Still Searching For That Water In The Desert
- Thread starter WoodsChick
- Start date
slackmeyer
Well-known member
Great ride, great pics. You're undermining my reasons for disliking nevada. . . .
zak
zak
WoodsChick
I Don't Do GPS
:laughing And what reasons would those be?
Nevada is truly the last frontier, the closest one can get to the wild, wild west here in the lower 48. Oregon has a lot more private property, Utah has a ton of "Monkey Wrench Gang" types like Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance that are trying to kick everyone off the land (if you ever want to ride Moab, you might want to join Utah Shared Access For All, or USA-ALL.) Idaho has a ton of gnarly single track but not so much wide-open space. The vastness of Nevada is starting to shrink, though. Every time I go I see more carsonite "Wilderness Study Area" markers. It just seems absurd to me that they are putting these markers next to the roads. Folks, if there are roads and ranches and mines and homesteads and railroad tracks and the like, it's already been "trammeled by man" and is not wilderness anymore!! I did a +200 mile ride over the course of 13 hours last time I was there and saw not one other human being the entire day, so it isn't like the feds need to save this "delicate" system from getting trampled by an over-zealous population or anything. This whole retroactive wilderness thing just really frosts my ass...in case you couldn't tell...:rant It just seems to be the easiest and quickest route to an ever-lasting legacy for some of these megalomaniac politicians, ya know? "Look what I did in my career!"
Never mind the fact that once it's wilderness it's wilderness for-fricking-ever.
Ok, I'm done now...:mad
WoodsChick
2strokeYardSale
Moab on my mind
Do you put HD tubes in the 17" tires? Are 17s more or less susceptible to flats?
WoodsChick
I Don't Do GPS
Hmm...I don't know if the 17's are more susceptible to flats or not. I've had two flats since I've been riding them off road, one in the middle of Nevada and one south of Puertocitos in Baja, and both flats were from picking up nails. I've had no issues with flats on trails or due to rocks or anything so who knows? And, yeah, I'm running HD tubes.
WoodsChick
WoodsChick
I Don't Do GPS
Day 4 saw us leaving camp pretty early. We wanted to find a lake we'd missed last time out here, and we wanted to find a route over the mountains that would take us to some warm water...
Hey, this looks like fun!
Nice little creek down there...
"Hey, Eric, I think we can cross down there, and the left side doesn't look as steep. I think we can summit this thing!"
"Don't be stupid; We got a long way to go today, we're turning around."
Water water everywhere...
Guess what Eric's looking at?
He's watching a fish eat a snake! It looked like a trout of some sort, maybe 10" long, and he had about 7" worth of black and yellow snake hanging out of his mouth! I've never seen such a thing. He was just kind of wiggling there in the water facing upstream, and every few minutes he'd wiggle a lot from side to side and take in a little bit more of the snake. It was pretty cool, a highlight for sure! We tried to take a photo of him but we scared him off. We hung around for a bit but he never made another appearance. Too cool for school!! I wanted to camp there but it was too early in the day.
This road makes me giggle like no other...
Dang, this is kind of a steep uphill...
Nope, cancel that; it's a steep downhill instead...
Well, whaddaya know...more water!
More later...I gotta go to the vet...
WoodsChick
Hey, this looks like fun!
Nice little creek down there...
"Hey, Eric, I think we can cross down there, and the left side doesn't look as steep. I think we can summit this thing!"
"Don't be stupid; We got a long way to go today, we're turning around."
Water water everywhere...
Guess what Eric's looking at?
He's watching a fish eat a snake! It looked like a trout of some sort, maybe 10" long, and he had about 7" worth of black and yellow snake hanging out of his mouth! I've never seen such a thing. He was just kind of wiggling there in the water facing upstream, and every few minutes he'd wiggle a lot from side to side and take in a little bit more of the snake. It was pretty cool, a highlight for sure! We tried to take a photo of him but we scared him off. We hung around for a bit but he never made another appearance. Too cool for school!! I wanted to camp there but it was too early in the day.
This road makes me giggle like no other...
Dang, this is kind of a steep uphill...
Nope, cancel that; it's a steep downhill instead...
Well, whaddaya know...more water!
More later...I gotta go to the vet...
WoodsChick
WoodsChick
I Don't Do GPS
Thanks! Here's some more
I'm almost done...promise! :teethDay 4 continued...
We climbed up out of the rocky basin and headed for the hills...
The plateau was beautiful...
We did a lot of climbing and came to a mountain with some art thingy on top, the first of 3 we'd see...
Someone stored their firewood stash in a pile of quartz...
The Black Rock Desert down below...
Hey, look...more art!
We dropped off the southern end of the mountain and skirted the northern end of the Black Rock Desert. We were looking for water...
I've never seen so many goldfish, frogs and polliwogs...
The bathing opportunities were limited...
But the water was hot...
And the views were stellar...
We goofed around here so long we had to hightail it to camp in order to beat the setting sun. I took no more photos on this day, which ended with 140 miles showing on the trip meter
Day 5, our last, will be coming shortly.
WoodsChick
WoodsChick
I Don't Do GPS
Day 5, and our last day of riding. Where does the time go??
We started the day with a soak at sunrise...
We unloaded all our camping gear and hit the road. Apparently early morning is the best time to move cattle...
It was fun watching the cowboys and cowgirls do their thing, but those cows really do a number on the terrain.
I never would have pegged God for a cruiser type of guy...
This lonely sheepdog was quite friendly! He was up on me before I ever came to a stop...
We never saw the shepherd, but we saw his quarters and his horse. I gave the dog some lovin' even though he peed on my front wheel...
Nevada looks like a barren wasteland when traversing it on the interstate, but beauty lies hidden in the canyons...
The map says this is a 4WD Only road. Pfft...doesn't look like it to me...
Shortly after scoffing at the proclaimed difficulty of the road, I got my comeuppance as it climbed up and up and up on very rocky rutted roads where 4WD would be very handy. I only ended up in the weeds once, but was able to get going with a minimum amount of fanfare. The view from half way to the top...
The road was really primitive, considering all this was at the top...
Nice views of the valleys on either side of the mountain range...
Heading back down. The road we came in on is visible down at the bottom...
We followed this cow trail as far as we could, but it ended in a wash-out with a fence at the end...
More to come...
WoodsChick
We started the day with a soak at sunrise...
We unloaded all our camping gear and hit the road. Apparently early morning is the best time to move cattle...
It was fun watching the cowboys and cowgirls do their thing, but those cows really do a number on the terrain.
I never would have pegged God for a cruiser type of guy...
This lonely sheepdog was quite friendly! He was up on me before I ever came to a stop...
We never saw the shepherd, but we saw his quarters and his horse. I gave the dog some lovin' even though he peed on my front wheel...
Nevada looks like a barren wasteland when traversing it on the interstate, but beauty lies hidden in the canyons...
The map says this is a 4WD Only road. Pfft...doesn't look like it to me...
Shortly after scoffing at the proclaimed difficulty of the road, I got my comeuppance as it climbed up and up and up on very rocky rutted roads where 4WD would be very handy. I only ended up in the weeds once, but was able to get going with a minimum amount of fanfare. The view from half way to the top...
The road was really primitive, considering all this was at the top...
Nice views of the valleys on either side of the mountain range...
Heading back down. The road we came in on is visible down at the bottom...
We followed this cow trail as far as we could, but it ended in a wash-out with a fence at the end...
More to come...
WoodsChick
WoodsChick
I Don't Do GPS
Day 5 continued, and the end of our trip
We rode around in circles on a bunch of 4WD roads, trying to find our way off the mountain and down into the next valley. We'd planned on hitting another hot springs on the playa to the north, but we spent so much time trying to get off the mountain that we had to revise our plans a bit. We'd left all our camping gear behind, so we couldn't just ride til it got dark today, although that is precisely what we did.
Anyway, we found our way down and into the silty valley. I'd taken notice of how trail features tended to disappear from view in the harsh desert sun, especially when the sun was directly overhead and there were no shadows to work with. Well, that wasn't the case when I hit the dirt for the first time all week, but it was still hard to discern the depth of the silt. Guess which side I landed on?
I had grit in my teeth, eyes, ears, belly button, bra...you name it. It was pretty funny, and the only damage was some good scratching on my ginormous tank, and some scratches on my glasses and faceshield.
More water in the desert. It just happens to be in the form of a gigantic alfalfa farm. Sure takes a lot of energy and water to produce food for cows...
...and pronghorn antelope...
Man, this place must have it all!
It was a pretty cool store, just a metal warehouse type of building with rows and rows of stuff! Everything you could possibly need! Their sign wasn't exaggerating, although I need a new 2-stroke and they didn't have any:x I got a Mexican walnut ice cream bar. The wall around the complex was built of free-standing rock. All along the top were neat things like obsidian, geodes, petrified wood, bones, cystals, fossils, all kinds of cool stuff. Gee, too bad I didn't get any photos of it. Guess I was grooving on the ceamy walnut goodness...
We were riding along on a ridge top and it sounded all clinkey, like we were riding on broken tiles. We saw a few clumps of rock here and there and, upon further inspection, discovered this stuff...
It looked exactly like terra cotta tiles...
There sure is some neat stuff in the desert!
You'll never guess what we found...
That's right! More water!!
It's nice when the sun's going down...
Oh crap! Sunset? Already? Dang, these days are just too short. Guess we better head back. I knew I shoulda found that loose connection in my headlight...
Eric had a headlight, but it wasn't much help...
I rode back in the dark, and this is how our trip ended with 150 miles on the clock for the day. We'd done about 750 miles in 5 excellent days of riding :ride
Once again, the desert provided us with a wealth of good times and good memories. Can't wait to go back and do it again
WoodsChick
We rode around in circles on a bunch of 4WD roads, trying to find our way off the mountain and down into the next valley. We'd planned on hitting another hot springs on the playa to the north, but we spent so much time trying to get off the mountain that we had to revise our plans a bit. We'd left all our camping gear behind, so we couldn't just ride til it got dark today, although that is precisely what we did.
Anyway, we found our way down and into the silty valley. I'd taken notice of how trail features tended to disappear from view in the harsh desert sun, especially when the sun was directly overhead and there were no shadows to work with. Well, that wasn't the case when I hit the dirt for the first time all week, but it was still hard to discern the depth of the silt. Guess which side I landed on?
I had grit in my teeth, eyes, ears, belly button, bra...you name it. It was pretty funny, and the only damage was some good scratching on my ginormous tank, and some scratches on my glasses and faceshield.
More water in the desert. It just happens to be in the form of a gigantic alfalfa farm. Sure takes a lot of energy and water to produce food for cows...
...and pronghorn antelope...
Man, this place must have it all!
It was a pretty cool store, just a metal warehouse type of building with rows and rows of stuff! Everything you could possibly need! Their sign wasn't exaggerating, although I need a new 2-stroke and they didn't have any:x I got a Mexican walnut ice cream bar. The wall around the complex was built of free-standing rock. All along the top were neat things like obsidian, geodes, petrified wood, bones, cystals, fossils, all kinds of cool stuff. Gee, too bad I didn't get any photos of it. Guess I was grooving on the ceamy walnut goodness...
We were riding along on a ridge top and it sounded all clinkey, like we were riding on broken tiles. We saw a few clumps of rock here and there and, upon further inspection, discovered this stuff...
It looked exactly like terra cotta tiles...
There sure is some neat stuff in the desert!
You'll never guess what we found...
That's right! More water!!
It's nice when the sun's going down...
Oh crap! Sunset? Already? Dang, these days are just too short. Guess we better head back. I knew I shoulda found that loose connection in my headlight...
Eric had a headlight, but it wasn't much help...
I rode back in the dark, and this is how our trip ended with 150 miles on the clock for the day. We'd done about 750 miles in 5 excellent days of riding :ride
Once again, the desert provided us with a wealth of good times and good memories. Can't wait to go back and do it again
WoodsChick
Cereal KLR
Well-known member
When the end of the world comes, I`m hanging out with you guys. I was showing someone your pictures and rantng about my lack of adventures, all they could say was "don`t they work?"
Can`t wait to see what you set up for Fall trips.
Can`t wait to see what you set up for Fall trips.
flying_hun
Adverse Selection
:applause Thanks, Woodschick! :cool
WoodsChick
I Don't Do GPS
Thanks! It ain't Canada, but it's still pretty cool :cool
:laughing Yeah, the end of the world doesn't scare me much. Our off-road- worthy bikes are always pepared for a quick escape, as is the Pleasure Palace van. :nerd
We both work, but we've kind of maneuvered our lives into a postion that allows fun trips. Being child-free makes it a lot easier :teeth It also helps that we are both on the same page when it comes to what we like to do in our spare time. The only discussion beforehand is in regards to whether it'll be the big bikes like on this trip, the plated dirtbikes for dirty dualsporting or the 2-strokes on trails :ride I refer to this as being well-rounded with diverse hobbies :laughing
What I do for a living doesn't really matter to me. It helps that I really enjoy my job, but it's only a means to an end, as my "real" life happens outside of work hours. Most important to me is time off and having enough money to ride my bikes. I'll never be rich with this attitude (well, maybe we would be if we quit riding...) and I have heard the whispers of "lack of ambition" and "wasted potential" in regards to how I live my life, but I don't think it's coincidence that I happen to be the happiest person I know
arty Yeah, we'll probably be living on aluminum cans when we get old, but we'll have a ton of good memories to feast on. Can't remember where I saw it, but I like the saying "When your life flashes before you, make sure you've got something good to watch."The pleasure was all mine, flying hun!
This was a long report and the photos weren't as good as some others I've done. Don't know what happened to the quality, but it could have something to do with me not knowing crap about my camera and not wearing my glasses when riding. I also had some issues when downloading them to the hosting sight. At any rate, I'd like to thank everyone for wading through the endless photos
You guys are tough!WoodsChick
slackmeyer
Well-known member
This was a long report and the photos weren't as good as some others I've done. Don't know what happened to the quality, but it could have something to do with me not knowing crap about my camera and not wearing my glasses when riding. I also had some issues when downloading them to the hosting sight. At any rate, I'd like to thank everyone for wading through the endless photos
WoodsChick
The beauty of the area really comes through though in your pictures- I always appreciate pictures that show a great trip, they don't need to be perfect masterpieces.
I probably missed this earlier on, but do you guys use maps, or gps, or homing pigeons or animal magnetism to roam around and find your way back at the end of the day or the end of the trip?
zak
(trying to figure out when I can head to nevada for 5 or so days of wandering around)
WoodsChick
I Don't Do GPS
Thanks for the kinds words, Zak.
I use maps and a decent sense of direction, mostly. I have a nice GPS, but I only drag it out if there is some question as to where we really are at any given moment. I bought this GPS a few years ago and tried to download maps to it. My computer didn't recognize the new hardware and I've not done anything with it since, I'm embarrassed to say:blush I'm pretty much a tech-tard but I know a lot more now than I did then so maybe I should give it another go? I dunno...I don't want to look at an electronic device when I'm out and about on the bikes, but it would be nice to get the most I can out of a pretty expensive device. At least I have a SPOT so someone will know where to find my rotting carcass :teeth
Oh, and I never, ever, ever leave home without my compass :thumbup
You're looking for 5 days? Central Nevada is pretty nice over Thanksgiving if you don't mind a little snow :teeth
WoodsChick
slackmeyer
Well-known member
I love to hear that people are still out there using a compass and map. Often the right tool for the job, IMHO (but then I have a degree in geography, so what would you expect).
I do like a nice frosting of snow, now you've got me thinking. . . .
I do like a nice frosting of snow, now you've got me thinking. . . .
jraice
Well-known member
Best job for a biker I would imagine would be teaching.
You arent going to be rich, but you'll live a decent life. If your any good, you have pretty decent job security. And you get 2-3 months off every summer plus some other 1-2 week vacations!
You arent going to be rich, but you'll live a decent life. If your any good, you have pretty decent job security. And you get 2-3 months off every summer plus some other 1-2 week vacations!
Thanks! It ain't Canada, but it's still pretty cool :cool
:laughing Yeah, the end of the world doesn't scare me much. Our off-road- worthy bikes are always pepared for a quick escape, as is the Pleasure Palace van. :nerd
We both work, but we've kind of maneuvered our lives into a postion that allows fun trips. Being child-free makes it a lot easier :teeth It also helps that we are both on the same page when it comes to what we like to do in our spare time. The only discussion beforehand is in regards to whether it'll be the big bikes like on this trip, the plated dirtbikes for dirty dualsporting or the 2-strokes on trails :ride I refer to this as being well-rounded with diverse hobbies :laughing
What I do for a living doesn't really matter to me. It helps that I really enjoy my job, but it's only a means to an end, as my "real" life happens outside of work hours. Most important to me is time off and having enough money to ride my bikes. I'll never be rich with this attitude (well, maybe we would be if we quit riding...) and I have heard the whispers of "lack of ambition" and "wasted potential" in regards to how I live my life, but I don't think it's coincidence that I happen to be the happiest person I know
The pleasure was all mine, flying hun!
This was a long report and the photos weren't as good as some others I've done. Don't know what happened to the quality, but it could have something to do with me not knowing crap about my camera and not wearing my glasses when riding. I also had some issues when downloading them to the hosting sight. At any rate, I'd like to thank everyone for wading through the endless photos
WoodsChick
WoodsChick
I Don't Do GPS
Oooh! Geography! That's neat-o! If I had to do it all over again I'd be a cartographer. I've got a dresser dedicated to maps in my office, can't get enough of `em!
As far as frosting goes, sometimes it gets spread a little thick...
and sometimes it's not frosting at all but icing...
It was about 18 degrees and windy that day, but it was beautiful!
Also, the compass and map never have dead batteries
I think it's foolish to rely solely on an electronic device when out and about in the big ol' scary world. I've smashed my speedos, enduro computers, steering dampers...what would happen if I smashed the GPS I was relying on? My compass has been pointing north for over 15 years :ride
OldFashionedChick
vogonistic
Member
Wow! Amazing pictures! I'm so excited to start heading out on adventures =) :thumbup