bfar33

Ah OK yeah, just reviewed the map. I don't remember any big moguls on the Borrego Mountain Dropoff. There may have been some but I just remember it was very soft sand. I did not climb that one (or even consider it haha). I'd love to go back and explore the Borrego Sink area, as well as the trails heading into the badlands towards Font's Point. I also need to go back and look for that marker because I probably rode right past it. 😖

😲 Good Lord you guys are hardcore 😲

I parked at the Pinyon trailhead and looped through Borrego Springs after housing an entire burrito. I was short on time so skipped going through Ocotillo Wells and took the shortcut past the Slot. (waved at the parking attendants collecting $9 from each passing vehicle on a dirt road in the middle of the desert!) 🤡 Borrego Mountain droppoff (Diablo drop?) was still moguled out. I took the right hand side and made it to the last mogul before almost ghosting the bike over the top, was able to ride up the last mogul from a stop which surprised me. I rode back down it on the center line which was much rougher/looser/deeper. I'd need a dirt bike to even attempt to climb that one I think. I didn't look at the LHS route but it looked like very deep sand. Is Borrego Sink Wash the area south of Borrego Mnt Dropoff? It's definitely my plan to start exploring south and east of there, Fish creek is absolutely gorgeous but can be crowded which is great when you need help but bad when you're tired of breathing dust. If riding up Heart Attack Hill is against park regulations or a ranger said not to do it then I wouldn't (don't want to ruin my social credit score🤠), but if it's just a note on a map I'd probably attempt it anyway as long as I had some backup.

Wow that was incredible!

Yup pretty much, plus I accepted the Diablo climb challenge and took Montezuma/Culp/Grapevine back to the start. One day I want to try and climb Heart Attack Hill but not solo. 😨

Love it, I'm a little leery of powdery dunes on a DR650 (the bike can do it fine but one mistake or lapse in concentration on my part can shoot me over the front like a ninja star). I would love to participate in Tom's inaugural PCP ride! If it's a dune-fest I'll just bring the 2-stroke. 350thumper PM'd me the map I'm looking for from Wilderness Press, and next time I'm out that way I'll grab all of the BLM maps I can. I'm a bit of a map hoarder so I would have done that upon first sight. 😎 I took the bush pig out last weekend and caught desert fever.

Would love to do that. Ideally looking to get away from the pole line roads and train tracks and silty 2-tracks and just ride through the desert but need to get familiar with the area first.

Thanks for the link, it looks like this will drop right into Gaia which is what I use. The Gaia overland map has missing/different/additional trails (CTM data vs Gaia on my phone shown below), I would hope the CTM data would be more accurate?

☹️ S'pose it's this ☹️

What is the Desert Dash and is there a way to get one of those maps?

🤯 WOW you are cool as a cucumber and tough as nails, you didn't even seem bothered by a broken leg. Just a bit annoyed haha. If that was me there would have been some screaming and some whining. Best of luck on a quick recovery!

Well done!

Alright I learned something this week! Good to know, I haven't looked at them since buying a truck a decade ago.

I wish the moto carriers would incorporate something like the 1up mountain bike carriers. They have an "anti-wobble" mechanism where you turn a bolt and it wedges a ball into a corner of the hitch, taking out all of the slop. I have one and transport an e-bike and you can off-road with no rocking/wobbling. Something like @nostep built would probably be the best and strongest option if available. I used to have a Joe-hauler for sport/dirt bikes and always wanted something that mounted into two hitch receivers instead of just one.

I have been using Gaia for a couple years as well and got the Outside+ subscription that includes trailforks for mountain bike trails. They work great and I also have a Garmin Edge cycle computer that automatically downloads any Trailforks routes I save online. Very easy to do. Lots of great maps on Gaia and you can download to the device for use without signal. I'm considering getting a cheap 2nd cell phone to mount on the DB/DS so I don't have to stop and pull out my cell phone so often though.

Any reason you're going asterisk instead of Pods or Mobius? I've been rolling the dice for too long, I'd like to get something to protect these ol' knees.

Yeeeeowch! Hope you at least had a scenic helicopter ride Bob. Cheers to a fast and full recovery!

I don't think he can rate his own trails, maybe someone should set up an exit survey for all participants. Level 1: Survived and would do again Level 2: Survived and would not ever do again Level 3: Did not survive Ribs are sore because I slipped on my spilled glass of Metamucil and fell down some stairs, landing on my life-alert necklace. Think I'll sit this one out and give 'em another week to heal.

Just want to point out that I played absolutely no part in this thread derailment whatsoever. I would love to go on this ride but don't have the fe501 yet, would a DR650 with a mildly sore rider survive? (I'd also have a fresh d606 rear but that doesn't seem to be a requirement of yours for desert riding 😁)

Looks like an absolute blast! Great routes and great riders.

I survived the one-handed drill OK (yeah that was incredibly helpful for me as well), but crashed after lunch in the 3rd area. My one-handed whiskey throttle was unfortunately not on purpose lol. Rode the last hour until the event ended, then could barely load my bike. You were riding great, wish I got half as much seat time as you seem to get. You are living life the right way!

Yeah was good to meet you briefly at their event on the 5th (love your Beta almost as much as your Desert-X). The dirt was so perfect! Picture of me on the bottom is about 5 minutes before I triple-crash-one-hand-whiskey-throttle-highside-launched myself into the air and landed on my ribs/spleen ooofffffff. It's been a painful week and will probably need another to recover. I doubt I broke a rib but it sure feels like it.

Gorgeous picture, you are good at that. And I wish I could go back in time and take the West38 class before I took a 990 to Baja in 2016. 😂 Padu if you or anyone else is taking this class again post up! I might consider doing it, especially if I end up on a big bike again. I think it takes balls or skill to get a big bike up on top of the powder and I don't have enough of either.

I will never get tired of hearing that bike! Looked like a ton of fun and you seem to be super comfortable in the sand. 🤘

If that hill is steeper than it looks I'm not sure I wanna see it in person. 😳 And I'm not sure if we find the soft spots or if they find us. Seems like a type of fate in my experience. The universe insists I remain humbled, especially if I'm on a nice bike haha. (Have some bruised ribs from Saturday to prove it) Looks like an incredible ride! Hope you're not done posting up pictures. I'm borrowing a buddies FE501 this winter and this is the type of stuff I want to do with it.