9/5/16 Northern Nevada Ride with Walt, Mike and Dave
Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 9:24 am
(All pictures by Tom unless otherwise noted)
Walt and Mike headed over a day early from the Portland Metro. Meanwhile Dave drove down the next day via S. Oregon to pick me up and we pooled it over to Elko, Nevada - the meeting place. It was a very long trip and fortunately Dave was tolerable to be with for that long. The trip wasn't without it's flaws though, as we ran out of gas near Denio Junction and had to drain from the bikes.
9/5/16 Day One
We awoke the next morning bright and early and were of course amped! But it was cold! We hurriedly donned our riding gear, went through our backpack checklists and headed out from Elko, making our back way towards Carlin. We were about seven miles into the ride when I got to wondering if Dive (say that with an Aussie accent!) had actually closed the door on his pickup, since I remember it was open as he was checking things. I eventually stopped the others and explained to Dave my suspicions and you could see the look on his face that he did in fact leave his pickup door open. I figured he'd ride back and close things up, but he did have cell service and called the motel. The nice man behind the counter said to hold on and he went outside. Sure enough, Dive had left the door open, and THE KEYS WERE STILL IN THE IGNITION! Plus I had my laptop behind the passenger seat! The guy came back to the phone laughing and said he took care of it. Whew!
Then we got back onto our adventure train and enjoyed the countryside.
Dave Klug photo
We topped off with petrol in Carlin and started to make the long trek towards our destination of Mcdermitt. We made our way up in elevation to the tops of the peaks.
Dave Klug photo
Dave Klug photo
We then descended back down to normal elevations. It's amazing how desolate some of the valleys and plains are!
We soon came to the small community of Midas. Such a quaint little town with a rich history - boxing history too!
We headed up a scenic canyon and descended into a valley, and this is about when things went awry for Walt. We dropped down a ridge, turned left along a stream with a water crossing. Vehicles certainly had gone through it, so how deep could it really be? Evidently Walt stopped at the edge, scoped it out, then gingerly made his way across the first half, which wasn't too bad. But the second half had a considerably deeper hole and the front end on his Husky 350 dropped, therefore prompting a quick reaction from Walt to hit the throttle and the front end came up, sending the back end sideways deeper into the hole. His bike was completely submerged! His bike wouldn't start, no matter what we tried. We spent a LOT of time stripping down his bike, reassembling it, trying to start it, stripping it down again, yadda, yadda. The saying for the day was, "There's no cow piss in that!" We couldn't get the bike started and we were in a bowl of a valley - everything was up to get out. We pondered about spending the night even. Yes, it was that bad. We figured we'd try to tow it out, but the uphill was very rocky and rough. I was the tow-er, so thought I'd at least give it the ol' college try. As I was starting to tow Walt towards the beginning of the climb, he dumped the clutch and THE BIKE STARTED! I quickly stopped, unhooked the tow strap and pointed him up the climb. His bike was running rough, but he made it up the brutal climb. I'd swear I thought I heard angels singing...
Dave Klug photo
Dave Klug photo
We decided to take the tarmac since Walt's bike was running quite sketchy and would NOT idle. Problem was, the pavement was considerably out of the way, but would eventually get us to Mcdermitt, so that's how we went. The sun was setting and it started to get cold, so we donned our jackets.
After miles and miles of droning down the highway, we pulled into the motel in Mcdermitt quite literally as the sun was setting. It was a LOOOONG 261-mile day and it was time to get cleaned up, hit the Say When Cafe and drop our heads on the pillows. Day One was done and so were we.
-Tom
Dave Klug photo
Dave Klug photo
<----best viewed in HD mode, or click the Vimeo logo for better streaming.
https://vimeo.com/185486441
Walt and Mike headed over a day early from the Portland Metro. Meanwhile Dave drove down the next day via S. Oregon to pick me up and we pooled it over to Elko, Nevada - the meeting place. It was a very long trip and fortunately Dave was tolerable to be with for that long. The trip wasn't without it's flaws though, as we ran out of gas near Denio Junction and had to drain from the bikes.
9/5/16 Day One
We awoke the next morning bright and early and were of course amped! But it was cold! We hurriedly donned our riding gear, went through our backpack checklists and headed out from Elko, making our back way towards Carlin. We were about seven miles into the ride when I got to wondering if Dive (say that with an Aussie accent!) had actually closed the door on his pickup, since I remember it was open as he was checking things. I eventually stopped the others and explained to Dave my suspicions and you could see the look on his face that he did in fact leave his pickup door open. I figured he'd ride back and close things up, but he did have cell service and called the motel. The nice man behind the counter said to hold on and he went outside. Sure enough, Dive had left the door open, and THE KEYS WERE STILL IN THE IGNITION! Plus I had my laptop behind the passenger seat! The guy came back to the phone laughing and said he took care of it. Whew!
Then we got back onto our adventure train and enjoyed the countryside.
Dave Klug photo
We topped off with petrol in Carlin and started to make the long trek towards our destination of Mcdermitt. We made our way up in elevation to the tops of the peaks.
Dave Klug photo
Dave Klug photo
We then descended back down to normal elevations. It's amazing how desolate some of the valleys and plains are!
We soon came to the small community of Midas. Such a quaint little town with a rich history - boxing history too!
We headed up a scenic canyon and descended into a valley, and this is about when things went awry for Walt. We dropped down a ridge, turned left along a stream with a water crossing. Vehicles certainly had gone through it, so how deep could it really be? Evidently Walt stopped at the edge, scoped it out, then gingerly made his way across the first half, which wasn't too bad. But the second half had a considerably deeper hole and the front end on his Husky 350 dropped, therefore prompting a quick reaction from Walt to hit the throttle and the front end came up, sending the back end sideways deeper into the hole. His bike was completely submerged! His bike wouldn't start, no matter what we tried. We spent a LOT of time stripping down his bike, reassembling it, trying to start it, stripping it down again, yadda, yadda. The saying for the day was, "There's no cow piss in that!" We couldn't get the bike started and we were in a bowl of a valley - everything was up to get out. We pondered about spending the night even. Yes, it was that bad. We figured we'd try to tow it out, but the uphill was very rocky and rough. I was the tow-er, so thought I'd at least give it the ol' college try. As I was starting to tow Walt towards the beginning of the climb, he dumped the clutch and THE BIKE STARTED! I quickly stopped, unhooked the tow strap and pointed him up the climb. His bike was running rough, but he made it up the brutal climb. I'd swear I thought I heard angels singing...
Dave Klug photo
Dave Klug photo
We decided to take the tarmac since Walt's bike was running quite sketchy and would NOT idle. Problem was, the pavement was considerably out of the way, but would eventually get us to Mcdermitt, so that's how we went. The sun was setting and it started to get cold, so we donned our jackets.
After miles and miles of droning down the highway, we pulled into the motel in Mcdermitt quite literally as the sun was setting. It was a LOOOONG 261-mile day and it was time to get cleaned up, hit the Say When Cafe and drop our heads on the pillows. Day One was done and so were we.
-Tom
Dave Klug photo
Dave Klug photo
<----best viewed in HD mode, or click the Vimeo logo for better streaming.
https://vimeo.com/185486441