Friday, May 21, 2010
FJR Forum Post on the BBG
I've wanted to do a BBG for quite a while. Toecutter and I talked about
an in-state California route many years ago, but something always came
up. Maybe three years ago, I mapped out a route from Southern
California, up through central Nevada, and down through eastern Nevada
back to So. Cal. On the map it looked like a big lollipop. I run a
stock fuel tank, so my route choices are limited by having to stop
every 200 miles or so.
Over time, I made plans to actually do
the ride, but, again, something always came up. Earlier this year,
after talking it over with my friend Doug,
I decided this had to be the year. Doug has a lot of big rides planned
this year -- the IBR5000, LOE, and a bunch of others -- so we decided
to do some training rides together to prep. Back in March we did a California In-State SS1K, and in April we did the LowCal 250 Rally down in San Diego. (A great half-day rally, by the way).
A
couple of days before the LowCal, I sent Doug an e-mail asking his
opinion: is it better to ride through Las Vegas late on a Sunday night,
or late on a Monday night? He drafted some well-known riders from SoCal
and Nevada to get their opinions, and opinions I got. The early
consensus was that my route was less than ideal -- too many
back-country miles after dark, with iffy gas options if it got too late.
Reno John
dove in, and came up with great suggestions on improving the route.
Specifically, he recommended an early start, timed so that I left the
Interstate right at sunrise, followed by a scenic early morning ride
through Death Valley, then the back-country roads through central
Nevada. The finish was a long final stretch on Interstates -- easier
when fatigued, and less problems with wildlife. After some
back-and-forth, we made a final refinement by taking out a long slog on
I-80 into Salt Lake City, and substituting the ET Highway.
I
was very happy that the final route had more back-road highway mileage
than Interstate mileage - not by much, but still more than half of the
total.
I brought some print outs of the various routes to the
pre-dinner for the LowCal to show Doug, and wound up sharing with the
whole group -- including my friends Peter Perrin and Craig Chaddock,
and the esteemed Ken Meese. Everyone agreed that the new route was
better than the original lollipop route.
Here's the route:
A
good route is one thing -- you still have to do the ride. Some last
minute light-hearted reverse psychology from Reno John motivated me to
set an actual date -- Monday, May 17th -- and I started prepping for
the ride in earnest. The tires were okay, and I did an oil change the
week before the ride, made all the necessary arrangements with family
and work, and slowly adjusted my sleep schedule to wake up earlier. (It
annoyed my wife that I'd wake up at 4:00 for no apparent reason, but
she adapted...)
On the night before the ride, I packed the bike,
mounted the V-1 and the SPOT, set out my gear, and got to sleep early.
On the morning of the ride, I woke up at 3:00am, and did the final prep
work -- call the witnesses, get a quick breakfast, fill the thermos
with coffee, don the riding gear (including the Widders), last minute
packing -- and I left the driveway at 3:30am. The starting receipt was
from a gas station about a mile from my house, with a start time of
3:41am.
The first stint was I-210 and I-15 to Baker. The only
drama was dense fog over the Cajon Pass, from the I-215 junction to
Victorville. I found a well-lit SUV in the adjacent lane, and we made
it through with only minor puckering. As planned, I hit Baker right at
sunrise. (Click on any photo for a full-size view)
I
had planned a quick splash-and-go, but the pump receipt had no time
stamp - only the date. I went inside, and the shift manager wrote the
time and her contact info on the receipt for me.
CA-127 up into
Death Valley was a blast. I had two options for the Death Valley
section - the fast, efficient route to the east, and the fun but longer
Badwater Road to the west, which adds 18 miles, and can't be documented
with printed receipts. I was feeling good on the bike, and it was such
a nice morning, so I turned off onto Badwater. I stopped at a couple of
places along the way to get some photos to show I was there.
Lake Manly:
Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at 282ft (86m) below sea level:
I stopped for fuel and a receipt in Furnace Creek, took off my cold weather gear, and made my way to Beatty, then on to Tonopah.
About
10 miles south of Tonopah, the winds started up from the south, and
they grew stronger as I got closer to Tonopah. After gassing up in
Tonopah, I gobbled down a Balance Bar and some coffee from my thermos,
put my cold weather gear back on and headed out east on US-6. (I wound
up wearing my cold weather gear, including the Widders, the entire rest
of the ride. I had cloud cover the whole way.)
By this time, the
winds were steady at 35-40 mph, and I had to lean noticeably to my
right to keep the bike straight. Thankfully they were mostly constant
-- there's nothing fun about crosswind gusts that blow you over two
lanes -- but it was tiring to balance myself against them for mile
after mile.
I turned southeast on the Extraterrestrial Highway,
a fantastic section of road. The quartering winds were an issue most of
the way, but I found some areas where I could wind it up a little. I
didn't pass a single car on the way, and only three cars passed me
going the opposite direction -- it's a lonely road on a weekday. The
free range cattle stayed well back from the roadway.
The Alien Research Center
I
skipped Ash Springs to pickup more miles, and stopped for fuel and a
receipt in Alamo. The route up NV-318 was almost due north, so the
southerly wind was actually an advantage. I got stopped for five
minutes for some road construction, but otherwise this section was fast
and fun.
My next stop for fuel was Ely, and the wind was really
blowing. I grabbed a burger and a Diet Coke, and headed east on
US-6/US-50 towards Utah. The winds along this stretch were more of a
problem, and I got some occasional gusts below the passes, but it
wasn't too bad.
Northeast of Delta, Utah, I veered east on
UT-132, which turned out to be a fun little road. Here's the view
looking east about 20 miles west of Nephi:
I
was about 70 minutes behind my overly optimistic schedule when I
stopped for fuel in Nephi, Utah. The Flying J receipt also had the date
but no time stamp, and the manager wrote the time and her contact info
on the receipt. She said that commercial drivers asked them to not use
a time stamp, to give them "flexibility" in making their log book
entries...
After all the fun riding on the back roads of
California, Nevada, and Utah, I hit I-15 for the long slog back home. I
listened to the Lakers-Suns playoff game on the XM, and made good time
to the fuel stop in St. George. The time stamp on this receipt was off
by an hour, so I headed back inside. The cashier said they hadn't
updated their pumps after the change to daylight savings time. While I
was behind my planned schedule, I decided I had plenty of time to relax
a little. At about the 1,100 mile point, my lower back had started to
ache a little, so I walked around a bit to stretch out.
The winds were back as I passed through the Virgin River canyon on I-15 in northwest Arizona.
Coming
south on I-15 at night, you're basically out in the middle of nowhere,
until you crest the last pass and the lights of Las Vegas open up
before you, covering the horizon for miles and miles. It's really quite
a sight, but I couldn't stop for a photo.
I got back to Baker
right around midnight for my last on-route fuel stop. There was more
dense fog over the Cajon Pass, but it only lasted for a few miles this
time.
As I got within 10 miles of home, I noticed the headlights
of a motorcycle coming up fast on my six. My son Justin had followed my
SPOT track, and came out the escort me home. Very cool.
We hit
the final fuel stop -- the same station I used for the starting receipt
-- at 2:35am, 22 hours and 54 minutes after the start.
Google Maps listed the route as 1,530 miles, and the GPS showed 1,530.3 miles. The FJR odometer showed 1,560 miles.
I
got a lot of great advice and support from a lot of different people
(doug5551, renojohn, kaitsdad, jwhite, sandiegoland, among other Forum
members), and I really appreciated all their time and efforts. Thanks,
guys!
SpotWalla Tracking Map for this ride