A few pics & Desert Ride Report (epic length)

[marsattacks]

Desert Ride Report Non-Penton

This is not really like a typical POG post but is more like an ADVRider post.  Please just ignore it if it gets too long and boring for you.

Ok men, so here is the intro.  This has nothing to do with Pentons and for that I apologize.  It also might offend those of you who are purists and scoff at those (of us, I guess) who are willing to ride a motorcycle off-road for three straight days and never have to even put gas in the thing.  What I am about to describe is a little bit like if they had Carnival Cruises for people who feel like riding dirt bikes in the desert.  Or maybe it is more like going to an amusement park with millions of acres.  Anyway, it was fun and in light of the fact that it is 3,000 miles away from home and I had to work endless hours on the two days before the first riding day and also had an important court conference the very day afterwards, it was a huge bonus to have a turn-key operation.  This is basically a once in a lifetime thing that requires a significant outlay of $$ but puts all of the focus on riding and spending some time with the guys you are with.   Here is the link  http://www.admotours.com/dirtbike_tours/la_to_las_vegas_tour/la-to-vegas.htm If you give them a call they will happy to tell you all the options, places they go, etc etc.

If you are pressed for cash you can take your own bike if you want but even then this is not what I would call an economical venture, really it is a splurge.  And particularly if you would never, ever get to see the desert otherwise it starts to make a little sense.  You are going to go so deep into the desert that you would never be found (ok, a mild exaggeration) if somebody didn't show you the way out.  As anyone who has ridden in the deep desert knows, it can dish up some nasty surprises and it takes about 10 minutes to get properly lost.

What I can say is that I have enormous respect for people who ride in the desert, particularly those who ride fast in the desert.  And there is a special place for those who not only ride fast in the desert, but who do so while racing other maniacs kicking up huge clouds of dust so that you just fearlessly steam your own way across the terrain.  It is just a very specialized skill set those guys have, some of which is natural and some must be developed through hard work.

There is an outfit called Ad-Mo (for Adventures in Motorcycling, or something akin to that) based in Wrightwood, CA, which is a small town in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.



There is not too much happening in that town but it has a Mexican restaurant (nice) and two basic watering holes, the Racoon Saloon (aka the Coon-Tang) and the Yodeler.  If you go there I guess I would suggest stopping in all of them, which is what we did.  We had nothing else to do because we had a half day after flying in from the East, and spent part of it at an MX track and the rest hanging around Wrightwood.  Our rental bikes were still being prepped so a pre-ride was not in the mix.  The MX track for some reason has a thing about not being a "pit-squirrel".  

We didn't see any and tried not to be one.  We saw some very talented riders busting up the tracks, in particular the pro track for the arena cross or whatever it is called.

So, by the way the Ad-Mo outfit in Wrightwood is run by the main man John, who is descended directly (son of) a majordomo flattrack frame builder responsible for the Trackmaster frames.  Some of you I am sure know of those frames by repute or by actual first hand experience.  The other guides/mechanics on our ride were Robbie and Aron.  All very talented desert racers and some serious MX background too.

A great thing about the Ad-Mo operation is that you get to rent the bikes (helpful if you don't own one and are 1,000s of miles away).  They don't have any Pentons to rent but do have some interesting rides.  We each rented a bike, and the stable consisted of two 2009 Husky TE450s and two 2008 KTM 450 EXCs and one KTM 520 EXC and two "Cadillacs of the Desert," Suzuki DRZ450s.


The guides had their own bikes of course.  There were six rider clients (two experts, and four mid to low (me) intermediates).  Of course, I'd never ridden a bike with disk brakes, one that was as tall as that Husky, or even a proper four-stroke (if you don't count a CT-90 or an R100, which I don't count for these purposes).  The only other bike I had ever ever ridden with a battery was a CT-90 and only electric start bike I'd ridden was a R100 BMW.   So this was all new to me.  We also rented gear, which was really nice stuff.  This all made packing a breeze.  You could literally have one small duffel bag if you wanted.  A pair of jeans, some socks and some polypro undergutchies for the cold desert nights.  We didn't even rent a car -- AdMo picked up from the Ontario airport and in Vegas we took the hotel shuttle.  A "no car" vacation!

After a ride meeting the night before and a short discussion on the morning of, we saddled up at about 8:30am for a five mile run down the highway in Wrightwood.  We received a specially-printed map for each day and for the entire three days.  The first day was "Randsburg" and was to be 120 miles.  So we left Wrightwood and did some dirt roads and then got into some easy desert track leading into the Mojave Desert.  Pretty soon we came upon the "Boneyard" in which massive numbers of jetliners are mothballed while they await being cannibalized for parts or being pressed back into service.  It was pretty cool to see and you can ride fairly close to them.  Pretty soon after that we got into territory that was quite barren of life or other activity.  The guides said that not a lot of desert riders venture too far out into the desert because it just becomes a big commitment to logistics in case you break down, get lost, etc. etc.   I had never been in the desert on a dirt bike.  I'd ridden Mt. bikes (bicycles) about 12x outside of Palm Springs and Tucson.  Well, everything comes up a lot faster on a dirt bike and although you can power over lots of rocks that would stop a bicycle, the  are plenty of disadvantages to speed also.  The guides said that if you want a rule of thumb, if an obstacle looks small enough to eat in one sitting, you can probably just power over it.  Otherwise you might as well go around than take your chances.  I can eat a lot but sometimes my eyes are bigger than my stomach and this applies to this advice as well as to spaghetti.

So after some miles of whoops we made it to the Roadhouse Restaurant in Kramer Junction.  This is where we first saw the Ad-Mo setup in action.  As we arrived and parked the dirt bikes all in a nice row, we noticed that the third guide (one always in the sag-wagon) had arranged a table for helmets and gear, a cooler of drinks, a row of fold up chairs, and some snacks.  So while we got out of our gear, etc. they got busy fueling and checking the bikes.  Then we all had lunch except one of the guides who watched the stuff and continued to prep the bikes for the afternoon.  So it would go at every break.  Really over the top and not really expected but it spoils you.

That day we rode a combination of desert whoops and desert flats into Randsburg, which is a "living ghost town".  Once there, it was just like lunch, except that here there were coolers of beer along with water and gatorade.  You could hang out and help prep the bikes for the next day, or simply watch the bikes being prepped.  Your choice.  There was a hot tub and hot showers.  We stayed at the Cottage Hotel 1 760 374 2285 and I really recommend it to anybody whether on a tour or not.  Super nice people and a great laid back place with heaps and heaps of desert riding in every direction.  They served us family style spaghetti and meat sauce, plus ice cream.  Unbelievable.

Only problem was that I felt so good about my leg conditioning and the Husky TE-450 was so skinny that I did a horrible job of riding on the pegs, using way too much leg strength by not bracing at all on the tank.  So I was almost spent by the end of the day insofar as my quads were concerned.  That was worrisome but I figured it would pass.

Day 2 -- Day 2 is going to be a 160 mile day taking us from Randsburg to Furnace Creek in Death Valley.  This would turn out to be the most challenging and technically difficult day of the three (lots of different terrain).

Bring it on!!


Another 8/8:30 start and we are off into lots of sand whoops.  Pretty soon we get to the X-15 crash site where, in 1958 or thereabouts the first suborbital space rocket/jet crashed in a 30-square mile spot.  There is a memorial and it was pretty cool.  Then off we go into more sand whoops.  Endless.  My thighs are really killing me.  The seat sucks but it doesn't matter since you don't get to sit unless you are absolute squid looking to endo (I am but I don't).    From day 1 everybody now feels comfortable on their bikes and of course since we are all comfortable the expert riders start to wail through the newly familiar terrain.  That means the lesser riders need to try to wail to keep up.  It works out ok but the opportunities for a major step-off are endless.  Rocks here, rocks there, G-outs, cactus, on and on.

We get to the "Fun Zone" which is a giant area of tight singletrack with some riding along the razorback of a ridge and some really steep descents and inclines -- but they aren't too long.  The Sun is in our faces and that creates some difficult moments because you need to see where you are going but you can't.  Then out of the fun zone and we get into a 10 mile long fairly flat sand wash where you can utterly blast the bike once you realize that you need to just relax and let the tires float on the sand.  That was something new.

We get to Trona for lunch at a mexican place and then pretty soon reach a major decision point.  John, the guide at that point, explains that the roundabout way is about a "5 on a scale of 1-10 in terms of difficulty and fun".  There is another way, starting down a steep descent, which is about a 12 on the 1-10 scale.  OK so we decide to go the big way.  He then says this is basically mountain bike territory, includes some steep off-camber turns, and we should get comfortable using the front brake because the back won't help too much but it is too steep to simply rely on engine resistance.  I get down the major steep no problem but then give full love to the front brake but the Brembo discs (is this a Porsche?) aren't giving any love in return.  I wash out the front a few times and then follow one of my compatriots (unknowingly) down the face of a massive hill because he missed the trail.  Now I'm zooming down a crazy desert, rocky, nasty slope.  A few crashes later we are at the bottom and there are the Trona Pinnacles.



Awesome.

Later we rode into a park where Charlie Manson apparently had his hideout.  It was really cool (not the Manson part, he was and is a toad) because we went though a major narrow canyon that had a fairly steep rock ledge that was completely unexpected.

Then some great riding into Death Valley.

That's our crew: Me, David G, Rob, and his bro Dave R.  Plus two young guys who separately booked, Luke and Ben.  Great guys and riders too.  Not an hour of desert experience in the lot (if you don't count mountain biking, which I don't in this particular case).

We visited the Husky memorial, which was really cool with loads of Husy items in homage to past riders.  


 Then, we had a stretch across a dry lake bed.  When I had enough wits to look down (after slowing) I was doing 77mph on the TE450.  At maybe 5-10mph faster it would start to slap the front end side to side and it was too fast anyway.  Then we saw an A-frame mine (abandoned) and utlimately rode out through a Borax (?) valley and into Furnace Creek.  The last 10 miles were super high speed (for me anyway) at 65+mph - the only limiting factor was dust and the occasional massive rock in the middle of the road (randomly).  There was a car and a full sized van that came the other way too.

Everything happened all over again at the end of the day (beer, bike prep, stories, etc.).  Then dinner.  Stayed at the Furnace Creek Ranch, which is the only show in town.

Reflections on the last two days -- this is the greatest country in the world and we are so fortunate to have places like this.



Day 3 -- this is going to be a 180 mile day from Death Valley into Las Vegas itself.

Next morning a little more sore than the one before but another great day.  We rode into the Funeral Mountains and into some really sharp edged rock strewn trails.   The trail was ok but this was Day 3 and not only was there a wash out risk but there were pretty nasty, flinty rocks here and there and everywhere.  My thighs were pretty well beat and I had a pre-existing rotator cuff tear that was starting to be a pain.  Anyway, another massive rock garden with a ledge was entertaining.  Then we exited the Funeral Mts. and got to a decision point.  The guides say "8 miles of bushwacking if you want to ride the dunes over yonder"  There is no trail and if you hit a "dunie" (scrub bush with rocks at the base) you will probably endo, but that's the only way.  So of course we all say "RIght on!" and off we go.  Lo and behold in the crazy terrain leading up to the dunes it is no good to be in another guy's tracks you have to make your own.  Plus a little speed helps but not so much that when you hit a massive erosion ditch you don't step off the bike.]

The dunes are worth it.  They are cool.  These are not endless like in the Sahara but still completely different.  So we ride them long enough to have fun but not so long to fry the engines on our poor bikes.  Then bushwhacking back to a dirt road and then more sand whoops.

Lunch at Terrible Herbst (of Baja fame) and then off again.  Another decision point as to whether we are going the wimp way or the fun way through the Spring Mountains.  Of course we are not here to go the easy way let's see what's in store.  The Spring Mts. are awesome and you climb pretty high and then we hit ice on the trail which was no problem since the guide pointed it out.  We hit a semi-crazy rock garden with some stuck 4x4s and thats when I had some major trouble with a too responsive bike, too little skill, too much fatigue, etc.  Anyway after a few trying moments it was over the top pass and down toward Vegas.  Some really incredible scenery up in those mountains.  

Looks like I'm out for an easy cruise through the mountains but I swear one mile up from here and over to the other side is tight, steep, twisty and in some parts just plain rocky, with a few babyhead rock gardens.



Once at the bottom of the mountains it was regroup time and a quick lesson on how not to get killed while riding into Vegas.  Then off into the burbs and thence to Vegas where you pretty much rage onto the strip and are a little bit of a spectacle with 8 noisy and semi-beat up dirt bikes (good collision waiver choice! for all).  Ad-mo had a great deal at the Trump Hotel because some of the Trump boys had been on a prior trip.  I highly recommend the place since it has no casino and is just what you want for the night after three days of fairly tiring riding.  Giant jacuzzi and king bed suite for 99 per night is not bad in my book in Vegas and well worth the splurge if you are used to a better rate.





After some relaxation in the parking lot in the pop up chairs, everyone gets cleaned up and we all have dinner together with the AdMo guys and their families/others at a nice pizza place, get a few drinks then off to bed.



I have to say it was a great time and everyone else thought so too.  If anything, having expert riders with intermediates is a challenge for the experts since they want to go much faster probably but you can't have too much dispersion of the group in the middle of the desert.  It all seemed to work out fine with nobody getting strung out over having to go too fast or too slow.  Even the fast guys could get completely sideways pretty unexpectedly if they weren't careful.

So, this is not for you if you want to fix your own flat tires in the cold darkness at 6:15pm with 20 miles to go before you get to camp.  Not for you if you want to camp in the desert.   But -- if you are from the East or haven't ridden the desert.  If you want to rent a bike and have NO WORRIES about a crash because there is insurance.  If you don't mind having someone else prep and gas your bike.  If you want a hot shower and nice meal each night.  If you don't want to worry about navigation and you know the guides intimately know the route and have a Satellite phone + walkie talkies, then you should consider this.  Is it cushy?  Yes in many senses of the word.  But the riding is every bit of whatever you can handle because they will throw at you whatever level of challenge you'd like to see.

Here is a short squid video of some of the terrain (thanks Brian Kirby for the input on helmet cameras).  We have some more crazy terrain footage but as my wife said "Maybe your friends will enjoy it but everyone else is just going to throw up".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BccVw9P6Lgo

Best, John

[cubfan1968]

Looks like a great time. Skip Page and I did a similiar type deal down in Baja.

Rod Whitman
Omaha, Nebraska
1972 Six Day (Rider)
1972 Six Day (Project)

[Lloyd Boland]

This is our play riding area, Charlies Place, Wagon Wheel, Randsberg, California City, Searle Station, Trona, Teagle Wash, Ridgecrest, Red Mountain, etc.  I spent Thanksgiving there this year.  Miles and miles of open riding until the BLM decides to shut it down.  Now you have to have a "Green Sticker" or a street legal bike; if you go to California City you need a California City Permit; and if you ride from California City to Randsberg throught the Randsberg mountains, you need an additional separate permit to ride the trails in the Randsberg mountains.  

I am glad to hear you had fun in our playground.  We take for granted the riding when we have the opportunity to.  To go out on any given weekend and ride for the day or two.  The desert can be a lot of fun.
Lloyd

[Doug Bridges]

Great story John. I grew up in Ridgecrest and all my dirt bike riding/racing was in that area. I have been to most of the places you went to, but it has been over twenty years since I have been in that area. Your story brings back lots of memorys. I never would have imagined that there would someday be dirt bike tours of the area and that people would come all the way from the east coast to do it, but it sounds like a great idea and a great experience. I took it all for granted back in the day. I have only got back in to dirt bikes in the last few years and riding in Washington state is very different than the desert. I would love to ride there again. It is a place that any off road enthusiast would enjoy. Those that have not experienced the desert should put it on their to do list.

Doug Bridges
73 Jackpiner
74 Rickman Zundapp
78 Suzuki PE175
82 XR200R

[garrettccovington]

Great Article!!! I live right out in the middle of all of this.  Actually you guys lucked out and hit the best weather.  right after you left it poored for a week straight.  It even snowed.  I've ridden sections of that ride but not all at once WOW!

Again great write up!

G

72 six-day
79 KTM MC80 250

[Mark P]

Thanks for the great post and photos/video. Most of my experience in CA has been on military missions. I wish we had public lands in TX for ORV but there is very little available. The dual sport riding we do is largely dirt roads which is a heck of a lot fun(with frequent stops for BBQ) To ride off-road, we go to private areas and buy memberships or pay by the day.Many of these are converted or still working ranches where the owner is trying to generate additional income(in that aspect, I guess its no different than buying a deer lease or a lift ticket)

Anyway, thanks again for trip report. I'm planning my DP trip to NM and UT now!