Reno to Truth or Consequences, NM

[JetdocX]

Stage 1 of our journey.  The plan:  Due to time and work constraints, we plan to leave Reno on Saturday morning and ride to Phoenix.  We stash our bikes in a friend's garage (leaving the keys, of course, I expect the tank to be empty when we return).  Then catch a jet back to Reno Sunday night.  Then fly back down the morning of the 12th to continue a weeklong riding adventure based in Truth or Consequences, NM probably leaving Thursday the 17th for a projected Reno return the following Sunday.

The problem:  A LOT of slab in between Reno and Phoenix.  

Ready to go Saturday morning:


We head down US395 for a chilly ride through some great scenery.  It finally warms up coming down the hill into Bishop.  We gas up and head toward Big Pine, but take a left just before town to sneak into Death Valley NP from the north.

A few shots of Saline Valley road intersection  40 more miles of dirt to get to Grapevine and it's getting close to 5PM.
From whence we came:



Where we are headed:



My pal Gangplank and his trunk monkey:



Crankshaft Crossing:


I like this one:


Lots of washboardy, sandy, powdery road to get to the Ubehebe Crater road.  I almost had the Tiger swap ends on me doing about 45 a few times.  Definitely an a-hole-shrinking experience. :shock:   Due to luck more than mad-ridin' skyllz, I made it through without dumping the bike.  I lost only one screw, one of the two that hold the instuments in the panel.  So I got to watch my tach, speedo and temp gage bounce in and out of the panel and turn the heated grips on and off for an hour or so. :roll:

Made it to the crater.  Big hole in the ground:


Then we rode to Furnace Creek for some chow.  The food in the diner is marginal at best.  We found out they had no rooms for us, so we chose to push on to Vegas.  

Riding at night on a moonless night around Area 51 is surreal.  Your entire world consists of what you see in the headlight beam.  I got us lost in Death Valley Junction and we missed our left turn to Vegas. :roll:  (Yes, a GPS is now on my short list of farkles, but it's not an adventure until we 1.  Lose parts, and 2.  Get lost at night.)

We ended up rolling into Vegas around 11:30 PM.  Nighty-night.

Day 2:  
We wake up and Gangplank's Mom is making us french toast!  No bacon, but they are Jewish, so I'll settle for the french toast.

Packing up:


Day 2 was all about getting to Phoenix and getting on a plane.  We busted ass and took no photos.  Sorry.

Our route took us over Hoover Dam and into AZ.  Then fought a right oblique headwind/crosswind of biblical proportions all the way through Kingman and most of the way down to Phoenix.  I felt like a bobblehead doll for most of yesterday and my neck and upper back are still stiff as I write this.

We made it to Beemdubya's house in Phoenix, parked our bikes and showered.  Beem and his SO were nice enough to buy us some grub at Four Peaks.  Our pal Dave rode his wife's new toy down for us to check out.  He even let me ride it.  Fun for sure.  Feels like a street-legal snowmobile.  Thanks, Dave!

Can Am Spyder:
http://spyder.brp.com/

A good weekend and a lot of time in the sadle.  The airhawk seat cushion saved my tender bits, I'm sure.  Stay tuned for more in a couple weeks....

Edit: Title change and the addition of a request for cool roads dirt or paved to get us from PHX to T or C and back home to Reno.

[JetdocX]

Mods:  I need help posting a google map.  It won't let me link the URL because of length and it won't let me post a tiny URL.

http://tinyurl.com/5ogw8b

Never mind, it works now.

Please help in NM and AZ.  I think UT and NV we have licked.

[HappyMan]

Nice report.  Beautiful pics and wish I could be there right now.  I love roads like that.  I love these ride reports.  I'd post one but every time I go for a ride I either forget my camera or I'm too busy ridin' to take any pictures!  Thanks for posting!!!

[cascadetiger]

I'm jealous!  Thanks for the photos and report.  You have a nice Steamer, looks just like mine.

[ridin gaijin]

Nice ride so far--looking forward to more! Will you guys be in the 'burque area...?

[JetdocX]

Thanks, prolly just rollin' through ALB on our way towards a night in Durango before pushing on through southern Utah.

Edit:  And you are welcome to join us if you like. :D

[wvmike]

great pics.Man,I want to ride an area like that.Wide open stretches of road and desert.Now that's an adventure

[JetdocX]

Thanks, guys!  :D  Slideshow here:

http://jetdoc.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=4673266&AlbumKey=iLm8B

I love riding dirt in the desert!  The deep sand and powder I can do without on the Tiger, though :shock:

[Stretch]

<<<<<<<<< jealous.

[ridin gaijin]

Thanks, prolly just rollin' through ALB on our way towards a night in Durango before pushing on through southern Utah.

Edit:  And you are welcome to join us if you like. :D

Approx. date...?

[JetdocX]

We are leaving T or C tomorrow morning on our way toward Four Corners, but we may be messing around in the hills around Santa Fe for a bit.

I'm working on a route today, so nothing concrete yet.

PM sent with my #.

[JetdocX]

Well I might as well finish the epic ride to be cancelled by weather.  In April no less.  Go figure.  I think we were lucky to have the days we did, so here goes:

Jetted from RNO to PHX and our pal Bill picked us up at the airport, fed us lunch and sent us on our way to NM.  NM is a loooooooong way from Phoenix.  Our start at the crack of 1:00PM did not help.

I dropped my camra out of my bag a few times and unseated the memory card so I lost a bunch of photos, as well.

It was hot in Phoenix so we pointed our bikes toward higher ground (Globe, AZ).  Nice road up there, but packed with slow-going Hardleys and the like.  I also noticed the speed limit reductions just when the riding got good.  Wow.  Thanks, Arizona for taking judgement out of the equasion for me.  Idiots!  Marking a 70 mph road down to 35 because it has corners...

I was mostly unimpressed with Globe and anything else we saw on our merry way out of AZ so not a whole bunch to talk about here.  Long straight roads....boring.

We managed to make it to Silver City, NM around dusk.  Gangplank wanted to stop and eat and I was loathe to given the fine eating establishments dotting the highway.  We pressed on to Highway 152, one of the best examples of a motorcycle road I've ever run across in my travels.  TOo bad it got dark on us and scary.

[JetdocX]

152 at night is a challenge.  I had fun only because I was concentrating so hard at not dying.  Later we rode that highway in the daylight and I have to say this is one of the funnest roads I've ever been on.  More on that later.

Along with the dusk, came the cold and the altitude.  Cold, tired and blind is no way to go through life, son.  Forunately the temps increased as we got to the east of the continental divide and came down to meet I-25 south of our destination.

We rolled into the Charles Motel around 9:30PM, tired and hungry.  Beer took care of both of those problems for me.  We met some new faces from Texas, heretofore known as the Texas Trailer Queens. :lol:

Nighty night and get ready for some dirt riding tomorrow.

It always amazes me how you can gather a bunch of dudes in a parking lot with bikes.....

[JetdocX]

We woke up and got the bikes ready for a planned group ride.  Everyone went except for two. That makes six of us, I think.  The plan:  Find the dirt road connecting Winston with Silver City and ride 152 home before dark.  

Winston General Store:


We succeeded!  Even pulled into Mimbres at two minutes before 5:00PM and got gas before they brought the flag down and the station closed.  Great roads and some not so great roads.  I beat the shit out of the Steamer's skidplate on rocks and even bottomed the suspension out more than five times.

My Tigger even got tired out there.
:lol:

Riding 152 in the daylight was a blast!  I managed to wear the chicken strips right off!  I love my new suspension!  This is an amazing road and a must ride for those who have not.  I even remembered some of the turns from the darkness.

And the hot mineral water bath at the end of the ride made all my aches and pains disappear.  144 degree water will do that, I guess....  and the two beers I drank while soaking had an immediate effect.

We had some grub and drank some more beer and wrote obscene words in the dust on each other's bikes.  I kept getting comments on how ugly my bike is.  I said, Yeah, cool isn't it!  They could not believe I rode that pig everywhere they roade their 650's.  It wasn't pretty, but I got the job done.

[JetdocX]

Next day in T or C:

Let's go see if we can get into White Sands Missile Range!

We took off and headed east past Elephant Butte park  and got out into the desert proper.  Distances are decieving out there.  What looks like five miles can easily be 20 or more.

We tried a few entrances and all had gates and/or no trespass signs.  The range itself seems to be surrounded by private land.  We still managed to get a view into the Trinity Test Site.  No photos, sorry.  My camera was confiscated by aliens shortly before they removed the gorilla tape from my backside. :lol:  :lol:
Dead caddy near the range.  
Long straight desert roads with a few sand patches in there to keep a Tiger rider on his feet.