike today? Easy choice... A lot of the trails are covered by a canopy of trees. Very lush. Some of the trails we're pretty slick from last night's rain. Enother dead end trail at the Withlacoochee River. TKC80s would have helped a bit, but I mananged. An open, dry meadow along the way. The 4X4 trucks had been in some areas, tearing the sheet out of the trail. Some sections made for interesting line choices. A nice 3 - 4 hour ride, just seeing what there is to see, with no particular destination or schedule. The more I ride my Tiger, the more I like it.
  20. So for the past few weeks a small group of us had planned to ride up and overnight in Sequoia National Park. About a week ahead of time the forecast starts to look pretty iffy.... By Thursday they were getting snow with cold temps and a mix of rain/freezing rain predicted for the weekend during our trip!!!! So instead some last minute route crunching on the part of Orbel along with work and family commitments for others we decide to detour to Death Valley instead. We found temps ranging from 45F all the way up to 90F over the 2 days we were on the road and had an absolute blast on a very quiet trip. We departed up Hwy 2 to Angels forest and up to the 14. From there we headed through Mohave and then CalCity where we took off down a whooped out dirt road for a good ways cutting out to the road into Trona From Trona it was a quick fuel stop and cruise up to Ballarat Ghost town where we had a cold coke and then proceded into Death Valley up through Coyote Canyon I believe.
  21. Mero

    Olympian

    Hello all. Names marlin i'm 32 and live in Olympia, wa been riding since i was 20. I was in a terrible motorcycle wreck, took 4 yrs off of riding and missed every day of it. despite everyone i know saying i was stupid i picked up another bike, and i don't plan on stopping. A good friend of mine rainier_runner got me into ADV riding a few years ago. I had a harley vrod and an xr650l, dumped a bunch of money into the xr then sold both for a 2013 r1200gsa. Best move i've ever made.
  22. Long time BMW rider working for BMW (retail side) and glad to see a fresh, new forum without all the bs.
  23. Took the bike out through Utah's West desert today! Ran out West on the Pony Express trail then South to the Topaz Internment Camp Northwest of Delta. There are definitely some middle-of-nowhere locations out in the West desert! Most of the Pony Express Trail can barely be called "off-road" as it's a hard packed dirt road with a gravel skim in places. Most of the road can be ridden at 60 Mph or more, but there are parts in the passes that slow you down into the 20's. The desert has a beauty all it's own. It's not the dense pine forests of the Pacific North West, or the Canyon lands of Southern Utah, but it certainly holds its own appeal. One can ride for a couple hours and be, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere. Not many people come out this way, so once your out you're on your own! Watch that gas gauge, never let it drop below a half tank, and bring LOTS of water in case you get stuck out - there's no water out here. I Finally found the Topaz Internment Camp, and was super fortunate that the Historical Society was there giving a private tour to some families with roots in the camp. For those of you that don't know, there were 10 hastily built internment camps erected around the US in the 40's where Japanese American's families were held during the early 40's - you can read more about the camps here on Wikipedia. This camp is in the middle of nowhere. The associate museum is in Delta Utah, and I always had the impression that the camp was just on the outskirts of Delta - Nope! It's a good 40 minute ride outside of town in the desert. Absolutely nothing around it. The tour was being given to two gentlemen that were born in the camp and their families, and fortunately for me they invited me to join their tour. Wow... A very sobering location that reminds us that even what we call the "good ol' USA" certainly has its faults. I was amazed that the entire camp is completely gone - torn down as if to try to erase an evil past. The only signs left that it ever existed are a few stone trails between flat spots in the earth where structures once stood, along with a few random glass shards, chunks of wood, and the like. I didn't take a lot of pictures, as the mood of the tour was very somber. Pictures didn't seem very appropriate, but I did sneak a couple. All that is left of the Buddhist temple at the site - a trail of stones around where the structure once stood: A rock garden near the Buddhist temple:
  24. That sounds pretty exciting, doesn't it? It was! Saline Valley Hot Springs is this way-out-of-the-way place in Death Valley National Park, yet fairly well known. This New York Times article is one many people have seen before. It's 52 miles off hwy 190 and 66 miles from the nearest gas at Panamint Springs. Franco had invited me to come and I brought along two nice young ladies, Jessica Washburn and Kim Krause. Jessica showed up at my place the night before and we ended up riding up there together on Friday and met Kim and two of the four (Franco and John) at Panamint Springs. John is actually not Italian, but I'm just going to go with it. It was one of those hectic trip departures where everything seems to go wrong, you forget stuff and have to go back, etc... but we finally made it to PSR around 2:30. I was a bit worried since I hadn't ridden with either Jessica or Kim before and while the road into Saline Valley isn't that bad anymore, you never know exactly what's going to happen. Turns out they are both phenomenal riders! Here we are at the lookout right before the turn to go right up Hunter Mountain and left down Saline Valley Road. I'm really loving this new Arakis line from ICON Raiden. I just posted a review of these. Check it out! This was also my first real off road camping trip with my new Hemisphere soft panniers from AltRider. I'll be doing a review of these shortly as well. Jessica is moving out here to CA from MI and I bet she's loving this weather and wide open space. The two ladies posing for the camera
  25. Let me preface with two things. One, the show was not nearly as large as I was anticipating. Two, I was looking at bike way to much to be worried about taking pics. That being said, here is what I did take. Pardon the amateur photography and shitty camera. Dream bike... Super Duke 1290. Mine is way better. Seriously! I'd rock the shit outta this around town. Finished the day at my favorite brewery. Elysian Fields. Had a Pastrami sandwich as well, but this is the important part! My apologies for the shortage of pics. I'll do better next time!
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