Death Valley 2015

The plan would be putting the bikes on my brother's motorcycle trailer and pulling it with their minivan. We removed all the seats so we could fill it with our gear and fill it we did! Tools, food, camping stuff, clothes – you name it, we took it. We also took 20 gallons of gas bought when gas was cheap here in Spokane, and some firewood. We'd meet up with the rest of the guys down in Colfax and take two days to drive down to Death Valley, spend four days riding, then two days driving back home.

Saturday - February 28, 2015

We thought about spending Friday night at Greg's in Colfax to get an early start, but Dave and I elected to drive down Saturday morning. So Friday afternoon we got the bikes and gear loaded. At 5am Saturady morning, Dave picked me up and off we went to Colfax where we met the guys – eventually. They were late. What I didn't know is that Roger Zaring wouldn't be joining us, but two other guys, Mike "Oh Great One" Largent and Dave Enos would. So once we all got together we took off, with Greg and Grant in the lead. From Colfax we headed southwest through Walla Walla, then connecting to I-84, went through La Grande, Ontario, and then a detour through Caldwell to get Greg's trailer tire fixed and buy fork seals for Dave's bike. Dave discovered that both were leaking earlier in the day. We got back on the road and via Highway 95 headed south through Winnemucca where we stopped for dinner at "The Pig" on our way to click to enlarge Fallon, Nevada arriving around 9pm or so. We had a good day's drive and were looking forward to getting to Death Valley the next day.

Sunday - March 1, 2015

We got up bright an early and walked over to Jerry's a local breakfast place for something to eat. After that we got on the road and headed down 95 to Beatty, Nevada which is 30 miles east of the Park. We arrived in the park at Stovepipe Wells about 2pm, got our sites picked out and camp set up. click to enlarge Got all the bikes unloaded and prepped for the first day's ride. One sour note was that we were unable to replace the fork seals on Dave's bike today so this would have to be fixed on Monday. After a bit of online looking at the hotel, Dave decided to drive into Las Vegas Monday to get them fixed professionally. The peace of mind this would give him was worth the loss of one day's riding. There was no cell service at all in Stovepipe Wells. There was a little bit of wifi at the hotel, but it was iffy. So we were effectively cut off from talking to our families while at the camp.

The west coast guys finally arrived around 9pm or so after some electrical troubles. By "troubles" I mean that the RV's electrics, including lights, cut out completely while on the road. At night. Anyways, there were four of them: Rob Newman, Dana Pieze, Mike Clough, and Jeff Oney. Respectively, their bikes are: KTM 690, KTM 350, KTM 500, Kawasaki KLX 250. The RV and trailer are Dana's and that trailer was really nice – about 22 feet long and had everything in it including a couple of bicycles. They were so pumped that Rob, Dana, and Mike went for a night ride. Hopefully they didn't make any enemies doing so that late at night. Dave and I had gone to dinner at the restaurant to try and plan out our work on his bike. After the guys took off for their night ride, we headed to bed.

< Previous

Next >

Page 2 of 12