Eric and I headed out to Nevada for the Thanksgiving week, as we've done the last 3 years or so. This time we had several friends along. We spent Wednesday setting up camp, unloading bikes, cutting firewood and soaking in the hot springs. While cutting wood we saw some 2-track we'd never noticed before and we made plans to check it out later in the day. Turns out it led to some old abandoned mining roads that were all but forgotten now. Some of it was rather sweet! We were battling the setting sun and so I only got one shot off, and it was of my friend Steve (he's Shaggy the lurker here) on his `08 TE610... The next day was Thanksgiving and our friends Steve and Dan took their families (2 wives, 4 daughters and 1 son, all but one of them on their own bike ) on a mellow ride to see some of the local sights, while Eric and I set out to find...what else?... new hot springs It was a glorious day with a ton o' sun and a high temp of 40 degrees. Remnants of an abandoned ranch. Lots of that in Nevada... Oh boy! We thought there might be some geothermal activity on the edge of this dry lakebed so we plonked around looking for signs of water...and we found some! (probably hard to see, but I have a new pipe, new-to-me Renazco seat and a new tailsection ) Not exactly soakable, but it would do in a pinch. It was certainly hot enough, and there was a ton of it everywhere... We headed north through the valley and then west over the ridge, in search of more water, of course... We crested the ridge, dropped down the other side, and this is what we found... We followed it to the source... And bingo! We hit the jackpot! It was hotter than the hubs of hell, and we needed to get back to camp to help prepare our Thanksgiving feast, so we couldn't wait for it to cool down, but we toughed it out and got in anyway. We sat in the sunshine and ate lunch (crackers, cheese, mango, hot coffee and peppermint Joe-Joe's) all the while marveling at our good fortune...not only on this trip but also at life in general We lollygagged as long as we could, then had to high-tail it back to camp. We were about 90 miles away and had about an hour to get there. We were confident we could do it. And we would have, if Eric hadn't run out of gas...again. Does this scene look vaguely familiar to anyone? We were well within the "90 miles in one hour" window when Eric went on reserve. We slowed down while scanning the roadside for a bottle, and found one within minutes. We bombed on til he ran out then we stopped to transfer fuel from my red tanker to his thirsty KTM... While there on that lonely stretch of road I decided to pay homage to the ADV goddess Darth Peach... We made it back in time (194 miles total with no bike shorts...kudos to Renazco!!) to get our food together and sit down at the fireside tables to a fantabulous feast of deep-fried turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, 3 kinds of stuffing, green beans with bacon, cauliflower, brussells sprouts and carrots, cranberry-orange sauce with walnuts, dinner rolls, and several bottles of wine. For dessert we had warm pecan pie with fresh cream, pumpkin pie, egg nog spice cake, a raspberry tarte and 15-year-old scotch. We soaked the night away and went to bed full of gratitude for the life we live and the good friends that make it special. More to come... WoodsChick
Ha-ha...very funny Laugh all you want, but I love this bike! It suits my needs perfectly Thanks, Kelly! WoodsChick
As usual a fantastic write up craving more. Thanx Woodsie for sharing your adventure holidays with us. The hot springs do look inviting. I can just dream maybe someday the wife and I could join you. But for now I'll just show her your pictures and pretend it's not 14 F outside right now...
That's cold for living in every day! We got snow here yesterday and it's been all over the news. My pots of water for the cats were frozen this morning. Stop the presses! One morning while in NV Eric and I got in the hot springs before sun-up. It was 11 degrees out and the water was 110 You and your wife are welcome to come ride with us anytime and anywhere! WoodsChick
Friday morning saw us gearing up for a ride with our friends Steve, Dan and Stevie. Stevie had just gotten her motorcycle license, even though she's been riding dirtbikes forever, so we were keen to take her somewhere that involved riding through town and a stop for lunch. We headed up into the hills and blasted around on some old mining roads that are now open to mountain bikes and OHV. We hit a few dead ends along the way. This track, with Stevie coming towards me on her KTM400, took us to what felt like the edge of the world... Steve on his 610... Eric on top of the ridge... Stevie, me on my KTM 450, Steve and Dan at 9000'... Steve, me and Stevie... The ridgetop track we'd been riding. This thing was a ton o' fun, nothing but huge uphills and long downhills... Stevie... Let's play Erzburg! Whoa...maybe not... It's a hell of a lot steeper once you're on top of it... Husky love... Stevie and Steve... Stevie on some fun stuff... Dan, me, Steve and Stevie at the castle... Dan, Eric, Steve and Stevie... Ahh...lunchtime... The special of the day was turkey sandwiches. We opted for pizza. Eric, Dan, Steve and Stevie... We topped off with gas on our way out of town. We wanted to see what sort of mileage we were all getting, as we had a 200-mile'r planned for the next day. We ended up getting back after dark. Stevie's headlight was out so she stuck to my tail and I was able to guide her home with my wimpy headlight, which just happened to be the best headlight of the bunch We were frozen when we got back, and we made a beeline for the hot springs. We raced across the moonlit sand in our swimsuits to the water's edge, only to stand there in the 26-degree weather, staring in disbelief at the 4" of very clean 130-degree water swirling about in the bottom. It seems as though Stevie's brother Joe had taken it upon himself to clean out the hotsprings so that it would be nice and clean for us when we got back. It had taken him all day. Arrrgh!! I wanted to kill him, even though I knew in my heart he was trying to do something nice for us. His niceness wasn't making me any warmer at the moment, though. He did produce a blazing hot display of pyrotechnic finery in the fire ring, though, so all was not lost. He was allowed to live long enough to ride with us the next day. We grabbed the scotch and sat by the fire, warming ourselves up the old-fashioned way And another great day in the desert goes into the memory bank! More to come... WoodsChick
Nice RR Woods. I wish my little lady would take to biking and trips, but alas, a home gal she will remain. It's OK, I have my kids that I share the dirt trails with. MORE! MORE! MORE!
Thanks, Gary Lots of guys wish that their gals would ride with them, but there are some advantages to having them at camp keeping the home fires burning. Our friends always return to warm trailers, hot food, a campfire, and someone to help them take care of injuries, put away all the nasty gear, etc.They always have someone in camp worrying about them, and someone that will come looking for them should their ride go south. They also wake up to magically clean gear, full camelbak bladders and packed lunches. Eric and I return to a cold camp and then we have to scramble to take care of all that stuff ourselves. Calls to mind the time I was washing my bike in front of the house after a particularly muddy enduro. A man walked by and, totally misreading the situation, said, "Wow...I wish I had a wife to wash my bike after a weekend of riding!" I looked him in the eye, smiled, and said "Me, too!" WoodsChick
I always enjoy your ride reports. Sounds like another fun trip. Only thing is I think you need to get your husband a supersize gas tank so he can haul extra gas for you.
Thanks, jckid! His tank is exactly the same size as mine! 5 gallons! Criminy, how much more does a person need on a regular ride? He messes with his jetting all the time, as his motto is "it can always be better." Thus, it was jetted for a different elevation and he was using more fuel than he should have. He rejetted it back at camp and we had no issues with it on our last day, which was almost 200 miles. WoodsChick
Hm-m-m. Sounds like your friends have it made. I wish I had it that good. You and Eric don't really seem to suffer too badly on your camping excursions. Tim H
OK, let's wrap this up, shall we? Our last day of riding was Saturday. Eric and I got up before sunrise and sprinted out to the now-full hot springs. It was 11 degrees out and the water was a blistering 110 degrees. As the sun rose above the ridge, it became apparent that our sunny skies had gone somewhere else for the day and we were left with ominous black clouds trying to shove their way over the ridge to west. There had been some precipitation overnight and some of the peaks had a light dusting of snow. It figures, as this was the day we were planning a 200-mile scenic tour with Stevie and her younger brother Joe. We'd been riding in $40 insulated windproof waterproof snowboard pants (best $40 ever spent for winter riding) and we both had extra pairs so we lent them out, along with Eric's other Belstaff jacket. We brought all our cold-weather gloves, and I shoved my windproof fleece vest down into my backpack...just in case. I've learned that when riding in extreme conditions it always gives me a mental advantage to know that I always have something in reserve. Anyway, we pulled out of camp about 9:45am, almost an hour later than I had hoped, yet still earlier than I had feared It was Eric, Dan, Steve, Stevie, Joe on my KTM 450 and me on my SM610. We headed south through the valley on a seldom-used powerline road for about 10 miles and then headed west through the sagebrush. We warmed up rather quickly in the constantly-changing terrain. We headed up through the pass and it got very cold very quickly. We'd stop every now and again to make sure Stevie and Joe were OK. They weren't used to these long cold rides, and I wanted to make sure it was a pleasant experience for both of them. Didn't take too many photos, as I didn't want to take my gloves off to man the camera. Dan started experiencing problems with his WR (I think the timing kept getting out of kilter, as if the chain was skipping teeth or something) and he bailed about 30 miles into the ride. He rode back by himself at his own insistence and he had no problems. We felt bad for him, but we were also saying things like "Damn, we're freezing our butts off and Dan is probably luxuriating in the hot springs right now...jerk!" Anyway, we rerouted a few times due to the weather ("Hey, it looks sunny over that ridge, let's head in that direction!" "OK!") and ended up in beautiful downtown Ione. The sun was shining, but the wind was howling down the road and we'd been seeing snow flurries for the last several miles before coming into town... I spotted some benches in the sun and thought they might be a nice place to thaw out... The benches were way too windy, so we sought shelter behind the local assayer office which is the only viable business left in Ione. We took turns holding the hot cup of coffee from our thermos. It was Stevie's turn, flanked by her brother Joe and Eric... The sun was glorious and we decided to sit a spell. It was Steve's turn to hold the cup... We sat there way longer than we had intended, but the sun and shelter was good for the soul. We were only 80 miles from camp and we had another 100+ to go if we were going to continue on our planned route. We decided to hit our first stop and then reassess the time, weather, gas situation, morale, etc. We rode into the town of Berlin and half expected to see the local deputy peeking through a window curtain as tumbleweeds rolled across the dusty main street... Of course, that didn't happen, as no one lives there anymore. It's a cool little ghost town, though. Stevie said it was freezing and wore her neck gaiter on her head like a hat... I checked our extremely accurate digital thermometer and it said an even 33 degrees in the sun so I told she was exaggerating Lots of cool stuff in town. This car still has rubber on the rear wheels, although is hard as a rock... Eric looking cool as ever... I didn't get a lot of photos of the town, but here are a few from a previous ride... We headed down the road to see the Icthyosaur fossils. We peered at the bones amid swirling snow flurries and then decided to hightail it back to camp... We took the shortest route possible, and it included a bit of pavement riding as well. It was a long cold bomb run back to camp, over 100 miles, and it was cold as all get out. It also came to an end long after dark, my Husky SM610 once again providing a beacon in the night for the other lost souls on our ride. Only one of my grip heaters was working and my throttle hand was not happy. I know Joe had to be cold because he was on my KTM with no grip heaters at all. Also, we're used to these long rides (and were dressed considerably warmer than they were) which can sometimes border on the miserable, but we're always able to find the humor and adventure tucked in snugly amongst the misery. We weren't sure if Joe and Stevie would be as open-minded about the situation, but they were absolutely great. Not one word of complaint, not one instance of "Are we almost there yet?" and nothing but a positive "thumbs up" whenever we would stop and ask them how they were doing. They had smiles on their faces every time we stopped, and they always said. "Nope! We're good!" every time I asked them if they were freezing. We really enjoyed having them along and I hope we've planted the seed of wanderlust in them, as it would be great to have them along on some of our future adventures We soaked into the night, talking about what a great time we'd all had, and we wondered if we'd ever be able to top this Thanksgiving trip. I think we're certainly going to try next year. Thanks for coming along with me. I hope you enjoyed the trip! WoodsChick
Dood!! Way cool to see you here! Man, you've got it better than anyone I know because you're married to WonderWoman! Seriously, folks, Tim here is married to one hell of a woman that knows how to take care of her hard-riding family. If I die any time in the near future I wanna come back as one of Tim and Theresa's kids Barring that, I'd take either one of them on as an extra wife or husband And yeah, we don't suffer too badly. We've been known to get taken care of very well on occasion WoodsChick
Now that was a really entertaining read. So different to what we experience down under. Thank you for sharing this with us. The pictures were also great. I have this picture of you guys lounging with your bellies full in the hot springs with a neat scotch in hand. Now that is doing it tough. The SM really looks quite suited to that terrain. Are you doing a Christmas shoot now-I wait with baited breath?
Noticed it immediately The best “upgrade” look wise; the bike looks so much meaner Thanks for taking us along for the ride
Awesome. Something about a group of friend's just hooking up together and going on a trip. Enjoying things together. Thank's for sharing.
