The New Year has arrived and its time for Vegashotwheeler's aka 'Mike's' annual New Years Death Valley ride!
This year the ride is held on January 2nd, a Saturday.
After the debacle of my last ride for the Christmas party in Vegas, I'm going to trailer down....ohhhhhhhh how it pains me so to admit that!
Unfortunately, Mike has a co-worker who becomes ill, requiring him to cover the co-workers shift and he can't attend the ride. Several other riders catch the bug du jour and also have to back out of the event.
Bummer!
The NYDV ride is actually two rides; the dirt ride, and the pavement edition.
There were five dirt riders, I didn't get any pictures of them.
Four riders show up for the pavement version.
l to r
Your's truly, Steve aka DesertDweller, Brian aka HHH, and I can't remember the guys name on the Harley.
Mike, good host that he is, shows up to see us off and snaps this picture.
About 20 miles down the road the Harley turned around and left us.
It was a cold morning.
(Photo courtesy Mike aka Vegashotwheeler)
Mike changes the route every year, but one constant is we eat breakfast at the World Famous Crowbar saloon.
We stop at Dante's overlook which is over 5000 ft above the Badwater basin that I'm pointing at behind me. Bad Water basin is 282 ft below sea level.
These guys from India brought their own entertainment. They played and sang for awhile, then the guitar player handed me the guitar....!
For the life of me I could not think of any song to play, so I just stumbled through some chords for a few minutes and then handed it back.
I just HATE performance anxiety!
I just HATE performance anxiety!
Your's truly, Steve, Brian.
We leave Dante's overlook and ride to Bad Water Basin, now I'm pointing back up to where we were a few minutes ago, Dante's overlook. The elevation difference is about a mile and 1/4.
If you look closely you can see the sign that indicates sea level.
If you look closely you can see the sign that indicates sea level.
Steve says, 'it is not recommended to not recommend motorcycles.'
He and Brian could easily do triple digits on this 'not recommended' road.
And I could easily watch...
We next ride to Artists Palette.
Some famous people hang out here....
Day 2
My brake light is stuck on, Steve has the tools and knowledge to help me fix it.
My brake light is stuck on, Steve has the tools and knowledge to help me fix it.
This is his cool honda CT 110.
He and 4 others on CTs plus one 'Monkey' bike rode a 1640 mile adventure up the California coast.
Check out the excellent ride report about their experience here;
Check out the excellent ride report about their experience here;
http://www.my2wheels.com/forum/showthread.php?13297-5-CT110-1-Monkey-West-Coast-Ride
After the brake light is fixed I follow Steve to see the ghost town of Nelson Nevada.
Sooooooooooo much to see!
Sooooooooooo much to see!
DesertDweller rides a Hog!
I've been to Vegas a million times and never even heard of this ghost town, so I'm thankful Steve showed it to me!
We ride back to Vegas in the fading light.
Tomorrow I'll ride to Salvation Mt.
2 comments:
What a cool ghost town.
As we grow older we realize there is no shame trailering a bike to a destination. It takes less time and you aren't exhausted when you get there. Makes for a more enjoyable ride in the following days.
Looking forward to the next post.
Tro - I didn't miss the 6 hour COLD ride to St George (where is starts to get warm) that's for certain. I still hate putting the bike on a trailer...
I hope you guys are getting enough moisture, but still have decent weather.
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