Searching For New Stuff In The Same Old Desert

We left the glass house heading south out of the valley on our way to the Military Wagon Road. Lots of natural springs in this valley...

Always smart to build your house next to a springs...



This little guy surprised me in the tall wet grass under the trees...

We looked for a shortcut back to the military road, and this looked like it would do nicely...

Singletrack, much like love, is where you find it...

This track looked like it would take us where we wanted to go, and it would be interesting even if it didn't...

We found an entrance to the military road and headed up into the hills, taking one last look at the incredibly beautiful valley we were leaving behind...

The road was much more primitive than we expected, much more so that the stretch we'd ridden the day prior, which was a nice change from the high-speed track we'd just gotten off of in the valley. The rocky road took us up and over the ridge and deposited us here...lucky us!

Eric found a BLM marker in the grass...
Huh...that's odd. Our map says Mud Lake. They must've changed the name of the lake sometime in the last 52 years. I mean, that's the only plausible explanation...right?

We parked the bikes and took a quick dip...

These little lovelies were everywhere...

Up and over yet another ridge...

This stuff never gets old...

Eric's always said I live with my head in the clouds...

No caption needed...

Antelope everywhere...

Woah.... glad everything turned out ok!

So after pretty much picking our way over the ridge and doing some fairly intense route-finding, we dropped down through a pretty rocky track only to find this gem waiting for us on the other side...



It looked kind of muddy, but it was lovely! We cruised to the south end of the lake...








I was all proud of my fence-tying job...obviously :laughing





We didn't see a sign, but we looked around for the ever-present BLM marker and guess what?



Hah! Yep, we were at Mud Lake. Man, we were way off! That doesn't happen very often, fortunately. A little further down the road we saw the sign...




There was no water in Horsehead Lake...





We tried to follow this track over the rock-strewn ridge but it was quickly disappearing...





Where we had just come from. Can you see our tracks? I can't either...





Map check complete, it was time to pull out the GPS...a very rare occurrence.. to check coordinates...





Yep, just as we suspected, we were right on track. Don't ask why my bike is parked perpendicular to the road at the bottom...


(Note to self: get beefier foot peg mount bolts and a new mirror...)




We bombed back to base camp as fast as we could once we reached a fairly "bomb-able" road and settled in for the evening. On the agenda: A fire and bar-b-que...



...hanging with the drunken pilots that greet us each year here...



...and watching the full moon dance across the sky with the clouds...



While hanging at the fire that night with the drunken pilots we saw 2 riders pull in fairly late. Ray was on his F800 and "Racy" Lacy was on her BMW G650X. They set up camp and joined us at the fire. Seems they were up for a bit of adventure so we all decided to head over Domingo Pass in the morning and boogie out to Fields for a burger and shake.

It poured all night, complete with tons of lightning and thunder.
Adventure, indeed...




WoodsChick

Yeah, we made it to Hart. Love it out there! Love the Sheldon NWR, too.
There's gas in Plush, Adel and Fields.
You can still get gas in French Glen if you get there before the store closes. Denio Junction will have gas soon, they're just in the process of replacing tanks or something.

The rain raged all night. Thunder, lightning and crazy winds accompanied the rain. I wouldn't have been surprised if Ray and Lacy had decided to go their own way on pavement, but they were having none of that. They were ready before we were...


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It started raining soon after we left. I don't mind riding in the rain but just sitting in it while waiting is kind of a drag...

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It was ok, though, because the sky was really cool...


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Ray and Lacy coming up the hill...


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The cause for the delay soon became apparent...

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Lacy went down in a really slippery section a few miles back, but she still had a smile on her face. In fact, they both pretty much smiled the whole day, in spite of some, um, challenges. She was ready for more. Good thing...


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We climbed up the backside of Domingo Pass...


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It was cold and windy at the top, but at least it was dry...


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Lacy was still having fun...


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Down the other side and across the valley...






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Things were getting slipperier and slipperier the further down into the valley we went. Lacy hit the ground a few times but I rode behind her and we managed to get the bike righted with no issues. The mud, though, began to change. It was turning into the kind of mud you couldn't even walk in...super clumpy and slippery and the kind of stuff that eventually stops your wheels from turning. You know, like this...


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Now, I had full-on knobbies on my 610, my bike was lighter and shorter, and I had way more experience and skill than Ray and Lacy, and I was having a hard time remaining upright in the snotty stuff. Lacy and Ray had Heidenau K60's on their bikes, and that F800 was an absolute bear in the dirt! It was almost impossible to keep the wheels rolling and when it was rolling it was impossible to keep it going in a straight line. It also kept getting heavier and heavier every time it hit the ground. His boxes took a beating. Anyway, it was a struggle and we were out there for a looong time. I had plenty of time to capture the carnage. This shot cracks me up...love my front wheel!

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I finally got some good traction and blasted out of there, leaving the three of them behind, but I walked back to help with the big bikes. This was pretty much the routine for awhile...

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At least I was able to fling most of the nasty stuff off...




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It was nice to know we were home free once we all got through that crap back there. It was nice to wick it up a little bit and clean the knobs out...



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Heh...not so fast... The mud got worse than it was before and we struggled with that F800 for awhile. We had to dig the mud out from under the low fender because the front wheel was not turning at all. Good thinking, BMW...


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Lacy still smiling...

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Look! No more hard boxes!


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More muddy mayhem on the way...

Well, at least those boxes were good for something...









Lacy's wheel...




This is after chunking off as much mud as we could...



At least the sun was shining now!




You know, it was a lot of hard work to get those bikes through the mud. I know, I know...it doesn't look that bad, as it wasn't deep or anything, but it was a mess and a struggle. We'd never met Ray and Lacy before, and there was major potential for things to go bad in regards to attitudes and such, but those guys were great! Lacy laughed through the whole thing, even though she was beyond her comfort zone, and Ray was absolutely spent by the time he sat down on his broken box. Seriously, he was finished. He never lost his sense of humor, though! Don't know that I'd want to do it again anytime soon, but we had a blast!




We'd worked up a huge appetite and were really looking forward to a famous Fields burger. We railed all the way out to the main road...





And then left a trail of mud all the way into Fields Station...




We'd left camp fairly early in the morning. We got to Fields Station at 4:05pm. They stopped serving burgers at 4pm. Arrrgghhh!
Stunningly bad news, but at least we got milkshakes. Ray and Lacy had a long way to go so they washed most of the mud off their bikes with the hose at the station. They headed east to continue the route they were on when we met them the night before. Eric and I headed south towards base camp, with a detour along the way...






After the hectic day we'd had, it was really nice to decompress in this most beautiful meadow. The only sounds we heard were the birds, and the breeze had an incredibly sweet freshness to it...








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My everything...














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After lolling in the grass and soaking up the peaceful wonderfulness of the late afternoon, we made tracks for camp. There was a really cool thing happening in the early evening sky and I didn't want to miss it

Thanks, you guys!

You and Eric rule. Awesome report. The mud made it even more fun to read about and see the pix. Love it. Its how you handle yourself in adverse situations that say a lot about who you are, sounds like you met some real good peeps.

Yeah, you're right about the vino!

Sorry to have disappeared before finishing this report, folks. I wanted to resume tonight but I am mentally exhausted. I usually like to do at least one post per day, but life has gotten in the way, unfortunately I'll get back to it tomorrow!

So, on to the ride report...Sorry for the delay!

We left the calm peacefulness of the meadow and headed back to base camp. It was important to me to be there before nightfall, which is always a rare occurrence. Why so important, you ask? Well, I wanted to see the rare celestial show in the early evening sky. There was to be a triple conjunction with Venus, the 3rd brightest celestial body in the sky (only behind the sun and moon) next to Jupiter, 4th brightest, and seldom-seen Mercury rounding out the show. They were to be within 3 degrees of each other! It hadn't happened in 2 years and wouldn't happen again til late 2015. We ate a quick dinner and jumped in the hot springs to await the celestial show. At first it wasn't very bright, but the 3 planets were the first things to show up in the early evening sky. Mercury on the upper right, Jupiter to the left, Venus on the lower right...





As the evening wore on it only got more spectacular. We were blessed with clear skies, which was great since we'd been under clouds and rain all day.
Just before the trio dipped below the horizon I spied Saturn in the eastern sky!
Pretty cool that I was able to see 4 of the 5 visible plantets in one evening with my naked eye. Aren't they beautiful?





We were pretty beat from the long day but were reluctant to hit the sack and close out such a beautiful night. We toasted the stars with a bottle of wine and made the most of the special night.





It wasn't long before the sun was rising again, beckoning us to to hit the trail once again. It would be our last day and we were ready...








It was Memorial Day and I wanted to pay my respects to our downed pilots.
It was raining but it was no big deal as we only had ourselves to worry about...





Our road can be seen heading up the hill through the spring...





We left the bottle at the plaque after toasting them...





And after fixing their flags...








And then we hit the road...