Skip's Ride, Nevada Spring 2008

[skipro3]

I wander over to Thumper Talk once in a while. Several local guys around Northern California post up there when rides are planned. There is also a section for Kawasaki's and under that, a subsection for 2-strokes. One of the posters, no1clyde, PM'd me to join in a ride in the Nevada desert. His real name is Ed. Ed saw a few of my posts on TT and thought he might find it worth the effort to see if I was worthy to ride with him!! HA!! Anyways, this ride he invited me on is held twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. It's called "Skip's Ride" Skip used to own Skips of Carnegie. Carnegie is a popular OHV area near San Francisco. This ride has grown by word of mouth over the last 18 years and now has about 180 people show up each time. The event stages in a town called Yerington, Nevada; the Casino West Hotel and Casino. It costs $30 per night and that includes a room, a buffet dinner and a full breakfast. Anyway, I accepted Ed's invite and he allowed me to bring a friend. I took Jeremy, a co-worker who rides this area quite a bit but hasn't been lately since he doesn't have anyone who wants to go there with him. I would have gone in the past, and I did, but it's been two years getting me back into the saddle after the fire. So anyway, Jeremy and I headed to Nevada and met up with Ed. We rode to a staging area in the desert called Sand Point where we met his buddy, Steve. BTW, Ed is 51 and Steve is 63. Both ride like the wind and I worked hard to just keep their dust in site.
Here's a couple photos and later, I will post more photos and write up he ride further as well.

The trail begins....


Flat tire 20 miles from anywhere.


Ghost town from the 1850's


Ed, Steve, and Jeremy

[canyncarvr]

Which is your guide? You named them left to right I presume?

Desert riding would be a lot more fun if it wasn't for the dust. Well, I wouldn't mind the dust if I could SEE through it. I don't mind that it's dirty and I can't breathe..I just wanna SEE where I'm going.

How many miles? Refueling stops? Temps?

[skipro3]

Dust wasn't bad at all. I kept the rider in front of me either in direct site or kept the dust cloud in site; maybe a 1 to 3 minute interval riding. You can NOT ride desert in someone else's dust cloud; you will kill yourself hitting "things". Most of our riding was great because we had a nice 10mph breeze most of the day. Temps were about 55 in the morning and a high of 78 in the afternoon. 65 miles the first day and 35 the second day. First day was to see how well we could ride and if we whined when it got tough. Second day was a lot of technical ups and downs.

First day I refueled but didn't need to. The extra front # plate tank worked great. That's Ed on the left, Steve in the middle and Jeremy on the right. Ed works for the state as a mechanic. Steve did too before he retired this year. Jeremy works with me. Ed would lead, then Jeremy would follow him, I followed Jeremy and Steve was the sweep. Ed and Jeremy would pull out and away from me but I prefered that so I didn't see any dust, just the distinct tracks from Jeremy's tires. Steve rode far enough behind me to not see him unless I fell down and he would catch up. It's really neat to be out in all that land and have it seem like you are the only one on the planet. Like it might be dirt biking on Mars or something. Ha!! I would catch up to Ed and Jeremy at intersections and ask about Steve and if we needed to give him any breaks. Ed said that Steve could ride all day at the pace he does. Soon as Steve came in site, we were off. I don't think Steve stopped but maybe a few times during the day due to that... He's got an auto clutch on his KTM too.

[skipro3]

Here's a few google shots:

[skipro3]

Ed's ride report on Thumper Talk

http://www.thumpertalk.com/forum/showth ... p?t=638006

[fuzzy]

That GPS overlay is AWESOME.

[vaderoni]

Sweet ride! I love riding in dez like that. Last time i went was at Black Rock in Nevada about June, 08.