Mammoth Ride 8/5 - 8/7 Bikes, Brews and Blues

[Dress4Less 162]

Thank you to Crawdaddy for organizing a ride around the Bikes, Brews & Blues Festival. Great tracks! Cdaddy offers lots of options for tracks depending on what you're up for. I rode with Slow Down aka: Ron. We did the Bode Loop north which was ~140 miles on Friday and then we rode the south loop on Saturday which took us ~80 miles around Crowley Lake and through Tom's place before returning to town. I saw Amgens aka: Jim and his crew, and others (Steve and his crew). Took a few pics...

On the way to Bode we were diverted by the Bald Mtn. fire on the trail. We literally got within ~50' of the flames. Luckily, there was a bail-out road just to the left us that would lead us to Lee Vining for gas. Ron taking a break on the trail to Bode after Lee Vining

Heading into Bode. It was pretty crowded at the entrance, so we just skirted around it and kept on going

After Bode we headed back towards Lee Vining

There were actually two fires in the area. One by Bald Mountain on the Bode loop and one just south of Crowley Lake and Tom's place.

Some of the scenery after Lee Vining

Dinner was included with the tickets to the Brews & Blues festival. GREAT BBQ!

Enjoying the sites on the south loop. We made a left turn after this pic and headed up the Valley in the pic behind Ron to the left...super scenic

We rode up the valley mentioned before (directly behind Ron) in this pic on the way to Crowley Lake.

At first sight, we though there was fog down in the valley below...but, it turned out to be smoke from the Bald Mtn fire

A couple of shots of some horses in a meadow...we also saw tons of cows, some sheep, coyotes, antelope, fox, GIANT Jack Rabbits, various squirrels and chipmunks and a lizard or two

Taking a break at the overview site by the Lake. We were actually receiving a slight "ash shower" from the fire to the south of us here

This Chinook was from Billings Montana! Fighting the fire south of Tom's Place. Flew directly over us to fill it's bucket. Huge Rotors on that puppy...

After the Festival there was a special free concert appearance by Lucas Nelson...son of Willie Nelson! The guy was simply amazing....his voice sounded a lot like his dad's...he played country, country rock and even some pretty hard rock. He absolutely owned his guitars...SO good! Needless to say....Saturday was a late night...

I had a fantastic time...if you have done this trip before you know what I mean. If you have not done this trip I HIGHLY recommend it! Thanks Ron for being a great riding buddy. No get offs, no flats, no mechanicals and good stories on the trail. Gotta love it...

 

[dirt dame 559]

Great write up and pix!

[Oracle 195]

The thumbs up, Chris!

[Crawdaddy 96]

Look at the back of your shirt.  "Bikes, Blues and Brews" NOT "Bikes, Brews and Blues"........I see where your priorities lay........ha!

35 riders.....5 of which were women riders.....

A fire that sparked up on Thursday interrupted a portion of the Bodie Loop but I came up with a work around and other improvised in the field in realtime.

Fun had by all/no injuries. 

One of the ladies captured a nice beach wheelie of her husband riding along Crowley Lake:

 

[Covered in Dust 162]

Looks like fun was had by all. I would have been there if I wasn't called away to other things. Hopefully next year I'll make it again. It seems like there are fires everywhere out west this year. I was skirting them also in Wyoming and Idaho in the car and on the bike.

 

CiD

[amgems 79]

Awesome ride.

Again.

As usual.

Thanks Chris.

[Dress4Less 162]

5 hours ago, Crawdaddy said:

Look at the back of your shirt.  "Bikes, Blues and Brews" NOT "Bikes, Brews and Blues"........I see where your priorities lay........ha!

 

 

 

Guess it needs to be renamed...

[MacDuncan 131]

Nice write up Dress4less!  And Cool pics. Thanks, as I didn't get the camera out much on this ride.  Nice to see that Yamaha flying around the Sierras!  Sounds, and looks,  like you had a great time.

I skipped the Bodie ride on Sunday, but had those same water buckets above my head on Saturday.  Riding the east edge of Crowley and arriving upon that beautiful white sand beach with the lake as a back drop... with nobody there, was spectacular - great route!!! And then to drop down along the freeway to  ride along the broken asphalt road in order to enter the tunnel nears Tom's place... so dang nice!  On Friday, the Mammoth loop was great also, and a challenge as a couple of the climbs required a couple of tries  for this "still learning" rider (and his riding bud), but great routes and a great time!

Crawdaddy, Thanks again.  I really enjoyed the tracks and was impressed with how you connected so many routes to make the riding experience so variant and interesting. From single tracks where I wondered what the hell were you thinking... but loving every minute as I zoomed in my GPS  to make sure I didn't miss the hidden trail 4.5 feet to the right - haha- to the open road to the north of Crowley lake when I wanted the DRZ to go a lot faster than full throttle gave me....  I enjoyed every minute, even the few panicked ones where I thought I was in over my head - and I was - but all good  .  Thanks again, and good to see you at the Blues concert(s) as well.  Cheers. 

[Wierdrider 187]

Nice write up all, sounds Bitchen!

[MacDuncan 131]

Work is busy, these pics from less than a week ago help    Thanks Crawdaddy

Wish you were there   - some of you were!

[Dress4Less 162]

1 hour ago, MacDuncan said:

Work is busy, these pics from less than a week ago help    Thanks Crawdaddy

Wish you were there   - some of you were!

Awe yes...Crowley Lake...Slow Down's fave spot up there...