LA - Barstow to Vegas DS Ride

Greg (07 TE 510) & I (08 TE 450 ) accounted for two of the 8 Husky's in the AMA D37
LA to Vegas DS ride this weekend:



So a couple of months ago my buddy Greg calls me and proposes running the LA to Vegas Dual Sport ride Thanksgiving weekend. Now in all honesty I wasn’t too interested; after all, what fun is riding all the way to Vegas on power line roads? A dual sport ride conjured visions of “Adventure Bikes” all decked out with heated hand-grips & oversized panniers riding countless miles of washboard roads…

I’m not THAT old!

After doing a bit of reading on the District site, and realizing that it was the 25th annual run however, I figured what the hell. It’s got to be better than eating Turkey with the in-laws…

Another buddy, Rod was planning on attending with a friend as well. We had loosely planned on joining forces, but in the end decided to keep it two separate groups of two.

So enough with the set-up, here’s some pictures:

Here’s Greg loading up his roll-chart for day #1, this thing was nearly a mile long and hardly even fit in his chart thingy. Neither one of us had ever used one of these before (and we still haven’t):



We took off just after sunrise and it didn’t take long to get off the pavement and into some dirt. With the recent rains the conditions were perfect. No less than an hour into day 1 and Greg takes a wide turn , nearly takes himself out on those damn aquduct concrete ribs (what the well are those things for anyway) and puts about a 2” crack in his helmet! Luckily his head absorbed the blow so no damage done:



After hopping around on various dirt roads and double-track we take our first “hero loop” option of the trip.

(Allow me to explain – there are basically 2 different primary routes for this trip. One option is the “Adventure Bike” route (remember those heated hand grips) for the larger bikes. The other option is the “Regular Route” with two optional “Hero Loops” each day. These loops add mileage and spicier terrain to the “regular route”. Other various “bail outs” exist along the Regular Route which allow you to shave off miles to save time…)

This hero loop took us up into the hills above Jawbone for some killer singletrack in the tress & a nice hill climb.

Here’s Greg on the way to the “hard stuff” (anyone else notice a pattern here?):



The hill climb had already claimed plenty of victims by the time we got there. I completely ran out of skill on my 1st attempt and had to make another go at it.

Here’s the only picture of Rod I got on the entire ride cleaning the hill:



Greg:



OK, Greg’s not the only victim:



Over the hill and off to the Jawbone Store for gas:





Complete cluster-****:



After gas we headed across the highway and towards the El Pasos:





After some fun stuff, it was off to Joanesberg and lunch hosted by the Orange County Dullies:



Now, we didn’t waste a bunch of time shoving cow into our face-holes, but apparently we wasted too much. By the time we finished and headed back out to the 2nd (and final) Hero Loop of the day, we were stopped by race (oops, I mean ride) officials and told we had missed the cut-off by an hour.

Bummer! We wouldn’t have enough time to ride the hero loop and make it to Barstow before dark.

Now normally, being on DS bikes, this wouldn’t be an issue, but at some point along the way my Husky suffered a fatal electrical problem and I lost all of my electrical doo-dads. My computer & lights were done!

So dejected, Greg & I left to continue on to Barstow via the Regular Route.

Unfortunately, (completely unintentionally), Greg and I became very temporarily confused and ended up ON the Hero Loop (what are the chances?). At first we were scared, worried, and frankly ready to lay down and die, until we realized we were on some of the best desert single track EVER!

Now, I didn’t get any pictures in this area because we were either too busy grinning or trying to pull our poo-butts off of Gil’s hill-climb (who happened to be watching us struggle from above). After clawing, cheating & steeling our way to the top of the toughest obstical of the trip, we took a few minutes to catch our breath and shoot the shit with Gil. Apparently this loop was his baby - he took a lot of time laying it out and IT SHOWED!

Two words: Kick ass!

Unfortunately, not more than 5 minutes after biding Gil adieu, I completely spodded out and launched my bike over a bush. Fortunately he was there to wipe my butt :bonk:

The rest off Gil’s loop was again, some of the best desert ST I’ve been on, unfortunately the day was waning on and the sun was well on it’s way to setting by the time we got to the Husky:



We didn’t make it into Barstow until 90 minutes after “oh shit, I can’t see”. I alternated between taking off my goggles and going blind from sand and putting them on and going blind from the tinted lenses. Greg and I rode the last 30 minutes side by side using his 3 candle power headlight until we finally hit Barstow.

I’ve never been so happy to see street lights in my life.

A few bikes locked up at the “Quality” Inn:



After a steak & salad bar at the Sizzler, Greg & I cruised Barstow for nightlife. A few beers and a glass of Scotch later, we settled in for an early start in the AM.

Day #2 coming up… :ride:

So day two started the same way day one ended, my Husky didn’t want to start. I had diagnosed a faulty decompression cam about three days before we left for the trip (too late to day anything about it), so I prayed the manual decomp lever would do.

After a few push starts at the Ramada and a tip from a fellow District Racer the night before, I thought I had it licked, but Saturday morning didn’t get going without a push start from Greg. Ruh-roh!

Again, not too many pictures on day #2, Greg & I were too busy hauling ass! Aside from the “Critical Habitat Areas” where we were limited to 30MPH, Greg & I were flying. No one was going to turn us away from the Hero Loops today!

The beginning of day one started with MILES of gnarly, oatmeal-thick sand washes. RELENTLESS! Bodies everywhere!

The sand wash finally ended with what is best described as a swamp. Again, bodies everywhere mired swing-arm & knee deep in stinky horseshit mud & razor grass. After navigating the swamp was day two’s photo op at the
“water hole”:





My EFI bike aced it, Greg’s carbureted bike (and about 50 others) didn’t fare so well:



Soon after the waterhole was hero loop #1 which basically consisted of about 200 deep sand whoops and 1 hill (which Greg smoked and I, well, I didn’t…)

Greg did however eat shit right here:



After various this, that and the other we pulled into Sandy Valley, a quant little town somewhere in BFN. We had to gas up and rinse the bikes so as not co carry any buttweed into Redrock:



After shoving more cow into our pie-bitters we headed off towards Hero Loop #2, Red Rock & Vegas.

My only regret of the ride wasn’t stopping to take more pictures, Red Rock was possibly the most beautiful place I’ve ridden through. In a word, stunning! Here’s a pic of me after cresting the range:



A bit of a bottleneck at a rocky section:



Unfortunately , this is the last picture I got until we got to Vegas. I’ve ridden with Walt too much and as a result only get the camera out when someone goes down (sorry Greg! :devil: ). We pulled into Vegas with plenty off time left to shower off, soak in the hot tub & drink myself into a coma before the banquet that night:





In conclusion, if I had to sum this ride up in one word, it would be: EPIC!

I was sorely mistaken about what a district dual sport ride really was, it was more like a two day, 480 mile Hare & Hound than it was a “powerline road slog”. My hat is off to everyone at the District that put this ride together, I will never forget it!

Greg, thanks for the inspiration, the great ride & for navigating the entire trip.

Rod, sorry we didn’t get to ride together more but it was cool having you out there nonetheless.

When the 26th annual LA-B-V comes around, just do it! You will not regret it!

very cool likes like a great time, who organizes the event?

District 37 of the AMA:

http://www.district37ama.org/

Great job with the write up. Really brought the event to life. The date never works out for me, but maybe someday.

This is an event you definitely want to “schedule in” if at all possible.

It can no longer be a race due to the BLM permitting process. There were two sections deemed “critical habitat areas” that had a max speed of 30MPH; maybe 30 miles both days +/-. Other than that, we kept a pretty good clip – our max speed was 80 and I’d guess our average (not counting the critical habitat areas) was around 50.

All you need is a few like-minded friends and you can make it a race

Thanks for the pics/trip back in time.

Gambling with blisters oh yeah

'88-89 wasn't that long ago

NS, I enjoyed your report very much, thanks for sharing! I too had misconceptions about DS rides and didn’t want to do them initially, thought they would be lame and boring. They are no cake walk though, especially the hero sections.

I agree - never buy a used bike from Greg!!