weeman 0 Posted February 1, 2012 Hey team, I am looking to find a route to get from San Diego (La Mesa) to Las Vegas all off road, if able. First thought was to join up with the LA-Barstow-Vegas route in Barstow and run in to vegas that way. As for getting out of San Diego, i'm thinking of jumping in at El Cap reservoir, running up the El Cajon Mtn Truck Trail west of El Cap to Eagle Peak Road up to Harrison Park Rd to 79. Right on 79 to a left on Mason Valley Truck Trail down to Carrizo Valley basin. I've heard a pretty common run is Pinyon Mtn to Fish Creek Pass out toward the Salton Sea. Anybody know any better routes or pieces that I'm missing?? I don't want to piss off any land issues or land owners and I'm not sure what the right route is to get on/go through Pinyon Mtn. Relatively new to running bikes out east...all insights would be appreciated. If anybody has insights or wants to guide/ride this weekend, I got a one day dirt bike hall pass for a day this weekend. right now, i have a bud from work that is interested. I am looking to make it a FULL day...leaving early (by 8) and coming back at dusk. I would consider us on the higher experienced level as riders...i'm a long time mtn bike convert; my bud has been riding dirt bikes his whole life. look forward to hearing from you all on this. ...could be a pretty cool new group ride if it morphs into that. will continue to post info as this comes together. thanks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SteelRain 0 Posted February 1, 2012 I have decent route a buddy and I did in May...but it is no less than 2.5 days and involves about 50 miles of pavement. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Czechsix 1 Posted February 1, 2012 I'm not much, if any help, but I'm certainly interested in hearing a ride report on this! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Strega 0 Posted February 1, 2012 I think its way too far to go in 1 day off road, 2 days is what that would take between SD and Vegas. Day 1 to Joshua Tree area, day two on to Vegas via Searchlight. Crawdaddy has tracks for this, it was our return route from LAB2V in 2008. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tntmo 887 Posted February 1, 2012 It's been a while since I've been out there, but El Cajon Mtn Trail was gated, along with Mason Valley Truck Trail the last time I checked. Gates might be the biggest issue to get started. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Crawdaddy 96 Posted February 1, 2012 Hey team, I am looking to find a route to get from San Diego (La Mesa) to Las Vegas all off road, if able. First thought was to join up with the LA-Barstow-Vegas route in Barstow and run in to vegas that way. As for getting out of San Diego, i'm thinking of jumping in at El Cap reservoir, running up the El Cajon Mtn Truck Trail west of El Cap to Eagle Peak Road up to Harrison Park Rd to 79. Right on 79 to a left on Mason Valley Truck Trail down to Carrizo Valley basin. I've heard a pretty common run is Pinyon Mtn to Fish Creek Pass out toward the Salton Sea. Anybody know any better routes or pieces that I'm missing?? I don't want to piss off any land issues or land owners and I'm not sure what the right route is to get on/go through Pinyon Mtn. Relatively new to running bikes out east...all insights would be appreciated. If anybody has insights or wants to guide/ride this weekend, I got a one day dirt bike hall pass for a day this weekend. right now, i have a bud from work that is interested. I am looking to make it a FULL day...leaving early (by 8) and coming back at dusk. I would consider us on the higher experienced level as riders...i'm a long time mtn bike convert; my bud has been riding dirt bikes his whole life. look forward to hearing from you all on this. ...could be a pretty cool new group ride if it morphs into that. will continue to post info as this comes together. thanks. You're going to be locked out at El Cap and Mason.... There's really just one way through Pinyon....hard to get lost there Plan on two days minimum and more pavement than you probably want. Day one across Pinyon, Truckhaven, 86, Box Canyon, Joshua Tree to 29 Palms. Day two you could either head towards Barstow (longer) or head straight north on Amboy Rd./Kelbaker, some of Mojave Rd., Primm, LA-B-V route from Sandy Valley. You could make it a bit more "dirty" after 29 Palms.....but I think you'd need 3 days if you did that..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AATA 0 Posted February 1, 2012 I'm not sure if you plan to make it in one day this weekend or if you just mean you want to explore options in the San Diego area for a later date, but I would love to join this ride. I was looking at maps the day I got back from LAB2V to figure out how to ride from San Diego next year or even sooner. This is on my things to do list, so it would be great to join ride. Like others have mentioned, the problem I found was a lot of areas have closed gates and there would be a lot of pavement. If we can find a better route than I found, I'm in. Thank you! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
weeman 0 Posted February 2, 2012 Craw daddy, where does the pinyon Mtn trail start? I hear you may have some gps points you may be willing to share? ATAA, I was just looking to explore this weekend...sounds like el cap to mason truck trail may be a waste of time...but my buddy and I were looking to do a FULL day on the bikes on Saturday...leaving early early and coming home at dusk. If I can't figure out the pinyon Mtn to fish creek pass, we may hit up some areas my neighbor told me about off I-8 near mt tule. If you are interested, let me know. There are three or four of my co-workers and I that are looking at doing the SD to Vegas trip at the end of march (weekend around the 23rd). We would probably be coming back ( vegas to sd) a week or two later. then the same scenario again same thing different route in April. If you want in on one of those...I'll keep you posted. Thanks for all the info everyone. If anyone else has other info I'm all ears. Meanwhile, I'll keep this updated if we find smthg worthwhile. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
weeman 0 Posted February 2, 2012 I have decent route a buddy and I did in May...but it is no less than 2.5 days and involves about 50 miles of pavement. If you have some directions or gps points you're willing to share, that would be awesome. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SteelRain 0 Posted February 2, 2012 If you have some directions or gps points you're willing to share, that would be awesome. I would be happy to share what I have, that is the beauty of doing these rides. I'll get it to you next week when I get back to SD Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
weeman 0 Posted February 24, 2012 Initial date for the SD-Vegas ride has been set ... 21-23 MARCH up and then 6-7 APRIL back down. After we finish the ride I'll be sure to try to post some info for those interested...that is, if there are any interested. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Czechsix 1 Posted February 24, 2012 Hell yeah I'm interested in seeing what you find out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
weeman 0 Posted March 18, 2012 UPDATE! well...have spent the last couple weeks looking at bingmaps (scary i know!) and ordering charts and learning how to use dualsportmaps.com to help borrow, build and edit our projected route from SD to Vegas. It will be just barely under 1000 miles round trip over two different weekends (up...work requirements for two weeks...then back). We are planning on 2 nights camping on the way up and 1 night on the way back. General trail up is SD to Ramona (road...booo!) to Warner Spgs to Anza to Palm Desert to Yucca Valley to Daggett (Barstow) to Baker (for gas) then Old Mojave Road to Bullhead City and then Vegas via Hoover Dam (thought that would be an epic way to end a great route). General trail home is Vegas to Needles (different track than way up) to Desert City to Mecca (Palm Springs) to Julian via the Ocotillo and Anza Borrego tracks. Only have time for two days on the way back so at some point around the Salton Sea I may have to hop on the tarmac and just get home. Other buds may continue the ride as planned since they have an extra day. If any of you are experienced with these areas and have any inputs/cautions, I'd love to hear them. Route as planned is on the DSM website - http://www.dualsportmaps.com/?link=103182. We are leaving on Thursday and trying to get last minute details together. We did a 50 mile technical romp out from Pine Valley to Corral Canyon last weekend and didn't get hurt or destroy the bikes, so we are feeling good on that. Hoping to average 25 mph during the trip, which we realize is pretty quick in the big picture of things. Hopefully we'll have time to stop for a few shots, where we do, i'll try to upload post-ride info both once we get to vegas and then again when we make it back to SD (hopefully in one piece and without too many bumps and bruises!!). Wish us luck...we'll need it!!! Cheers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cap'n 0 Posted March 21, 2012 Man...this is exactly the kind of ride I was wanting to do. But I JUST registered on SDAR today..and it looks like you're leaving tomorrow? Man, can't do that. But I'll be VERY interested in the ride report so I can copy your successes....and avoid your mistakes. Have fun! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
weeman 0 Posted March 22, 2012 Man...this is exactly the kind of ride I was wanting to do. But I JUST registered on SDAR today..and it looks like you're leaving tomorrow? Man, can't do that. But I'll be VERY interested in the ride report so I can copy your successes....and avoid your mistakes. Have fun! Cap'n...no worries. I'll update the route when we get back which is going to be in a couple weeks. Right now the biggest problem is that after building the routes on Dualsportmaps.com (which was easy and awesome) my Garmin (Nuvi 500) won't direct me along the actual tracks i built...it is only picking up the major towns and directing me via the quickest/shortest routes which means roads (boooooo!). So lesson learned #1: don't buy a gps two days before your ride and expect it to work as you hoped. Luckily I printed and created map books of the entire route, so we "should" still be able to find our way...that and/or i'll be imputting ALOT of manual waypoints. Life is tough, when you're dumb. theweeman Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SteelRain 0 Posted March 22, 2012 When you get back i can teach you the system... and a solid workaround Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AATA 0 Posted May 24, 2012 I was curious how this ride went or how the tracks you made worked out? The link to Dual Sport Maps didn't work in an earlier post. Can you possibly post it again if it worked. Thank you! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
weeman 0 Posted May 27, 2012 Ok...sorry for the absurd delay. First of all...the trip was AWESOME and please allow me to make a shout out for my WR250R (now named: MINI TENE). Little bike rocked it...both up and back, with the giant loop and gear...in all conditions. I realize none of you care about it, but if someone is reading this and wondering if the 2008-current Yamahas are a viable option for serious adventure riding...THEY DEFINITELY ARE! So the Goal: To ride from SD (Grossmont area) to Las Vegas with as little road as possible. Ultimate result: Over two and a half days covered ~500 miles. Probably covered 70% of the trip off road...more if you take out the obligatory start (SD to Ramona) and run-in to Vegas. Steele Rain...you were right, more road than I wanted...but in hind sight...not too shabby. General Route Taken: SD - Ramona (road); Ramona-Anza (85% Dirt); Anza-Palm Desert (Road - was supposed to be 60% dirt but trail was closed/private property); Palm Desert-Yucca Valley (50/50); Yucca Valley - Daggett (95% Dirt); Daggett - Baker (99% Dirt); Baker - Needles (99% dirt - Took Old Mojave road - THE BEST SECTION OF THE RIDE BY FAR!); Needles - Vegas (50/50- came in to see hoover dam as a cool way to end the ride but forced us to ride the last 40 miles on the road...just no way around it). We camped 2 nights: first night on the Morango Valley trail overlooking Yucca Valley. The second night was about 20-25 miles outside (east) of Baker on the beginning portion of the Mojave Trail. We generally got up around 6:30am. Ate and packed up our tents and hit the trails by 0800. We took our time partially to give the sun time to come up and warm us up a bit. We would ride til mid-afternoon until we could get to a town and get lunch...normally around 2pm. Then get back on the bikes around 3 and ride until 8-8:30p. This normally meant the last hour or so was riding in the dark. we'd set up camp ... have a few brew-ha-has and call it. The ride was absolutely awesome. I would recommend it to everyone. We were motoring pretty hard (my bud's joke was that I wouldn't go anywhere at less than 40 mph!). Across the basin of the Mojave Trail, we were clocking 55-60mph. Probably not smart for the terrain or my skill level ... or the level of severity that would have ensued if we had gone down at that speed that far from help...but we did it. I mention this not to try to show how tough (read: stupid) i am, but more so to support Steele Rain's comment that the trip is no joke 3 riding days minimum. I don't think we could have gone faster over the route we took. We did get turned around trying to get out of Ramona of all places...and that ate up a couple hours of back tracking. There were a couple other spots where trails were closed or turned out to be private property, but that was mostly in SOCAL. Once north of Yucca Valley we didn't get lost much at all. The Garmin NUVI 500 worked great...though i did end up staying up until 2am the night before we left punching in GPS points. Steele...would LOVE to learn your work arounds b/c that sucked! HA! One note on the Garmin Nuvi 500. I bought it 2 days before we left...so i didn't have a chance to run through all of its capes before we left, but it is completely easy to use. AND the touch screen works with gloves on...it has a pressure sensor that allows it to work w/ gloves where my iPhone doesn't. Also, i got the $30 Garmin holder that connects to the Ram Mounts. Thing worked great. I was scared i'd loose it on the tough terrain, but never did...and there was a time or two that i slammed into it with my chest as my steed was trying to buck me off!! don't worry ... i stayed on! HA! Also installed simple wiring from my battery so it was powered the whole time. Great set up using standard battery tender connections. and please note: I am NOT an electrician and was still able to figure it out! Up side...the ride up was great. The down side: we were in Vegas for two weeks for work...so the middle weekend (if you will) we went out exploring up near Mt. Charleston (Saturday) and then through Lake Meade area (Sunday). Saturday night we went to best buy and i bought a GoPro so we had it for sunday's ride and the ride back. Unfortunately, as luck would have it...as we were heading back on a powerline trail - completely slow of course... my riding bud went over the bars and broke his collar bone in three places. Random. I took the shots from that morning, including his crash footage and made a video of it. you can see it on youtube here: ( ). We weren't really good at stopping to take a whole lot of pictures, so most of our good photos from the trip up are in this video at the end. So i had to ride home alone the following weekend and with that rode back pretty much on the tarmac as i didn't want to be stuck and/or broken in a ditch by myself somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Yeah...kinda sallyed-out on the return. Plus our work took an extra couple days more than expected so i didn't have the time needed for a 3 day return trip. What was good about this part of the trip is i got to see how the Mini Tene handled the road. It was great. Just as comfy as i remember my old KLR i used to have (let's face it a dirt bike on the tarmac is only ever going to be so good). But i did come up on a group of you BMW GS-ers out in the middle of nowhere off RT 66 about 40 miles northeast of 29 palms. Should have stopped and chatted a little more, but the Mini Tene was raring to keep going. So we did. Couple notes on the ride: 1) call me if you're going to go...i want to do it again! 2) longest leg of the route we rode was across the Mojave Trail (Baker to Daggett) at just over 100 miles. My bud's KTM ran out of gas about a mile from the gas station. Otherwise, you're looking at 80-85 miles at the longest stretch from Yucca Valley to Daggett. 3) I know there are some trails that a lot of people use from Baker to Vegas staying north of the 15. I'm glad we didn't because apparently there were trophy trucks running out there which we didn't know about. That would have sucked. 4) This trip has everything...in every condition. We hit deep soft talcom powder, hard rocky sections, sahara-like dunes, fast sections, river beds, rocky river beds, sandy river beds, whoops, rollers, hill climbs, etc. 5) My bud has a KTM 950, XR650 and his new KTM 350 EXCF that he crashed (see video) and has been riding his whole life. In his opinion, the bigger bikes might have had a hard time on the trails we rode...(Steel Rain: you are of course the exception! Anyone wheeling a big rig can do whatever he wants!!!) Honestly though, the bigger bikes would have a tough time in some of the softer sections...especially loaded down. If you have any other questions...feel free to shoot me an email (todd.a.pike@gmail.com) and check out my video...nothing crazy but at least it has a decent soundtrack!! HA! keep the rubber side down! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
weeman 0 Posted May 27, 2012 When you get back i can teach you the system... and a solid workaround would like to hear what you got. typing in the coords for 40 random points along the way sucked. thought the system should be able to take me directly along the track if downloaded gpx files. any info is appreciated. ride report posted as well. you were right...2.5 days min. cheers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DustyRock 0 Posted May 28, 2012 Neat RR,thanks for sharing. Bummer about the C-Bone.... Very nice video editing, I have a Contour camera and need editing software, which one do you use ? Thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
weeman 0 Posted May 28, 2012 Neat RR,thanks for sharing. Bummer about the C-Bone.... Very nice video editing, I have a Contour camera and need editing software, which one do you use ? Thanks I just used my basic mac iMovie stuff we have...that and my GoPro. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DustyRock 0 Posted May 28, 2012 Neat RR,thanks for sharing. Bummer about the C-Bone.... Very nice video editing, I have a Contour camera and need editing software, which one do you use ? Thanks I just used my basic mac iMovie stuff we have...that and my GoPro. The Contour spits out .MOV files, I dont have a MAC and the windows movie editor I find isnt real friendly. I think I should purchase the Imovie software. Thanks. I like the way you edited the video. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
weeman 0 Posted May 28, 2012 Thanks...it was the final redeeming quality of the ride. We were both more than a little bummed about the injury and missing the route back. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
weeman 0 Posted May 28, 2012 Final update. If you want to see the route we went, they are over on dualsportmaps.com. Direct link to my tracks here: http://www.dualsportmaps.com/?link=103221 Another side note: Make sure you have good GPS points/tracks to get you to and across Soda Lake (south of the 15 between Daggett and Baker). The majority of the OMT is well marked with rocks, but in this particular area the sand was very dune-ish and we lost the official trail for a bit. Kept heading East-North-East and everything worked out...but just in case. If i think of anything else in the next day or two...i'll post it; otherwise just give me a shout here or via email. TP Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
