White Rim Fail

A buddy and I took a stab at the White Rim Trail on our GS's. Unfortunately, it kicked our asses. We hit some of the sand washes on the west side and they were DEEP! Up to 12 plus inches of talcom powder with ruts, etc. We only saw one other rider the whole time who was coming back on a GSA. He told us to turn around as it wasn't getting any better and a tow truck driver had helped him turn around. We thought discretion was the better part of valor and did so.

The next day we did go down the east side and that was a whole lot more fun. Still some challenges though.



Here is a little video of our exploits.



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It was a really fun time.

A little bit of me

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Finished the video about our return through the San Juans and Ophir Pass.

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Don't be afraid, it tastes great.

I'm gald I made the right decision and passed it up when I was there a week or so ago.

There's always a next time....

Glad you made it out. It's a long way down there.
Q~

Yep, there was some bad stuff, not anything that I would say warranted turning around when we were there in mid-September.....BUT, we weren't toting around quite as much weight as you guys.

Oh yeah, if you want to read my write up of White Rim....It's in this ride report. It's the last day of the 4 days of riding, so you may want to skip ahead:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=388754

Cheers

At least you got to see some of it. It is doable on the GS so don't get discouraged. Now you know what to expect. We did it on 950's three years ago . Traveling clockwise allowed us to go down what would have been a real challenge of a climb in deep sand on the big bikes. Hopefully you will plan to hit it again and be successful one day.

Definitely planning on doing it again. Was too much fun.

I am not sure we would have actually turned around had we not encountered someone on a GSA (the only other motorcyclist we saw in two days on the WRT) who told us it was not going to happen.

Even the next day back at the campground, we talked with another rider who agreed it was drier than he had ever seen it this late in the season and the sand was DEEP. I try and keep my ego going with that as well.

Anyone else think it was really dry this September?

climbing was the worst. Going level was doable (if slow). It was trying to get my 1100gs to go up a few of the inclines that was a bitch. Hard to keep momentum and once stopped the rear just dug in. Looked like big jeep tracks made a lot of bad ruts too.

P.S., we stopped and ate lunch the second day right where your 950s are pictured. (Little Bridges). Beautiful.

I just got back from WRT. I think you just ran into HomerJ's first rule of advice in the desert: don't listen to them, if they knew what they were doing they wouldn't be out in the desert.

There was only one lengthy deep sand section that was about 300 yrds long. It was mostly level but did kind of snake around a bit. If you go back you get some TKCs and try it again.

I'm in Denver, so if you want to PM me we can get together over a couple of beers and I'll tell you as much as I can think of.

Cool video,....and choice of music.

Even though you guys turned back, it looks like you had a blast. It may have actually been a blessing, as maybe you ended up taking more time in the portion you did, instead of just blasting by it all....

If I do it again, I may camp on the trail and take a couple of days.

If you do get the opportunity to do it all, clockwise....at the end, where you join Mineral Bottom back towards 313, there are switchbacks similar to the ones on the way in, but you go up them....then blast about 15 miles of straightaway dirt heaven WOT back to 313.

Hey, I'm the guy on the 525 at the campground who told you how soft the sand was this time of year. Later in the week, I ran into Eric, who is from Germany, and who is touring the Southwest on a borrowed R100RT. The bike was really beat to hell, and after chatting with him for a while, he revealed he had ridden the entire WRT the day before!!! It sounded like an ugly, grueling day, though. After dropping the bike a few times in the sand, Eric said," I sink to myzelf, zis is a mistake!" I wonder what the poor bastard who owns the bike will think when he sees it? Hey, you guys made a good choice- when it stops being fun, what's the point?
Here's a shot of Eric, the Mad German:

Ron,

Nice talking with you there. Thanks for helping us try and mend our egos. I think we ended up having a better time turning back and trying it the other way.

did you end up going through the San Juans? We did and I am going to post a little bit more of that in a few days. It was nice. We got a little more ego help by doing Ophir Pass in the snow.

yeah, sorry it didn't work out to meet up and take a go of it together. We were only a day or two behind you. I definitely am going to try it again, so I may take you up on that beer.

I did it in 2005 on a Triumph Tiger. Did fine until it rained. Trust me, the sand is preferable to Mineral Bottom Road when it's wet.

TKC80's and 21 PSI sure helps

Sorry you didn't make it this time, but definitely give it another go. Its definitely doable on the big bikes. TKCs are highly recommended. I did it in June on a VStrom 650.

For big bikes I recommend doing it counter clockwise so you do the hardest bits in the morning while you are still fresh. The hardest bits being the sand and the climbs up two hogsbacks (Murphy's and ???). There is one more semi-hard climb up Schaefer switchbacks at the end which I was nervous about, but was not bad compared to the two hard hogsbacks. Its longer but definitely not as steep. I also think you can escape before the Schaefer switchbacks if you are truly spent.

My only drop was in the sand. I was blasting to get out of the drop into the wash and there was a stopped bicycle in my track. Lost it trying to move into the other track.

Damn I just realized I never posted pics from that trip. Gotta work on that.

That is actually the way we went, except that we came in through Potash Road first and up the Shafer Switchbacks then over to mineral bottom and down. Maybe that was our mistake. We didn't hit the deep sand until 11:30ish and we were already getting tired. I guess when the only other rider we saw told us to turn around, we were already spent.

yes you do
Joe