Joshua Tree Ride - March 7th 2009

Jim and his sons Chris and Jason have been riding quads at this great place in Joshua Tree for many years and finally convinced Harry and Charlie to join them for a family off-road riding day. The riding spot is located at the end of the following dirt road: 64900 E Broadway, Joshua Tree, CA 92252

It turned out to be about 178 miles from Charlie's house in Thousand Oaks. We all left our homes in the early morning and arrived between 9:45 and 10:45 AM. Jim brought Chris, Jason, and Megan's fiancee Bret. Jim rode his Yamaha WR400 and the kids shared their two Honda quads. Charlie brought his Honda XR600R along with Dean who has only ridden his Suzuki DR-350 twice before. Harry came solo with his powerful KTM 525 EXC.















It was a crystal clear and cool morning at about 58 degrees F. We quickly unloaded the bikes and headed for some blasts across the dry lake bed to warm up.


After setting up camp consisting of an awning for shade, Jim took us on a big loop around the area. The loop included a good mix of trails, sand dunes, hill climbs, bush-wacking, sand whoops, rocky trails, and finished blasting through the dry lake bed. It was a great first loop and nobody fell or had any mechanical problems. Dean did remarkably well given that this was only his third time riding a motorcycle and he was riding a 350cc bike. Of course Harry impressed everyone with his ability to climb the highest hills, blast through the deep sand, blaze new trails through the pucker bushes, and pull high speed wheelies across the dry lake bed!!!













After a brief rest back at camp we headed out for our second loop. Jim wanted to take us to the top of a nearby hill for a bird's eye view of the area. Dean dropped his bike a couple of times on the way up to the hill... but hung in there and made it to the top. It was a great view and we were having fun.















There was one rather steep and tricky section on the ride down the hill where Dean fell and smacked his elbow. He learned the importance of keeping his feet on the pegs to provide better balance and control of the rear brake. Charlie and Jim helped Dean get down the hill and back on his bike. We continued on to a very sandy area where Dean then dropped his bike and burned his right calf on the exhaust header pipe. Ouch! After playing possum for a few minutes we got him back down the hill and to camp where we dressed his burn and took a break.











After another brief rest Harry, Jim, Chris and Bret headed off for another loop. Charlie took Dean and Jason in his truck over to the shooting area and set up some targets. The riders finished their loop over by the shooting hill and we had some fun plinking with the 22 LR pistol. We gave Chris the nickname of Clintopher since he was clearly the best shot of the bunch (probably a result of way too many hours playing video games!).




We packed up and left at about 5:30 or so and headed to Hemet for dinner with our parents/grandparents. We met at the local Mexican resturant and had a tasty and filling meal. Dad brought his recently refurbished '65 Mustang GT clone which everyone enjoyed seeing and hearing. We all made it home safe and sound that night and had a great time. Thanks to Jim for suggesting such a convenient riding place! Thanks to Dad for a great dinner!

Baja 800 - Day 3 (Mike's back to HSV)

Sunday, Oct 19, 2008 - We woke up to another beautiful and clear day in Baja. We had breakfast at 7:30 am along with the same bunch of guests. After breakfast we settled our bill ($60 per person for room and meals plus booze), packed our gear, inspected our bikes, and then headed out via the goat trail behind Mike's towards VDT at 8:35 and 342 miles from HSV.

You can see the beginning of the goat trail behind the blue Mike's sign in these pictures. The first hour or so of this trail was by far the most challenging part of our ride. It began as a moderately steep, narrow, rocky, and curvy path up a ridge. Jim and Harry made it to the top OK. Charlie twice took some bad bounces off rocks and almost went off the cliff. He had to stop his bike, move it back on the trail, restart the bike and continue. The trail got even more challenging as we continued with combinations of rocks, steep up and down slopes, and curves. Harry and Jim made good progress while Charlie took his time slowly navigating the obstacle course. This route would be a trials rider's dream! The goat trail eventually merged into a more typical dirt road and then with the same road that we took into Mikes from VDT. We returned to VDT at 11:00 to refuel at 377 miles from HSV.

We continued up Hwy 3 to Independencia where we filled up our tanks, drank some fluids, and bought some snacks at 11:25 am and 395 from HSV. We continued up Hwy to the Pino Real turnoff towards Laguna Hanson and Rancho El Alacran at 12:10 and 418 miles from HSV. At 12:30 and 429 miles from HSV we stopped at a stream, ate our snacks, and rested for 15 minutes.

We returned to Hacienda Santa Veronica at 2:10 and 472 total miles. We arrived before most of the other riders even though we took the slower more challenging route out of Mike's. We had a wonderful ride with no breakdowns or injuries. Harry was a great tour guide and kept us on the right paths. Harry and Jim generally rode at a faster pace than Charlie and patiently waited for him at all major intersections and break points.

We loaded up the bikes, paid our parking fee ($5/day), changed into our street clothes, and headed back at around 3:00. There was a 35 minute wait at the Tecate border crossing and then smooth driving home. We stopped at Philippe's in Jamul for a nice Italian dinner from 4:00-5:00. We then returned to Harry's house, and unloaded the bikes & trailer. Jim and Charlie left Harry's house at about 7:30. Charlie returned to his home in Thousand Oaks at 9:45 pm and 540 miles round trip in the Ridgeline.

Baja 800 - Day 2 (San Felipe to Mike's Sky Rancho)

Saturday, Oct 18th, 2008 - We woke up early in the morning after a good nights sleep. It was another beautiful clear and hot day in Baja!

We inspected the bikes and re-torqued all of the bolts. After cleaning up we walked along the waterfront and watched the fishermen and rowers. We then went up the street from the hotel to Georges for a good hearty breakfast. We packed up, checked out and left the Caribe hotel at 9:20 am.

We topped off our tanks at the Pemex off Hyw 5 in San Felipe at 211 miles from HSV. We then continued up Hwy 5 for a mile or two and turned left up the dirt road towards the trash dump. We hit some deep sand with lots of whoops for many miles before we hit the well graded dirt road. We continued on the graded road for another few miles at high speed until we made a right into the deep sand. We had to go full throttle in high gears while leaning back through the deep sand in order to keep the tires from getting swallowed. We followed the deep sand wash for what seemed like a good 10 miles traveling at 40-50 MPH. You had to stay focused to stay in the right line, make the turns, and avoid hitting the sandy banks, bushes, or debris in the wash. Although challenging, it wasn't as bad as our trip in Feb when there were a lot more whoops.


At the end of the sand wash we turned right along a raised bank for a mile or so until we found another wash that led to Laguna Diablo... the dry lake bed. We blasted across Laguna Diablo in top gear following one of the packed trails for most of the way. At one point we stopped to take pictures and practice wheelies. We then continued across the lake bed which ended at 250 miles from HSV. We went up the sand berm, turned left, and then a long gradual right hand sweeper to the long straight shot back to Hwy 3. We hit Hwy 3 at 11:00 am and 255 miles from HSV.

After riding along the highway we took a 5 mile off-road detour to the right along the canyon floor. This was sandy with lots of curves, bushes, and debris. After hitting another trash dump we got back on the highway. We headed up the highway to Valle De Trinidad (VDT) where we stopped to re-fuel at the Pemex at 11:45 and 282 miles from HSV. At noon we ate lunch next door to the Pemex at Luncheria Ebdi which was clean, inexpensive, and had good food.

After lunch we continued northwest up Hwy 3 for about 1-2 miles and took an off-road detour on the goat trail off the right of the road. Our intent was to "get lost" for a couple of hours before returning to VDT for fuel and then heading to Mikes. This detour was the most challenging part of our trip so far and a good preparation for what was still ahead. The goat trail went up a rocky ridge starting as a single track with a drop off to the highway on one side and a wall on the other. We had to just point our bikes up the trail, accelerate, and hope we'd make it because there was no room for error or turning around. At the top of the rocky ridge it turned into a typical Baja trail with sections of deep sand, dirt, turns, bushes, and debris. We followed this for several miles, got lost by a squash farm, and then headed back towards Hwy 3. Jim, who has always had a keen interest in geology, stopped to take pictures of some interesting rock formations. We returned to VDT at 2:00 and 314 miles from HSV to re-fuel, drink some fluids, and a brief rest. We met some other riders that we saw when taking off from Santa Veronica. They had just returned from Mikes's Sky Ranch which was our next destination. They wished us good luck because the got two flat tires and one of the Suzuki DRZ dirt bikes lost a water pump on the way up.

At 2:30 we drove through the town of VDT up to the main dirt road for 11 miles, then made a left turn for 7.4 miles, and then turned again on another dirt road for another 11 miles to arrive at Mike's Sky Rancho at 3:30 and 342 miles from HSV.

It was a beautiful and clear afternoon at Mike's. We refreshed with some cold beers from the bar at Mike's. Harry dove into the pool for a quick and refreshing dip. We were amazed to see a guy on a brand new BMW 1200 GS Adventurer fully loaded with saddle bags, crash bars, GPS, camping equipment, etc. This guy even brought his own stash of beer! It's amazing that he made it to Mike's given that he was a new rider with no off-road experience. A couple of the other guests probably saved the BMW owners bike and his life by talking him out of attempting the goat trail route out the back side of Mike's. The BMW owner was riding with a guy that had an old Kawasaki KLR 650 he got for free with 80% street tires and a used motor from eBay that he installed just before the ride. This was the oddest pairing of bikes I've seen.

We met a couple of great guys at the pool while drinking beers and had dinner with them. It turned out that one of the guys, Jimmy N. Roberts, is a very accomplished off-road racer and stunt man. He's featured in a movie called Dust to Glory... which Harry and I still need to see. He also did the awesome stoppie on the "Triumph Speed Triple" in the MI2 movie featuring Tom Cruise (yes, it turns out that Tom doesn't do all of his own stunts!). Jimmy and his buddy Ed J. were great fun and had wonderful stories. The closest we came to solving world problems was the idea of requiring people to ride treadmills to power TVs. We figured that this would help with the energy crisis, global climate change, and improve fitness for couch potatoes.

Baja 800 - Day 1 (Hacienda Santa Veronica to San Felipe)

Friday, Oct 17th, 2008 - This was the first day of the first Baja ride for Clark brothers Harry, Jim, and Charlie. Although Harry has ridden in Baja many times, Charlie has only ridden there once and this was the first time for Jim. Consequently, Harry was the designated tour leader for this trip.

We attached a trailer to Charlie's Honda Ridgeline and loaded up the bikes at Harry's house in Temecula, CA. Charlie brought Harry's 1996 Honda XR600R, Jimmy brought Harry's 1999 Yamaha WR 400, and Harry brought his 2006? KTM 525 EXC. We hit the highway at 7:09 am.

We bought Mexican insurance just before the Tecate border crossing (~$54 for $25K coverage). We then crossed the border into Tecate Mexico with no traffic or wait. We took the freeway (not quota) towards Mexicali until we saw the billboard for Hacienda Santa Veronica (HSV) on the right. We then headed down the dirt road, turned right at the Y by the big trees and arrived at HSV a little after 10:00. We unloaded the bikes, changed into our riding gear, and began our ride at 11:00 am. It was a clear and hot day (~90F) with a light breeze.



We headed south on the main dirt road for 32 miles before turning left by the big Oak trees on the dirt road towards Parque Nacional Constitucion and Laguna Hanson. This first warm-up leg was rather fast on a mostly wide and well scraped dirt road. There are enough turns, dips, and sandy sections to make it interesting.

The landscape changed to include more turns, hills, and trees on the road towards Parque Nacional Constitucion and Laguna Hanson. We arrived at Rancho Rodeo Del Rey at 12:25 for a lunch stop (56 miles from HSV). This was a nice, clean, relatively new place with camping and a restaurant. They also sold gas and are building a new hotel. We had a good typical lunch of mini burritos, salsa, and beans with plenty of water.

We re-fueled our bikes and continued on to Laguna Hanson which was dry. There was no visible water. The only signs of moisture was where some cattle were laying in the mud. We continued on to the Old Saw Mill which wasn't more than a few ramshackle houses at an intersection.



Our plan was to take a known dirt road down to the town of Hereos De La Independencia. Unfortunately, a sign stated that the road was closed and suggested an alternate route where "turn on the section heading down to Ojos Negros"... or something like that. We had a long ride ahead of us and Harry didn't want to ride all the way towards Ojos Negros due to the extra miles and time. Consequently, we turned left at what looked like an unused truck road/wash. We took this for many miles and came across a couple of ranches. During one of the more open sections Charlie and Jim both hit a hidden object (probably a half buried rock) head on at about 35-40 MPH. The impact was like hitting a curb and shocked them both. Fortunately neither of them lost their teeth and they didn't bend their rims or get flat tires. At times it seemed like we were heading in the wrong direction. We finally hit a section that looked familiar to Harry (a road marked Pino Real) and ended up on Highway 3 at Independencia where we filled up our tanks from a vendor selling gas from plastic 1 gallon Sunny Delight bottles (total of 111 miles from HSV).

We headed southeast on Hwy 3 passing the turnoff to Mike's Sky Ranch at 140 miles at about 4:15. It was getting late in the day and Charlie was tired so Harry and jim agreed to take the highway the rest of the way to San Felipe and save the more challenging Laguna Diablo and miles of thick sand wash for another day. We passed the Laguna Diablo turnoff at 160 miles, continued on the the military checkpoint at the Highway 5 intersection. We headed south on Hwy 5 in search of gas. We filled our tanks at the first Pemex station before San Filipe (total of 200 miles from HSV). We then continued on to San Felipe and checked into the Hotel Caribe one block north of the water (208 miles from HSV). This was the same nice, clean, relatively new hotel that Harry and Charlie stayed at in Feb with the LeMay group. We met a couple of nice guys from Colorado that were riding their KTMs down the entire length of Baja. We ate dinner along the boardwalk at ???, then watched the moon rise over the water. It was a long first day for us, we were tired, and slept well.