November 24, 2006

© Bill Allen, 2006

Thanksgiving is in the bag. Nancy's going shopping. I'm caught up with my work. What to do? My riding appetite was whetted on Thanksgiving morning by joining a group of riders from the BMWST forum for a short scoot to Julian. Don't get me wrong. It was a nice ride and it was terrific to have breakfast with some old and new friends. But the 200 mile round trip barely got the tires warm.

The solution? A day ride, of course. A full day ride. I've heard about the Extraterrestrial Highway and it sounded like a good place to explore. I've never ventured north of I-15 in Nevada. I'm either going through to St. George and to explore either Utah or the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

One thing the breakfast ride on Thursday helped me to do was to get up early. On Friday, I was up before the alarm and out the door by 4:30. I even beat the holiday shopping traffic. Heh, heh, heh. Although I have a lot of disdain for the Interstate, Ortega Highway isn't very much fun in the dark, so I spend my first leg on the Interstate. I finally break away at Palm Springs where I take one of my favorite desert routes, Highway 62. I make my first gas stop in Twentynine Palms. I take the turnoff towards Amboy, cross I-40 and ride along the border of the Mojave National Preserve. I pick up Hwy 95 north and stop in the booming metropolis of Searchlight for breakfast and to top off the gas tank. The temps are still low (mid 40s) and the wind is pretty strong. It's obvious that law enforcement is taken seriously in Searchlight, so there is little need for radar detection.

I'm quickly through Las Vegas and ride north on I-15 for a short stint until I reach Nevada Hwy 93. According to the map, it's a scenic road (identified by the green dots). Either I missed something or Nevada is pretty liberal with the green dots because it just looks like desert to me. I get gas again in Alamo and it's still cool and breezy. Amazingly, I warmer sitting on the bike at speed than stopping at the gas station. By stopping in Alamo, I miss getting 500 miles in before noon, a feat I've only accomplished twice, but gas stations are pretty far apart and it would be really stupid to run out just to achieve this goal. Even with the stop, I only miss the milestone by 10 minutes. Shortly, I turn west on Hwy 375, aka the Extra Terrestrial Highway. At first, it's a pretty exciting road, but then turns into a typical two lane desert road. Of course, I'm out in the middle of nowhere, more or less by myself, so it turns into a pretty fine scoot. I finally come upon the Little A Le' Inn and I am under-whelmed.  So much so, I decide not to stop.

I turn West on Hwy 6 at Warm Springs, a ghost town. What a tragedy. If the founding fathers had only known that only hot springs would be popular to the suburbanites, the course of history would have been dramatically different. However, in an attempt to be slightly humble...O.K., so now you know I've been on the road for a while, maybe too long. While on my way to Tonopah, I encounter my first herd of wild horses. I've been on an open range for quite a while, but all I've seen so far is cattle. The herd consists of four horses running parallel with the road about 100 yards away. It's a beautiful sight, but it's a brief encounter. I stop in Tonopah for lunch, another tank of gas and head south on Hwy 95.

I ride through Beatty and stop once again at Amargosa Valley for gas. There are three gentlemen on Harleys getting gas when I arrive. We exchange greetings. They have Nevada license plates and leave in the direction of Las Vegas, 90 miles away. I speculate my day's ride is slightly longer than theirs since their bikes don't appear to be set up for long distance rides. Of course, I could be mistaken.

I turn south on Hwy 373 which turns into Hwy 127 as soon as I enter California again. I stop at Death Valley Junction to switch face shields because the sun was setting. I had hoped to reach Baker before sundown, but that goal was probably too ambitious. Although Hwy 127 at night is a dark, narrow and twisty little road, I manage to arrive in Baker without too  much anxiety by slowing down (just a little).

click on image for larger version

The Chevron station in Baker is hopping both from the Vegas traffic as well as the Dumont Dunes traffic. The sun is fully down now and the rest of the ride is on the Interstate. The traffic is heavier than I thought it would be on a Friday night going towards Los Angeles. I make one more stop in Corona for dinner and make it home without much difficulty. I pull into the garage, greet the family (wife and two dogs), remove the motorcycle gear and sit down to relax. That's when I realize I didn't get my finishing gas receipt. Drat. And of course I'm one who preaches ATGATT (All The Gear, All The Time), so it's back on with the boots, pants, jacket, helmet and gloves. It's a two mile ride to the gas station. I gas up and return for my grand re-entrance. Now I'm done.

As far as deserts go, I still prefer South East Arizona to Nevada or New Mexico.

Route

Total for the day: 1,070 miles.