I am a ghost, this is a dream, something is here...it calls to me.

Wow.

Wow, that's so cool!


Hi LB! sorry I'm late...my stupid ride gets bogged down in the rain...

:dllama


(Guess I enjoyed my ADV break a little too much...)
Now I'll put on my mittens and get a cup of coffee so I can enjoy your report.


Pics look great - are you happy with the new camera??

Yippeee!!! You're back!!


Yeah, I'm really happy with this little camera. That's a gif of the stills I took of the jet. I should make it a little bigger so you can see the inverted flying into the roll he did.

More please

It's a couple of days before Thanksgiving and I'm going to have hens for the next couple of nights.




Free beer while I get the oil going.




Oh boy, this is going to be tasty!!




Mmmmm...




I went next door and Becca introduced me to the rest of the gang. There was Tristan, Betty and Natasia, they're the ones in the video at the beginning of the report..sand boarding. Betty wiped out in the video when she hit the flat at about 40 miles per hour. Miles is a geologist and has a band, we had a lot to talk about. I'll use one of his songs later...he does surf music and lives on the beach in San Diego, he has opened for the great Dick Dale before. It was another most excellent evening.

Larryboy
You are a true ADV soldier or maybe just crazy . Were you using any heated clothing? And is there gas in Gold point? Oh yeah your making me hungry with all that food. Great report, thanks for posting.

As you know my friend, I am crazy...no heated gear and the rain gear was too bulky to take with me. No gas in Gold Point, a desperate person could probably get somebody to sell them some, but I wouldn't count on that.

Gotta run...

Great report, LarryBoy. Heard your bike roll by in the AM and grabbed my camera as I was saying, "oh, mannnnn". I have two pics of you leaving Saline and heading to Panamint at about 8 or 9ish in the morning on Thanksgiving day. You came in via Steel Pass and I was camped in lower camp. I soaked on Fri to find three guys who told me you hung out up there and they had a nice talking with you in the volcano. I will post that pic to your thread tomorrow.



Sorry I missed ya and glad you had a good one. I know I did.

SS

Great stuff Larry Boy.

Wow. Love the report and have enjoyed your other RR's too. Its "minus" something outside here (-40 couple days ago) so the temps you had on the ride were warm by my standard.
Still, camping out in the 20's is hard core, not many do that. You'd fit in well up here. Crazy is required.

Better late than never, just caught up, Great as usual.

That second ride over Monitor must have been great with no traffic. Was it easier to start BRP after seeing the cat tracks.:eek1

That'd be great to see some pics of me!! Yeah, I always stay at the upper springs since I usually come in that way. I've got a 'Super Suz' for later in the report and that's all I'm going to say right now about that.

We just got home and Megan came out in the garage squealing that you had posted!!! She thinks you're Super Kewl and you are!!!

Thanks, Cesar!!

There were some pretty tough days and I'm glad I found a cabin here and there. Not as cold as the northlands, but cold enough for me.

I still couldn't bring myself to use up both lanes since I wasn't sure that DOT was done up there or not, but it was fun. Yeah, I got a good bump start and got out of there before a cat ate me.


Glad to have you all here.

I hung out around the campfire next door and got plenty of brews. Miles advised me early on to NOT try to keep up with Becca as she can drink us all under the table.

I had a pretty rough night since my insulated air mattress went flat and it was about 16 degrees. I didn't sleep at all, in the morning Dave and Melanie on the other side of my camp told me that it got down to 20 degrees in their tent and they had two people in there. Dave had told me about petroglyphs in the Steel Pass area, he was planning to go see them and showed me on the map about where they were supposed to be. That gives me something to do today since I'm making today a short day, no choice really as I don't have enough fuel range to goof around much more.

I helped Tristan get his Bronco going...second time I've worked on an old Bronc here at the dunes. I found a bad positive cable and we fixed it by pulling it out of the clamp and using a hose clamp to hold it to the post.

Everybody I had just met had grand plans of going over Steel Pass, but I don't think anybody did except me. I'm getting a cold weather starting routine figured out...wide open throttle, compression release pulled, five sharp kicks and pop the comp lever on the fifth..do that twice, then do the normal XRR starting routine about six times. Let's ride...










I found where I figured the 'glyphs should be and went for a hike.




I got to a waterfall that looked like a good place to break my neck and turned back thinking maybe I had missed them.




Ahhhaaaa, I found them. I see a story in them that might not be seen if you didn't go the wrong way like I did. The story in my mind...

You'll need a ladder to go down here:




Take a friend:




If you go without a ladder, you'll be trapped like in a prison:




If you sing this note there will be an echo:




There might be scorpions:




Or snakes:




Only go into the canyon if the sun is shining:




I'm not going to tell you where this is, but if the view looks like this..you're in the right place:

I went on up to the pass.




Stopped at the marble tub. I heard there is the other original one that is in wilderness now and has to be hiked to since we can't drive or ride to it any longer. I'll look for it some other time.




Back into the Saline Valley.






Let's see, I think it's the Tuesday before Turkey Day...yeah, that sounds right. Early afternoon and it's quiet around camp. Evidently I'm enough of a nudist now to go and get an outdoor shower.




I spent the rest of the day soaking and reading the book I got from the Stateline Cabin.

Better than a cup of coffee to get you going. Time for an Edelbrock?

Great stuff amigo. You already have me making plans for when I get home.

It's the only cardio I get, I should just leave it alone I think. I'm thinking of putting the choke plate back in that everybody takes out on the XRR.

Thanks, Vin.

I forgot to mention earlier that the GPS croaked back at the Last Chance Spring. It freaked out and started doing strange things, I pulled the fuse just in case the problem was with the bike. It's actually dead now that I'm back home and can test it. I was right around 1800 miles for the trip when it died. I've talked to Garmin and can exchange it for a refurb for $170. I'm going to do that as I'm thinking of selling the XRR and the GPS is the speedometer.


It was about time to get dinner started, one meal a day most of the time.






I'm just a little bummed that none of my new friends had come over Steel Pass, but it's hard to be down in a place like this.




The finest hen I've ever made in the desert.

I got up super early for a soak. That usually works for peace and quiet, but there was a group that had been up all night on shrooms and acid...kind of funny for about 2 minutes, then they sound like a bunch of idiots. It sure did make the rest of the day nice when they finally crashed.

There were a ton of newbs and some retard kept cleaning out the tubs, that makes one so hot you can't get in it and the other lukewarm. Then two 'tards got in a screaming match...good grief.

I went back to my tent and made lunch.




I finally found the hole in my air mattress and patched it up in time for a nap.




I saw my new friends Natasia...(take off the ia and spell it backwards..she kept teasing her dad, Miles about it) and Black Diamond Betty. I couldn't spot their FJ Cruiser during the day and it was because Natasia had gotten in an eye fight with a bunjee cord and lost. Sounded pretty scary as the eye filled with blood really fast, Miles had taken her out to Bishop to see a doctor and she got some eye drops that cleared up the eye...nice puffy black eye though.

Miles came by and invited me back to their camp for drinks. Happy to help Becca drink some beer I went down to their camp and got a big hug from Becca...it was like I'd known the whole gang for years and not days.






Somehow every mixed drink that Becca made for me got downed by Miles and pretty soon he was stepping in post holes. I saved him from a trip into the fire and Becca put him to bed with the kids. I talked Becca and Tristan into going up to the hot tubs, but when we got there they were too uncomfortable to hop in as they're brother and sister. I said, "Becca, you just pee'd in the middle of the road.", she said, "Yeah, but I don't take my boobs out to pee.". It was funny and they went back to camp. I hope I see them again someday...

Thanksgiving morning...I'm going to Panamint Springs for their free turkey dinner.




I want to be there around 10:00 AM and leave the springs at about 8 or so.




Very cold as I start to climb up the south pass.




There was a nice thunderstorm at the end of August that tore up the road from the pass down towards Lee Flat.




I pounded through inch thick ice chunks in the stream crossings. Water that got splashed onto the bike is now frozen.




Going slower due to the cold I spotted the Boxcar Cabin for the first time.




It's a pretty drafty cabin.






I'd been teasing my boss at work about never leaving the house and told him to meet me at PSR for turkey dinner. He surprised the heck out of me and came down in his camper with his friend, Beth. That's his camper in the background.




I super zoomed a nice Willys pickup.




They served dinner at noon this year. I don't need to be anywhere else, so I found an outlet to charge my MP3 player and visited with people. Dinner time!!!




Oh man, how great is this?




After dinner I moved in for a closer look at the Willys, but the owner was sleeping in the cab.




I met some nice folks from another forum and then it was time to go look for a place to spend the night.