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Ride Report OW to Blythe

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Awesome Ride !! I had sooooo much fun. Went pretty damn good for an un-organized ride. Every single thing promised, was delivered 😉. 364 Miles. Looong ride. Thanks to all the riders for showing up, and keeping it moving. You guys did an awesome job !! We covered a lot of ground. Two days of beautiful weather. 50's early in the mornings, 70's during most of the ride. We had a group of 9 great riders. No flats, no soil testing. Some guys had luggage issues. The trails were very rough in some areas. The side by side vehicles are really making a mess out there. They create this washboard surface. Plays hell with luggage. I got one still shot I'll post up here. Some GoPro videos will come up later. Some of the guys have lots of photos, I'm sure they will be posting soon. Start posting ! Reviews are welcome, but will most likely be ignored.

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If you have, post the GPS file for back tracking please. I like to find more ways with hardpack roads.

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1 hour ago, amgems said:

Awesome Ride !! I had sooooo much fun. Went pretty damn good for an un-organized ride. Every single thing promised, was delivered 😉. 364 Miles. Looong ride. Thanks to all the riders for showing up, and keeping it moving. You guys did an awesome job !! We covered a lot of ground. Two days of beautiful weather. 50's early in the mornings, 70's during most of the ride. We had a group of 9 great riders. No flats, no soil testing. Some guys had luggage issues. The trails were very rough in some areas. The side by side vehicles are really making a mess out there. They create this washboard surface. Plays hell with luggage. I got one still shot I'll post up here. Some GoPro videos will come up later. Some of the guys have lots of photos, I'm sure they will be posting soon. Start posting ! Reviews are welcome, but will most likely be ignored.

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Great job Jim! Glad to hear everyone had a fun ride! Looking forward to seeing you soon with the Kendall's Club! I'm heading out to explore the Dez in about 30 minutes!

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How was Bradshaw? Was it total washboard?

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19 minutes ago, Dress4Less said:

How was Bradshaw? Was it total washboard?

I rode Bradshaw\Red Canyon last spring and it was horrendous. The SXS crowd from Glamis North campground has pretty much destroyed the riding in that area. The BLM doesn't seem to have much interest so I don't see it improving in the near future.

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1 hour ago, Dress4Less said:

How was Bradshaw? Was it total washboard?



Yeah, it's pretty trashed up.

But Jim's assessment and description of the ride was fairly accurate. Except there were no bombs as promised in the brochure. There was a boat, I guess.

Great ride, great folks. Thanks to the leader, organizer and Responsible party, Amgems. Which is backwards for....

  • Haha 1

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2 hours ago, paulmbowers said:

Amgems. Which is backwards for....

I wish that you didn't do that Paul!

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1 hour ago, SoCalMule said:

I wish that you didn't do that Paul!

Hey, don’t blame the messenger!

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1 hour ago, paulmbowers said:

Hey, don’t blame the messenger!

And a fine message it is! 

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9 hours ago, Dress4Less said:

How was Bradshaw? Was it total washboard?

Just a small bit of the western area. The rest of it was fast and smooth. The new scourge of the earth for dirt bike riders, side by sides. Anywhere green stickers are allowed, and it is soft, those things tear it up. I don't mind it. Just like whoops, just a part of trail riding. Gotta have a solid luggage setup for that stuff. 

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4 hours ago, paulmbowers said:

Hey, don’t blame the messenger!

My fault. Shoulda never mentioned it. Amgems new scourge, his name 😀

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9 hours ago, paulmbowers said:



Yeah, it's pretty trashed up.

But Jim's assessment and description of the ride was fairly accurate. Except there were no bombs as promised in the brochure. There was a boat, I guess.

Great ride, great folks. Thanks to the leader, organizer and Responsible party, Amgems. Which is backwards for....

X2 !! Thanks Jim 

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Well then, show us the Luggage, if that was the most dramatic action. Luggage fail video, what da' ya' got?

              🕵️‍♂️

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28 minutes ago, Bagstr said:

. Luggage fail video, what da' ya' got?

              

Thank you, Mr Schadenfreude!

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This is the Internet, right! 

         👀

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Thanks Jim for a great ride.  Fun times and great group to ride with.  Pretty minor issue with the luggage considering the pace and terrain.  Let's do another soon.

 

 

 

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Sure looks like a nice weekend.  Thanks for the report.

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Mr. Amgems, 

Thank you so very much for the great ride!  Your preparation and organization did not go unnoticed, and was truly appreciated by all.  The fact that you had prepared specific main routes, and side options for additional extra nice riding routes, and pointed out geological info, and shared historical happenings, and supplied bail out options, .....  and that you had printed maps for every member of the ride who wasn't riding with GPS, was impressive. 

It is not an easy task to guide 9 riders across almost 4 hundred miles of mostly rough terrain and sustain a good consistent pace.  It was so nice that every rider was well prepared to keep moving with almost no thoughts of lounging.  Of course, there can be delays due to unforeseen issues that arise, but in every one of those instances, a quick recovery with all hands on deck to get going was the theme, and then zip zam zoom again.  

From what I saw, I think there were 4 naps in total.  2 of them a zero mph, and the other 2 in tight sand at under 5 mph.  One of those caused a luggage failure, and that bag was found a time or 2 on route. The route had some bumps and chatter, so some luggage got bounced enough to pop free, slide too far to one side, have a strap break, or have a bolt jiggle out or break, but they were all fixed sufficiently with the help of group members to keep the journey moving at pace, and nobody had to bail.  At times, we had to slightly back track to find some dropped items, but it was re-packaged and on we went. Some of us plan to "UP" our luggage configurations for the next ride  :)   However, a few luggage issues on the ride did not detrimentally effect the success of the trip. Heck, without that, there would have been no challenges at all, everything would have been absolutely perfect, and that would have been too easy for a strong group like us - smiles.    NOTE:   No flats, and no major mechanicals, and no bifs, and of course, no rider boo boos - are always welcome on a long adventure ride!

There was some variance in the ride experience due to dust, and it was a bit dusty at times if you were not the leader or second rider (or a third rider snuggled up tight to the other 2 to avoid the dust bomb). But beyond that, some distance needed to take place between riders to have good visibility (for safety) and a more pleasant ride. Luckily, especially across Bradshaw for 60-70 miles (at 40-60 mph), there was a nice cross wind that allowed each rider to ride just beyond the dust line and tossed rocks of the rider in front of them, at a fairly close distance.  That was super cool,  and when in the sweep position, there were spectacular views that could be had when all 8 riders ahead were in view, with a sideways dust trail from each, jamming across the desert lands. Also, there were times that standing side by side with a buddy worked well. Dang nice feeling, all of that, and for me, a shout of "Yahoo!!!" echoed through my helmet often (and it was always accompanied with a great Big Smile, Certainly, one of the reasons I ride!).

Of course, with 9 riders spread across the land, our train was around a half mile long, or longer at times. But still....Very Nice!  The only time it became London Fog, meaning, you really had to just sit and wait for it to clear, was along the Arizona side of the river. But once it cleared, that river was mighty pretty.  During those times, the Ham radios were stretched to their limit. Regardless, the radios were great. For safety, the lead and the sweep used radios to keep the group aligned and together.  It was also nice that some non-licensed riders used radios to listen to warnings as well.  "Jeep on the right", or "Broken Trailer in the road" or "left in a half mile", or "luggage looks funky"  :)  .  

Our route was quite simple, essentially, OW Ranger station, west and then east through O Wells, through TruckHaven, up to Mecca, around the Salton Sea, Lunch at Glamis North, check out an oasis, east across Bradshaw to our wonderful Motel 6.  Sunday Morning, east on 10 to Arizona, down the river to Palo Verde, through some great mining roads back to Bradshaw, with a northward route to find gas and lunch at Chiriaco Summit, and then down Box Canyon, with a jump onto the OW poleline to get back to Ranger station. It was quite impressive how much Box Canyon had changed (been cleaned up and the asphalt road is being re-discovered) since the KUG mystery overnight ride over a month ago.  Almost a bummer because it has become too easy for knobby riders, but still a pretty loop through the ravine.

Here are the adventurers:

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A quick regroup near the Canal and Glamis North:  Bradshaw heads east (to the right) on the alluvial fan in the background.  It was beat up from the canal to the turn off,  a couple miles each side of the the trestle, but once on Bradshaw proper, the washboard went away and it was great cross country flying.

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In the oasis, some riders, even off their bikes, were adventurous, jumping over rivers  :) 

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When our leader and organizer said "follow me", we did.   

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Motel six motorcycle super store:

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Yep, all the bikes were cabled and secure....  but we really didn't need that as we had the RED light - a digital, bluetooth, motion camera, cell phone, satellite configured, "dusk to dawn" alarm, and remote notification system, in place for any bozo who looked too closely:

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Dennys and Chevron, filling our bellies and our bikes:

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Thank you Amgems, Great stuff!  Really appreciated!

PS - I do have one small concern......    That continental breakfast at Motel 6 could use some help  :)           IMG_5001.thumb.JPG.d122d7a1ca4ab26f64cc675dbfe6d210.JPG

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:thumbsup_anim: sounds like Jim did an awesome job. 

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Looked like a long ride on fuel milage; would have needed to take along my MSR bottles for sure! 

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On 1/30/2019 at 5:53 PM, SoCalMule said:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by kkug

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I would like to repeat everyone's comments regarding Amgems non-organization of the ride.  Putting a ride like this together and taking the lead is effort for sure.  Excellent job and it is appreciated.  It was nice to be able to stay back and just enjoy the trip.  

It was cool to watch Juan's video documenting some of the trip as well.  I hope he has fun exploring points further south.  

Shout out to Paul for the radio help.  It is appreciated as well.

Good group, good times.  Glad I had the chance to meet everyone.  Even got some kkug stickers.  Hope to do more rides like this.

 

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