Ride Report w/ Pics from today's Epic Ride

[Yard Sale]

With light rain all day Saturday (and some snow late in the day), the plan was to meet Putz and edmunsan and ride in the Hungry Valley area. Putz bailed out due to work and at the appointed time edmunsan was nowhere to be found so I suited up for a solo ride.

Because a buckle was broken on my boots, I brought my backup boots, sweet Alpinestars copies of old Hi-Point GP boots. Some creature in my garage really liked them, too, because I poured some collected seed out of it.



From atop the first hill, it is obvious there is moist dirt to ride and snow to avoid.





Looking east at the staging area:









Vultures were on the lookout for solo riders with a history of near-death experiences in questionable weather:



I followed a race-ribboned single track uphill until it forked. To the right was rocky nastiness and to the left was easier going.



Right:



Left:



It seems some enterprising racers took an easy way down (or up) the hill to gain an advantage over their opponents. Weak. It turned out to be muddy soil not sandy and I didn't make it up. Here's the view looking down to the fork:





In another canyon climb I encountered this bit of nastiness:



Another fork in the trail, with whoops leading to snow and singletrack leading to canyons and singletrack.



I went right.



I blazed a trail up 4-6" of fresh snow. Here's a shot looking back at my path:



And a vista shot from the same location:



The snow got quite deep and because it was less than 24 hours old, it was very difficult to go uphill with my half worn rear tire.





A couple rock gardens were challenging with 5" rocks under 6" of snow. I diverted from the wide trail to a single track that made a short sidehill loop. Big mistake. On the uphill side of the loop I lost traction and stopped and couldn't go forward. The ground was frozen underneath my rear tire. I picked up my bike and moved it but encountered the same problem. I had to pick it up, turn it around, and go back the way I came.

Finally I got out of the snow.







I found the coolest uphill canyon trail. At one point I came upon this curving rock face and instead of stopping or even slowing to size it up I just gassed it and went up like I knew what the hell I was doing. Here's the picture from when I came back down:



There was a minor rock obstacle with green tinted rocks.





I went back to the staging area to refuel, rest, and look for edmunsan. I found him and gave him the grand tour of the Warm Springs-Hungry Valley-Dogskin area. Here's a shot of him with the southwest in the background.



Here's a shot of me with Dogskin mountain in the background.



We headed down a canyon with some known gnarly obstacles. I went ahead with the camera and waited at the obstacles.



Ah, the old camera trick never fails.





We headed up Dogskin. I warned Ed about a couple kickers in the long climb then hit one of the kickers worse than I've ever hit it before, sending me out of my seat with my legs dangling behind me. We encountered snow part way up and stopped.





I warned Ed about another gnarly spot in the climb, a steep S-turn with boulders and small, sharp rocks. When we passed it I thought it was too easy. Maybe erosion made it easier. I soon realized that wasn't the true gnarly spot. At the real gnarly spot I launched my bike away from me then waved Ed off. Here he is coming up:





We blazed a trail through some thick virgin snow.



We finally found the trailhead west.



...Instead of going up where there would be more snow.



Why are there tracks up the hill if we were making fresh tracks in virgin snow? Some riders had some up from the east side of the Dogskin ridge and intersected this trail, which I didn't know and didn't think was possible.

Instead of taking the trail all the way down, we cut north and rode sidehill. This is one of the few places with severe consequences for running off trail.







We hit the "Pod Racing" wash, with its huge banked turns, which was a highlight for Ed. At that point we turned south. I had started with a 3/4 full 1.9 gallon tank and his YZ450F had a small MX tank. However, I get good mileage riding around on the pilot jet and needle!

As luck or fate would have it I found the Stealth Wash. It's hidden in sage brush on level ground, unlike the other washes which run downhill. Unfortunately, it was horribly muddy. Our bikes were sliding in every direction and my YZ250 ended up going in two directions before a sage brush stopped me from high-siding.



More canyon shots!



This time Ed kept the rubber side down.



Atop a hill I pointed out the staging area. Coming down the hill my bike started running funny like it would soon be out of fuel. I tipped it over to the petcock side for that last little bit and came in to my truck running on fumes in the fading daylight.



That muddy wash turned out to be a mistake. Bikes usually clean up very easily after riding the sandy soil here.

All in all, a fine day. I drove home thinking it doesn't get much better than this. But it can get worse. It was Superbowl Sunday and I was heading down a highway known for gang activity on holidays such as this. Oh no. Oh, yes. Oh, hell.

[edmunsan]

Thank so much Erik you the "Bomb"! Great host, and guide, The trip from Gardnerville will be made many times for rides like that fer sure! So worth it, that includes the ass chewing from the war department for playing til wee hours