What The Hell's A Jarbidge?

Another year has gone by and we have just returned from a fantastic trip in Nevada, Idaho and Utah. After our [thread=910857]big 8 day loop last year[/thread], I had all sorts of big ideas. I thought I would like to do the Tour of Idaho. I thought about going to Austin and staging from there to try to conquer some of the surrounding terrain that we had missed out on previously. In the end, I decided that we would start from what had been our destination in both [thread=713333]2011[/thread] and [thread=827735]2012[/thread].

We would begin from Jarbidge!

Since I had told everyone I was GOING to do the Tour of Idaho in 2014, some of the guys who had been on past rides planned their own trip to Nevada starting in Battle Mountain. They went at the end of May and had a great time. [thread=991589]Here is their RR[/thread]. I was pretty excited that they would be going out and exploring some new territory but soon realized I did not have enough vacation time available to do the TOI so I started looking at maps of Nevada. And Idaho. And Utah.

I found some cool stuff and figured out where gas was and started plotting out a course. It changed and morphed as time went by. Most of the guys who said they wanted to go had not been to Lamoille Canyon or Angel Lake so I added them onto the route. As the day of departure grew closer, I had to stop fooling with the routes.

So here is where I intended to go.

Teaser pics!

You know you want 'em!

Yee Haw!

ANOTHER Nevada ride report?























Carry on.

Dueling Nevada reports. Bring it baby.

Good to see you are following along. I hope you enjoy the ride.

Where is yours?

Mine is more better!

Plus I put in a link to yours. It looks like it was a good ride. I can't wait to see more of your pictures.

We would have 6 riders total. And here is who was going:


Wild Bill aka Ugo1st aka Just Bill




Bill is riding a KTM 530XCW. He had decided to leave the old KLR at home this year.




Duckspanker




Chuck is riding the DRZ400 he has ridden the last several years.





DrDanTDC




Dan upgraded from his old DRZ400 to a KTM 530 this year. I think he likes it.





Kelly
(Chuck’s picture)




Kelly has a KTM 300 XCW. This is his first trip like this so he is not sure what to expect.





Scott




Scott has researched thoroughly and has decided to bring out the Suzuki DR650 for this trip. He does not want to be bothered with new technologies such as liquid cooling, adjustable suspension or reasonably protective handguards. Did I mention this is his first trip of this type? Well, it is!






MasterMarine

That's me. I will be riding my 2013 KTM 500EXC. It worked great last year and so it should this time too.

Swimming in Great Basin ride reports! I love it!
With your ride hitting Idaho and Utah, in addition to Nevada, it ought to be extra special.

There are a few ride reports for the area circulating right now. Several of us have been waiting patiently for our chance to get down there.

We did find some new terrain that I have never seen before in any ride reports. It was fantastic. And some other stuff that I have seen pictures of. All of it was beautiful!

Day 1
June 14, 2014
84.3 miles


In the morning, Dan figured out he had a hole in his sock so he made the repair.




I noticed Dan's GPS was not charging so we spent some time fixing it. Had breakfast at Outdoor Inn. It was much better than dinner. Thanks Michelle!




I saw the Jarbidge Taxi on my way back to the Barn after breakfast.




It was a late departure due to the repair work. The climb out of Jarbidge was rough and rocky. I took a wrong turn and took us up an extra credit hill climb. I had my first fall while attempting to turn around to get onto the right road down at the bottom. I knew this was going to be a tough morning with the combination of it being our first day, the full fuel tanks, the steep, loose, rocky roads, and the heavy camping gear on our bikes. It did not take long for all of us to become comfortable with our overloaded machines.

I just saw some pictures of this same water crossing in Wachs' report. Kelly blasting thru!




Chuck arriving. Jarbidge is in the valley below.








Off in the distance is the descent to Robinson Hole. It is where that V notch is in the middle of the picture. What a beautiful place!




Here we go!




Looking back at what I had just come down.




Zoomed in




Getting closer to the bottom.




Looking back again (zoomed in). I am pretty sure there are 4 riders in this shot. One is at the top considering the plunge.




Zoomed out.




Chuck.




Now we had to cross the East Fork of the Jarbidge River. It is running swift and looks pretty deep. I decided to look around for alternate crossings while everyone was arriving at the landing. I did not find anything to the south. I headed north and noticed it was getting a bit swampy so decided to turn around before I got stuck. Too late. I was stuck! I had to lay the bike down and turn it 90 degrees on its side, then stand it back up to get out.

Bill decided to go first and also decided to unload his Giant Loop Coyote so he would not wet his gear. We all decided to take off our riding pants, pads, boots and socks and don our river walking shoes for the crossing. It ended up being a fairly efficient operation. Some pics.






A video taken with my point and shoot.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/2014-NV-ID-UT/i-XjfJdXQ/0/d3f51c4b/1280/00001-1280.mp4





We are across! Time to get dressed up for riding again.






Beautiful stuff!




We are about to enter a fantastic valley. I am waiting for the next bike to arrive at the intersection and am taking pictures of the signs.




You can see the road faintly in this picture if you look hard enough. It was such a pictureque area that I ended up waiting for about 30 minutes for everyone to catch up.








We entered a drier area with more sparse vegetation. It was rockier and open. Looking at the GPS, I saw we would be climbing up a grade with a switchback in it. The switchback was no problem and I started riding up the long even grade. As I was standing on my pegs looking ahead, I saw a couple animals on the ground in the road ahead of me. At first I thought maybe they were raccoons but my mind just could not place them. They saw me and started running up the road in the track I was riding in. About that time my brain figured out what they were. They were badgers. So then all I could think of was the video about the Honey Badger. One of them decided to head off the road and up the hill. The other one had enough of running and decided to attack me and my motorcycle. He turned around, flattened out and started making awful growling and hissing noises at me showing lots of teeth. Of course all I could do was keep on going while he tried to bite my right foot as I went by. I twisted the throttle and left him behind. I thought for sure that I had run right over his head and that Chuck would arrive to tell me there was badger brains all over the trail. But no. The badger was still down there intimidating the riders behind me too. What a trip. I have never seen a badger out in the desert before. Hopefully someone got a picture.

In this picture, I am stopped at the top of the grade waiting to hear about the dead badger in the road from Chuck and Dan. Something was causing them to take a while to catch up.




Not the best picture but we had ridden from the other side of the mountains in the background.




Jackpot! We arrived in Jackpot for food and water and gas. And some new lithium batteries for Mark's Spot which I had borrowed. I got them from the oldest cashier I have ever seen. And he was trying hard to be the slowest but I don't think anyone can beat the service in Owyhee. But I digress. Food was ok at the casino in Jackpot. I got to see Darth Vader in there too.




We left Jackpot and headed NE into Idaho where we camped for the night near a small creek. Great spot!

Today's tracks.

Not possible. Owhyee service defies the space time continuum it is so slow.

We saw badgers also, in the middle of the black rock area. Ours ran like hell though.

BRING IT!

Ready for the next installment

MasterMarine, you always make Nevada look so good!


I'm still kinda waiting for pics of either an angry badger or darth vader...
or both?


google didn't really come through. Guess it's all on you!

I'm in.