Day 3 - June 3rd.Miles on Bike: 1515
Hrs on Bike: 60.7
We woke up to another beautiful morning, ready to do battle with the desert.
Camp
We all changed out filter skins this am, Filter skins are the way to go for this kind of travel. I carry 6 pre-oiled skins and can do the whole ride with one air filter. They are a lot easier to pack than extra filters. I also carry 6 pairs of thin latex gloves for changing the skins.
Getting ready to install the new skin.
All ready for another day on the trail.
Another shot of the springs...
We are planning on meeting up with Mark today in Battle Mountain NV, He left from Kennewick WA late in the afternoon yesterday and would drive ahead of us to Battle Mountain, rest up and link up with us when we roll through there for fuel. But..........
7am...As we are loading up the bikes we hear a dirt bike off in the distance...could that be Mark? Oh yeah...He rolls up to where we are camped and is pumped up for a days riding! He drove till 3am, followed our SPOT tracks to within a couple miles of where we were parked then jumped on the bike......then unfortunately got confused, turned north and went a long way out of his way. He eventually linked up with our actual tracks (pre-programmed in his GPS) and followed the tracks back to the springs where we were parked. He had to ride through several cattle gates by himself to get there....or he could have just cruised 2 more miles down the gravel road from where he parked the truck right to us LOL. All in all he did awesome at intersecting us out in the middle of know where!
Mark joining the group.
Mark had one week to transform his bike into a desert sled...Tank, luggage, gear etc. He did a great job getting it all accomplished. One item that he didn't get to was his kick stand, the bolt is broke off in the frame...he'll have to look for places to lean his bike while out on the trail. First stop...easy :-)
Back on the road.
Andy and Trever come over the rise to find this sight. Uh Oh!
Enter the ADV Bermuda Triangle! Mark and I blow a turn so we stop to go back, Mark says "My clutch is coming and going on me". We decide to stop and take a look. Mark is running a full auto clutch and replaced the plates right before he left, a little dis-assembly is in order.
Looks like a set screw came loose in the clutch setup. Tools are out and a fix is on the way. Meanwhile Trever says his new Garmin Montana GPS lost all satellites as he rolled up to the stop. Hmmm.....We'll lets see if we can fix it as well.
Trever starts the dis-assembly on his Montana.
And finds that the Antenna has broken off the circuit board! The antenna is held on from the factory with a thin piece of double stick tape, the tape came un-bonded leaving the weight of the antenna hanging on the thin soldered post to the circuit board. It was only a matter of time before the vibration and rough trail caused the post to fail. This is a weak spot on the Montana in my opinion....look for a HOW - TO article on beefing up the Montana to prevent this problem soon.
Mark gets his bike up and running and takes it for a quick test spin. Andy says he sees something square fall of Marks bike but we look around and can't find anything. At this time Andy's bike (with no one around it) falls over...the stock kick stand snaps under the weight of the gear on the bike!
LETS GET OUT OF THE ADV BERMUDA TRIANGLE BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE FAILS!!
Back on the trail
We come across a cool old abandoned ranch and stop to check it out.
Old Hay Lift
This Deer was hanging out behind the tool shed
The shade feels great!
Alan blew by the turn to the ranch....but soon makes his way back to the group.
We head inside to check out the house. Let's try this baby out lol.
Lots of signatures from ADV riders that have passed through, looks like the GL guys have been here! The tube is still where they left it in their RR.
We add our own signature...as well as a Hodakaguy sticker lol
That Picture (and my avatar) is actually me...in a Halloween costume :-)
Trever finds a stick and heads out in search of water.
Ahhh....There it is!
He says...Hmmm....I have a idea for this stick, I think I'll keep it.
This ranch must have been around for a long time...the trees are huge!
Andy checks out the stream and rides across. He sets up to snap pictures as people cross the stream.
Hodakaguy crossing the stream, I imagine certain times of the year this can be deep!
And stills from the same crossing off the GoPro....Alan can move pretty fast LOL.
We left the ranch and continued towards Battle Mountain NV.
Followed some awesome single track!
We boon docked though the sage brush for a while.
Yet another gate to open/close.
This section was great!
We rolled up to get fuel in Battle Mountain. It was here that Mark realized that his wallet is missing and fell out of his pack somewhere back out on the trail. We fill the bikes and roll over to the pizza shop next door to fill our stomachs and form a plan.
You remember that stick that Trever kept....well it turns out Mark is packing it as his new kick stand LOL.
We eat lunch and form a new plan. We think that the square object that Andy saw come off of Marks bike earlier in the day might be the wallet. We talk about options...Trever and Mark head back to look for the wallet, and the rest of us continue south...Or we all stick together as a group and look for the wallet then head south to Soldier meadows and Reno. A decision is made to stay together as a group so we head north...on Slab to make time :-(
We arrive back in the ADV Bermuda triangle and can't find the wallet....and Andy realizes that his zip off coat sleeves are gone, he had them tied on the back of his bike. Hope it doesn't turn cold! The Triangle strikes again!
We look at the map and decide to head to Soldier Meadows for the night. Since we are so close Mark will pick up his truck and move it further north so it's closer to Denio (he'll have less of a slab run to get back to the truck when were done). While we are there Mark loans Andy his kick stand that he has in the truck...once at camp Andy will have a kick stand again :-) We grab the truck and roll on.
We stop to fill the bikes one last time before soldier meadows.
Andy without a kick stand.
We hit gravel, park Marks truck and head for soldier meadows. It turns dark and we're riding by headlights now. Well most of us are riding by headlights, Since Andy is riding with a stock head light he's now riding by someone else's light lol. The OEM lights area really pathetic.
In the dark we make a navigational error and realize we are far north of Soldier Meadows. At this point it is closer to continue back to Bog Hot Springs and camp there for the night. So we continue north.
We arrive at Bog Hot Springs, set up camp and have a great soak. We will continue south in the am. Two days into the trip and we are camping back at the first camp site....you just never know how a ADV ride is going to go :-)
All in all a great days riding.
End Day 3
Miles on bike: 1852
Hrs on bike: 68.1
More to come!!