Eastern Sierra ghost town ride: My first "adventure"

[little_twin]

This ride started about 2 months ago for me. I had just bought a new house and was in the process of some pretty serious renovation on it. I decided that I needed some time away. I put in my time off request for the last 2 weeks in October since the house should be done by the second week, my thinking was go on a week long ride to relax and get away, then return and move in to the the house the second week.

Once I was notified that my time off was approved I began searching for a destination. I stumbled across a thread on ADV rider, 2 friends were going to do a weekend camping trip in the eastern Sierras and had asked if anyone else would be interested in joining them. To me this sounded perfect. E-mails were exchanged, phone calls were made, and it was set!

I left the bay area Thursday morning around 9 with plans to go through Yosemite and over the Tioga pass, which had just reopened the day before.

I hadn't been to Yosemite in years and was amazed by the devastation entering the valley floor from recent fires.

After returning from the valley floor i continued on 120 towards Tioga pass.

a few pictures form along the way.

 

[little_twin]

Cont....

I had never been over the Tioga pass before, and it was quite a sight to see.

I didn't realize what a steep drop it was on the other side of the wall until I stepped up on it to take this picture.

I stopped at the market at the intersection of 120 and 395 for gas and lunch. I was hoping to be in Mammoth by that evening to grab o hotel room. As I ate lunch I looked over my map. I was only about 40 minutes from Mammoth Lakes and and an hour and a half from Bishop. I decided to stay in Bishop. That would put me only 30 minutes from Big Pine where I was meeting Jason and Johnston Friday night. That also meant I could ride into Death Valley and do a little exploring there on Friday. I stayed at a motel 6 just off 395 in Bishop and the Bonus was a starbuck's right next door for breakfast.

 

[little_twin]

Cont....

I left the motel 6 around 8, had a quick bite and a coffee at starbuck's (I know not the greatest breakfast), and left Bishop around 9. I was in Big Pine by 10, and found the campground where I would be meeting the others that night.

Baker Creek RD. leading to Baker Creek campground.

View of the mountain from the campground.

After finding the campground I fueled up and headed out Death valley Rd. into Death valley. The road was great. Very twisty and fun, though it changes colors a few times and every time it did I thought it was transitioning to dirt. Then when it finally did transition into a dirt road I was completely unprepared and going a little to fast. I was able to get slowed enough and was able to continue on my way.

Death Valley Rd.

 

[little_twin]

Cont....

Officially entering the park.

I reached the intersection of Death Valley Rd. and N Eureka Rd. and decided that by continuing on I would spend a lot more than a few hours in the park and decided to head back out.

As I headed out of the park I came across a couple from Germany. They had a 1200GS and were touring the US on it. They were stopped on the side of the road, so stopped to make sure everything was ok. They were looking at a map that looked as though a child had scribbled it with a box of crayons. I got out my map, a Tom Harrison map that I found to be very accurate and easy to use, and we began trying to get their route figured out. It turned out that they planned on spending at least a few days in Death Valley, and I felt that their map was not acceptable for that. I gave them mine as I knew which way I had to go. They thanked me and we parted ways.

Afew more pictures from Death Valley.

 

[little_twin]

Cont....

As I was leaving I spotted a trail that looked as though it would take me to the top of a large hill and would give me a good look at where I had just come from. It was rocky but didn't look to bad, and since I had about 100 miles of dirt planned for the following 2 days I decided it was probably a good idea to see what the bike was capable of off road.

The road led to an old mine shaft.

I continued up the road a ways farther. It got steeper and rockier the farther I went, but I was determined.

I finally reached a part that was just too steep and rocky. I found a wash out and used it to turn around. I then tip toed back down the hill with my tail between my legs.

I reached the bottom and stopped for a drink of water. I also thought about what I had just attempted and on what equipment. I suddenly felt a bit of pride in how far I made it up that rocky trail on a fully loaded v strom with street tires.

I headed back to Big Pine to get lunch/dinner and set up camp.

Campsite in Big Pine.

The creek behind the campsite.

Me and my bike trying out the auto timer on my new camera.

The sunset in Big Pine looking to the east.

Jason and Johnston showed up Friday night around 10:30. They set up their tents, and it was off to bed. We'd be up at 7 the following morning.

 

[Hooli]

Very nice photos of your trip! :thumbup

 

[little_twin]

Cont....

We got up bright and early Saturday morning packed up camp and headed into Bishop for breakfast. We had a charming older woman for a waitress with a great sense of humor, the food was also quite good. It set the tone for a great day. He headed up to Bridgeport where we fueled up for the last time before returning to the highway on Sunday. At the gas station a gentleman asked us where we were headed. We told him we were going to Bodie. His response was; "Bodie?!, My great grandmother was born in Bodie. She was a whore." Not sure how to respond to that we said that's nice and headed out.

Our first stop was the Chemung mine.

A lot of the machinery was still intact.

 

[little_twin]

Cont....

Johnston emerging from one of the old mine shafts.

We then headed to Masonic. Masonic was a mining community of about 1500.

There is not a whole lot left of masonic.

But the road getting there was worth the trip.

We had lunch at Masonic, then headed towards Bodie.

Our fearless leader Jason.

Old street sign?

We crested the hill and saw Bodie. This place must have been something to see in its day. Imagine it at night lit up mostly by lanterns and candle light,

The cemetery was quite interesting as well.

It really paints a picture. Entire families wiped out by disease,

and it drew people from around the world.

One last shot of the old mill and we were headed into Nevada to Aurora.

On our way out we saw this.

It turns out the road into Bodie from Nevada was a toll road and this was the old toll booth.

 

[little_twin]

Cont....

We headed through a canyon into Nevada. I got a few pictures but it was getting late and we needed a place to stay for the night.

Once out of the canyon we headed up the mountain towards Aurora peak. The dirt road was well traveled and well maintained until we hit about 100 yards of very loose deep gravel. All 3 of us cam barreling into too fast. We all stalled out about the same spot, and from there it was tough getting out. It took us about 10 minutes to get all 3 bikes out and then we were on our way again.

We got to the top of the hill to find a guard station with 2 guards occupying it. Jason went to get some clarification on our location from them, then moments later signals for us to come over. We approach and he says that it is an active gold mine, and that one of the guards is going to escort us in to see the mine site.

The Esmeralda mine.

It turns out that this mine has some of the richest ore in the world yielding 6-8 ounces of gold per ton of ore.

We then headed up the hill farther where we found a nice campsite. The only downside was that it was right on the edge of the Aurora Cemetery. Oh well it was about 7 and too late to find a different spot so we set up camp there.

 

[little_twin]

Cont....

The campsite ended up being around 7'000 feet and it got VERY cold late in the night. I woke up around 2:00 and layered up. When I woke around 6 I could not feel my toes. I got out of my tent and went to my bike where I had a hand warmer, which I opened. I then peeled off my 3 pairs of socks to find some minor frost bite on the bottom side of my big toe on my right foot. I began warming my foot while the others started a fire. Once I had decent circulation through my toe again I went for a quick jog to get my blood flowing then back to camp to pack up.

We headed down the hill out of the cemetery and into what was left of the town of Aurora. There is not much left but you can see the foundations of where buildings used to stand.

We left Aurora and began our journey out and back ti civilization.

We crested a hill to find a spectacular view of Mono Lake, and the Tioga Pass.

We then headed down the hill and into the most difficult part of our ride.

The rest of the road was either big boulders and rocks, or loose silty sand. Neither of which were easy to negotiate. It was a slow 5-10 mph crawl most of the way.

I was beat from trying to keep my pig of a bike upright in terrain that would challenge a true dirtbike so I unfortunately did not get many pictures. I will try to post a video of one of the many rock sections.

We finally hit HWY167 were we parted ways.

I rode into Lee Vining and got a hotel room for the night, and Jason and Johnston continued south back to the gridlock of LA.

I will link them to this site where hopefully they will post some of their pics and commentary from the ride,

Enjoy!

 

[Cybnew]

Man..that sounds like a really cool trip! Nice pictures as well!!!

 

[Eye Heart Pasta]

That was cool. Nice photo essay!
I've been trying to psyche myself up to take a 50-50 dirt-pavement ride on my V-Strom, this definitely makes the desire stronger.
Thanks.

 

[little_twin]

Great sunset! Did you check out any of the hot springs on the way down from Tioga Pass? There's also opportunity to camp over there, as long as you are not right on top of the hot spring area.

No I didn't check out the hot springs. I was going to go to the one in Mammoth before I decided to stay in Lee Vining.

 

[little_twin]

That was cool. Nice photo essay!
I've been trying to psyche myself up to take a 50-50 dirt-pavement ride on my V-Strom, this definitely makes the desire stronger.
Thanks.

The strom did surprisingly well in the dirt. My tire choice was less than ideal but with my dirt riding background I was able to make it work. If your interested I have a few local routes where you can get your feet wet riding the dirt with some great twisty's in between.

The things that will be different next time are my tires and luggage. The rear bag worked great but put most of the weight up high making the bike more difficult at lower speeds in rough terrain. Next time I'll have the majority of my gear in a set of paniers.

 

[Seesm]

Nice stuff... A trip I would LOVE to do sometime with my lady maybe.

 

[little_twin]

Great pictures! I had no idea there were roads back there - that looks like fun!

There are a lot of roads back there. It would be easy to spend a lot of time out there and not see it all. There are also other ways in. I will definately be spending more time in that area.

 

[little_twin]

Nice stuff... A trip I would LOVE to do sometime with my lady maybe.

There is easy access from Hawthorn Nevada. It gets pretty rough heading west from Aurora though.

 

[little_twin]

A short video clip.


youtu.be/<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/C87UwAhn_iw&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/C87UwAhn_iw&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

 

[WoodsChick]

A short video clip.


youtu.be/<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/C87UwAhn_iw&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/C87UwAhn_iw&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

:laughing Excellent! :thumbup

A little momentum goes a long way when riding a big bike through trail junk

Good for you for getting everything you can out of your bike arty



WoodsChick

 

[little_twin]

:laughing Excellent! :thumbup

A little momentum goes a long way when riding a big bike through trail junk

Good for you for getting everything you can out of your bike arty





WoodsChick

I feel quite accomplished after getting through what I did. Many years of dirt experience definitely helped get me through.