socal desert riding

[breakdirt916]

mind you, I grew up in MA watching "on any sunday" and "crusty demons of dirt", and never thought I'd get the chance to ride those areas...now it's only 2 hours away!

from the top:

the ready ramp (ramp/bed extender combo) is the shizz - I highly recommend it:







parked next to a rock...had shade



F-150 looks right at home



Todd took his YZ250



and he loaned me a 1999 Kawasaki KX125 (aka "Lidia")



first 10 minutes: ROCKS





forced me to learn the bike QUICK

from camp: great view of mountain line



endless trails to explore







smooth stuff, rocky stuff, open stuff, whoops stuff...you name it







3rd run - I lead



so I head for the rocky hills

















'cept things got real...more and more rocks





blind turn, Todd walks ahead to inspect:





Me: "Is it okay?"

Todd: "We can go down it, but I wouldn't want to come up it."



it sucked....I didn't even want to go down it



phew! we made it!





we had now been riding over 4 hours...and the last trail beat me up...



time to go home



so much fun

[typeone]

sweet! i'd love to ride out there. a buddy of mine grew up in AZ and talks DEZ all the time. way different than here. big bikes, big speed.

i don't know how you guys take so many pics on rides. wish i snapped more but i hate stopping.

[breakdirt916]

yeah, desert is definitely cool...very different from the single track/trails/mx feel...worth checking out

and stopping for pics is easy - whenever I fall, we stop...which is often

naah...but seriously, after every 30-40 mins of riding through the desert you want to stop, drink some water, and relax before going again. After doing a rocky hill climb we'll also stop and take a breather. I think total, it was 5 stops in 4-1/2 hours...

plus other sean gave me a protip - put a small camera case attached to the FRONT of your camel bak to make it quick and easy to pull out



useful when your friend falls or gets stuck

[typeone]

yeah, i've been thinking of doing the same, small phone pouch on front strap. i use my iPhone for GPS but keep it in back.

[gregp]

Again - This thread makes me want to move West. It is such a shame that New England has such a rich history of off road motorcycling, but it has been eroded away to the point that almost nothing exists today.

[breakdirt916]

@ typeone - you got it right - phone out back is a bit too much work to pull out mid-ride...I used a phone too...works perfectly

when I had a camera out back, zero pictures got taken...no time to stop and pull it out.

but in this picture - I was actually stuck myself:



once the bike was off, I just pulled it out, turned around and snapped a pic while my friend was stuck too

@ gregp - the mojave desert is huge - you can ride for 6 months without riding the same trail twice. and yeah...70's-early 90's were the right times to own a dirtbike...even out here in socal, a lot of the riding is gone...most if it just the desert and OHV areas (which are plentiful out here, just a 2-hour drive). I think you especially should try it at some point in your life...buy a ticket and rent a bike...I think you can even rent dirtbikes from vegas. Leave the wife at the spa and let's ride.