Floribama Riders

Over 400 years of combined experience.

Our host, Jim

We ate lunch under the only shade tree for miles. Looked up, and saw this annoyed looking owl staring at us. See the full sized picture at http://alabamadirtbags.tripod.com/death_valley_days/owl.JPG

Jack, in the Goler Wash

Ron, looking for Charlie Manson

We get up the usual time for another fine breakfast, on our last day of riding. We said goodbye to the GeGe and the rest of the support crew of RawHyde, and head up through a pass into the mountains, called the Goler Wash.

The pass is unique, with towering rock walls on either side, and a steady small stream of water coming down the pass. It is incredibly beautiful, and I wish, again, for a high quality still camera that would attach to my helmet, and that would take a picture every time I say "WOW", "DAMN", or 'SH*T". We stop along the way to look at a recently abandoned gold mine that played a small part in a fairly famous American incident, to be explained later.

The RawHyde folks have circled the wagons. I immediately locate a beer, a chair and some shade. There is some talk of additional riding but the rock garden has turned my forearms into wet noodles. I have just enough strength to hold a beer, and eat dinner. To bed on a surprisingly warm, clear desert night. The wind picks up a bit during the night.

Saturday: The day starts with another fine breakfast from Ge Ge, eggs, pancakes, and some incredibly good bacon rubbed in some kind of spice. We suit up, gas the bikes from an onboard tank on one of the trucks, lube the chains, fix some crash damage from previous days, etc. Ge Ge brings out our roast beef sandwich lunch which we put in our backpacks, and we roll out around 9. The day starts out much warmer than yesterday, but we are warned to prepare for anything. I stuff my riding jacket into its own fanny pack. Fill up the camelback with 100 ounces of water, put another bottle of water in for lunch, and we're ready. Today's ride is more scenic, and a bit less 'technical' than yesterday's ride. We ride through various ORV areas. They all have different rules. An 'open' area means you can go anywhere you please. A limited use area means you can go anywhere there's already a trail, but you shouldn't get off the trail. At one point we stumble onto some course markers for a desert race the next day, and follow the course for a few miles to kind of get a flavor for desert races.

Once everyone is down, we ride along a relatively flat dirt road parallel to the face of the ridge. GT has bent his clutch lever, and wants a new one. When the route takes us near the highway, we give him directions to the KTM shop in Mojave, and to our campsite for the evening. We then followed the dirt road to the Jawbone store for a little break.

After the break, we rode the last few miles to camp through an ORV area, playing on some hill climbs. The last couple of miles were through a wide sand wash. I followed Roger through the wash until Bill passed us both, then it was on. I went around Roger and started working on catching Bill, basically as fast as the ATKs would go, which is pretty damn fast. My sand riding skills from growing up in lower Alabama came back, and we had a blast hauling across this sand wash.

Our route takes along a dirt road adjacent to the California Aqueduct. The aqueduct is a buried pipe with a concrete cap, looking a lot like the world’s longest driveway. This gets us used to the bikes and riding together. We spread out to minimize the dust. We occasionally pull off on some side trails to play. A couple of hill climbs, whoops, jumps, and one trail they call 'Razorback', sort on the knife edge of a ridge with a fairly steep drop on either side. Everyone handles the detours well. After 35 miles of this we arrive near the town of Mojave, and ride over near the huge windmill farm you have seen in dozens of movies, TV shows and commercials. There's very little wind, only a few are turning with that characteristic 'whoop whoop' sound. Then into Mojave for gas and gatorade.

In 2005, I went on a guided dual sport tour across portions of the California desert to celebrate turning 50. The next few posts are excerpts from an article I wrote when I returned.

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“Hey, buddy”, Bill said, “me and some of my old college roommates are planning a ride in the desert to celebrate turning 50 next year. Want to come?”

“Count me in” I said. “I’m turning 50 next year, too”.

Several years ago, my wife bought a Yamaha XT225 to learn to ride dirt on. The XT is a good beginner bike, relatively low to the ground and light weight, and most importantly, electric start. We have been through several batteries, because the bike doesn't get ridden nearly enough.

We are planning to make a weeklong dirt and dual sport trip to Colorado this summer. We're taking the XT to do some simple sightseeing on. The trails we plan to ride each day are great, but a bit beyond her comfort zone. Some of the group are bringing 4 wheelers, and on days when the guys are riding the trails, the wives may take the 4 wheelers and explore some of the small towns in the area. The dirt roads to these areas are not challenging, and Ruthie should be able to do them on the XT with no problem. I just don't want her to get stuck somewhere if the battery or electric starter decides to give up the ghost.