Day 30 & 31

North America » United States » California
August 6th 2018

Published: August 8th 2018

Edit Blog Post

MikeV

On the trail

Day 30:

Out of Tonopah we had around 30kms of seal across the desert before heading onto the gravel which started as fast straight gravel roads which changed to slower gravel with some sand patches then nearly all soft sand. This was like riding on a beach above the high tide mark. Eventually after around 110kms we arrived on the seal at the town?? of Mina. We planned to gas up here but].......there was no gas. Back off the seal we changed our route and headed for the town of Hawthorne as we were concerned re gas,

This road was mainly fast gravel but with a nasty 1km section of soft sand. Struggling through that we encountered washouts from recent heavy rain which turned the road into a dry creek bed. Deciding discretion overcame valour in this desolate area & being apprehensive about our gas supplies, we retraced our route 80kms and ended up back in Mina. Still no gas but a small hamburger joint provided a lunch burger you would find hard to beat.

On to Hawthorne & a tank of gas after passing hundreds of supposed camouflaged ammo bunkers (I think they house the aliens

Ian & baked sand

from area 51) then gravel road to Bodie a ghost cowboy town. Unfortunately we missed a turn off so missed Bodie. To compensate we then rode a fantastic gravel road into Walker. This road was 80km long, winding, fast in places slow in others. The slow bits had rocks, bumps, small wash outs etc. To provide some humour at one spot which was probably one of the smoothest bits there was a bullet riddled sign “Dip Ahead”.

The town of Walker is on the GPS & maps as Coleville. The motel proprietor told us the reason is Walker is just a “suburb” of Coleville which has the post office! Lead to some navigation confusion.

400kms today

Day 31:

Heading South from Walker after negotiating a 10 minute roadwork stoppage, we reached the turnoff to the Sonora Pass only to be turned back as it was closed due to the wild fires. No surprise as the whole area was hazy with smoke. Retracing our route (& the roadwork delay) we eventually reached highway 89 or Monitor Pass. This was all sealed but spectacularly twisted & turned over the mountain range ascending to 2400m before dropping down for

Bryan avoids the soft stuff

ever. Riding south of Lake Tahoe we skirted around a lot of ski chalets amongst pine forest while climbing quickly & dropping equally quickly. Due to our turn-back at Sonora Pass we were running ahead of schedule so decided at the pretty town of Markleeville, where we had breakfast, that we would divert to Yuba City to visit one of Keith’s suppliers & one of our sponsors ("No Toil" air filters & oil) Bob & his nephew gave us a super friendly welcome, a tour of their factory & some more product, caps & Tees.

On the home run to our final destination of Auburn, Sacramento we stopped in Loomis to visit our second sponsor Motion Pro (Workshop space, tools & bike storage) to report in & thank them for their assistance.

Onto our hotel in Auburn where we had a 5pm lunch, sorted our gear, planned for a tidy up & wash of bikes & riding gear tomorrow before heading to San Francisco Thursday to relax ahead of our Saturday flights. In the bar we got talking to a Eric a Californian who was an adventure rider & is a keen salmon angler. Nice guy reinforced by

Dusty trails

the fact that he shouted us a round of drinks.

420kms today – all seal. Total for the trip 9300kms. The bikes have never ever missed a beat. We didn’t even have to adjust the drive chains. 2 sets of tyres, no punctures (except one on the warm up ride), 2 oil & filter changes – what a testament to Suzuki in particular & Japanese bikes in general.

In Summary as we have posted before, Americans are very friendly/hospitable whatever you like to call it & more importantly it's already great so Trump needs to change his slogan to Make it Greater, the scale is huge, the vistas are amazing & the adventures are here for the having! The only downsides are the fires & subsequent loss of life & property. All the best to the brave firefighters & their supporters.

Additional photos below

Photos: 10, Displayed: 10