Big Bear Trail Riders Bar 10 ride

[Crawdaddy 97]

My friend Anthony and I headed out Thursday afternoon for Lost Wages. On Friday we rode ~70 miles around the Red Rock Canyon Area – nice scenic ride (~13 mile paved “Scenic Loop” and a few fire roads…..nothing overly technical but some nice scenery)

On Friday afternoon we headed up to Mesquite and met up with Strega, his friend Rey, DigDug, and Mickey…..and the ~66(?) other riders registered for the Big Bear Trail Riders Bar 10 ride…….it’s a scenic/non technical/”family” trail ride from Mesquite, NV. to the Bar 10 resort near the north rim of the Grand Canyon. The ride over to the Bar 10 is about ~90 miles and there are NO amenities in between……just wide open/beautiful country……

We passed this sign ~5 miles into the ride

Rest Stop photo. Left to right – Strega, Rey, Mickey (with extra gas can strapped on fender of KLX) and DigDug

Strega and Rey heading down the trail

Anthony and DigDug on their heals

Just past the halfway point on Sat we came across Butch Cassidy’s Hideout…..well, what’s left of it…..here I am stoking the (imaginary) fire

We arrived at Bar 10 around ~90 miles and 5 hours later (2:30pm)…..topped off the tanks and headed out to explore the two tracks leading over to the Grand Canyon from the Bar 10…..the River View and the Canyon View……

Here’s a shot along the River View trail……..very beautiful area that’s still in bloom…

DigDug heading down the River View Trail

My Favorite photo from this trip…..father and son (Doug and Mickey) heading down to view the Colorado River from the banks of the Grand Canyon.

Doug and Mickey in the distance at the River View Point

DigDug soaking in the sun/view/vibe looking DOWN river

Trail leading down to the river view point

Chris soaking in the sun/view/vibe looking UP river

Rafters floating by/below on the Colorado

Strega barely discernable down below on the trail back to the Bar 10.

On the way back to the Bar 10 we came across a Cabin near “Pa’s Pocket”……as the sign says, the “pockets” were developed in the 1920’s to hold water for sheep and cattle in the area belonging to the Bundy family.

The Cabin has all the first class amenities you’d expect to find at a five star resort…..

By the time we got back to the Bar 10 it was ~6pm, everyone had arrived, and dinner was about to be served…..our group of 70 accounted for every available parking spot/bed.

17 of us decided to crash on sleeping pads out on the back deck (I snapped this shot in the morning)......it was a beautiful/clear night.......the wind was howling and the night air was full of stars…..(we were also entertained by a symphony of snoring…..though I won’t mention any names …..REY)

Unfortunately Rey had a few crashes/issues with Strega’s KLX on Sat so he sat out the Sunday ride and the KLX went into one of trucks for the journey back……

So now we were down to 5 for Sunday……we started out after a hardy ranch breakfast and took a different route back…….we opted to take the hardway/optional track for the first 30 miles……..I didn’t snap any photos in this section because……well……. I was having too much fun out front (dust free)…….the trail made its way up through some rubble and into the local hills/pines where it became smooth as silk and bent through the trees……..startled a few deer along the way……really nice section of trail…….the rest of the gang arrived a bit later and we headed off on the final ~80 miles of track/trail……..then it happened…….I’ll let Strega take it from here……..

[Strega 0]

Too tired to post, haven't gotten the pics edited yet, but I decided to edit one before I crash. I'll have a full report in the morning, for now, you can take a look at this...

[Crawdaddy 97]

Too tired to post, haven't gotten the pics edited yet, but I decided to edit one before I crash. I'll have a full report in the morning, for now, you can take a look at this...

The Tugger I have attached to the rear of my frame more than paid for itself on this trip......I'd recommend it to anyone/everyone......really saved our bacon as a good/centered/secure anchor point for the tow strap. The Tuggger kept the strap balanced and centered over the rear fender/fenderbag as opposed to securing on one side or the other. Once we made it out to the dirt road we were able to hum along effortlessly at 35-40mph (easy for me to say, I wasn't getting pelted with rocks! Hey, I offered to slow down....)

[Strega 0]

Here are a few of my pics: (The entire gallery can be found HERE)

Start of the ride:

We came upon this:

Butch Cassidy's Hideout:

My WR overlooking the valley up to the Bar 10, looking West:

Chris stopping to make sure all was ok:

North Rim lookout:

Proof I was there:

The Canyon:

Looking rather dirty:

The bikes at the North Rim:

Pa's Pocket:

Roger, Mickey, Doug:

Ranger Station on the Hardway Loop:

The School house:

So this is where things went a little south....going up a small hill, the WR450 cut out, and would never see any spark again. We tore the bike down and tried to bypass everything, nothing worked, so it looked like we were gonna have to find a way to get my bike somewhere a truck could pick us up.

So Chris volunteered to tow me, and here it is:

"The Tugger" - http://www.thetugger.com saved my ass...

When we got up to about 40mph, I was getting destroyed by rocks, so I put my feet up on the radiator shrouds, and used the soles of my feet to protect me from the rock missiles.

This was an incredibly fun trip, and I plan on doing it again and again. Bike problems aside, it was really fun time. I can't thank everyone enough who put out effort on my behalf to help me try to resolve the issue with my WR. Big thanks to Crawdaddy for towing me FIFTY SEVEN miles to St. George so that Rey could drive Chris' truck there to pick us up. That was a REALLY long tow, and I think my left hand will recover from holding that strap sometime next week. Big thanks to Doug for making sure we had a ride from St. George and getting the logistics on that side ironed out while I was under tow.

Thanks everyone, hope you enjoyed the pics.

*EDIT*

I just ordered a 'tugger'

KLX had clutch had a broken pin of some kind - fixed.

WR had a stuck float - fixed

[dirt dame 589]

Looks like a really scenic ride and a whole lot of fun (except of course for the fizzling out and getting towed part) Maybe I'll get to do it some day.

[racerbill 0]

Did anyone get a GPS track for this ride and could you post it ?

[Crawdaddy 97]

You can download the tracks from the BBTR website:

http://bigbeartrailriders.com/content.aspx...p;item_id=44152

[DigDug 0]

Did anyone get a GPS track for this ride and could you post it ?

You can grab the tracks from the BBTR page: HERE

If you're going to ride it, make sure you pre-plan though. It's 100 miles to the Bar-10 ranch, and 115 miles back (if you do the optional return route) plus easily 30 or more miles tooling around once you get there. There's NOTHING once you leave mesquite except for the ranch. They don't have a gas station there, they were selling us gas out of gas cans (at $6 per gallon ). If you don't pre-coordinate your fueling (or if the ranch is closed), you could be stuck in the middle of nowhere with an empty tank.

Fun ride though... great scenery, a few good challenging sections, a few 70mph+ dirt roads in the middle of nowhere...

[sandiegoland 0]

Bravo!! Fantastic!

Spectacular scenery!!

That may be a local hero record on the towing! My strap has done about 25-30 miles, but that's over the course of 4 incidents...

[Crawdaddy 97]

That may be a local hero record on the towing! My strap has done about 25-30 miles, but that's over the course of 4 incidents...

It was my first "intra-state" tow.....put another way, I towed Roger from Arizona (BFE) to Utah (St. George) so that Rey could hop in my truck back in Nevada (Mesquite) and come pick us up

[Strega 0]

I've since bought 3 tuggers, 2 for the WR (Front and Rear) and 1 spare. Soon as the KLX gets back from the shop it's going on the market. It's good to go now. The $$ from the sale of the KLX will get the mods and the Dual Sporting done on the WR.

If anyone is interested in an 03 KLX 300 (Documented maint, clean title, etc), I'll open it up to the SDAR crew first before it goes to Craig's List.

[Crawdaddy 97]

My friend Anthony finally got around to downloading his pics yesterday:

Anthony's pics