For the dirt riders and aspiring dirt riders in the club, here are a few images from a trip I took last weekend to the Black Rock desert (home of the infamous 'Burning Man' event) http://brock.smugmug.com/gallery/855835 . Lots of great riding and beautiful scenery. Note the hot tub and rest room facilities.

"I'm Matt, man among men... Fear me!" :biggrin:

http://brock.smugmug.com/photos/38515272-L-1.jpg

Matt -

What is the story with this pic? Is this actually a working hot tub out in the desert? How does it get new running water; how does it get heated?

http://brock.smugmug.com/photos/38520123-L-1.jpg

The tub is fed by a natural hot springs via irrigation pipe. The water is a bit too hot right out of the ground, so you have to let it cool in the tub for while. I included a few shots of the hot springs\pools upstream of the tub.

Wow... so you've got a heat source upstream of a heat sink, piping, a vessel, cooling by natural convection... an engineer's dream hot tub! :)

Ride Report by ride leader, Jim Lubin

Players: Peter Hively, Patrick Moriarity, Matt, Barry Saudan, Dan Duffy,
Kirk Girard, Sam Lubin, and your faitful scribe.

Date: October 1-2, 2005

Still reeling from Black Rock adventure and stuff that accumulated while I was away.

We had a good ride Saturday, a 100 mile loop over Division Peak and the
Calico mountains, up into High Rock Canyon. Wild horses and elk were
spotted.

While having lunch in the canyon, a freak gust of wind toppled my bike,
causing a domino effect on Barry's XR. The mayhem had begun.

The group completed the loop, down from soldier meadows and through Mud
Meadows, stopping at the Lassen murder site.

Came back to camp, and some others had shown up with music, dirt bikes, and guns!
Peter sampled their 44 Magnum, and only the weather saved from a long night of Lynard Skinard.

Some went to play on a playa, and I crashed hard on the way back, getting
too much weight over the front wheel while sight seeing. Taped visor,
replaced grip, reset front end, hot tub therapy for the abraded wrists.

The weather was wild, crazy storm Sat night, very intense winds, some rain.
Tents horizontal, bent under the wind load. Then we see Kirk's light on the
hill at about 9PM, still riding in.

We heated cans of soup in the hot spring, avoiding a futile camp stove
comedy. The hot spring is so useful in so many ways.

Kirk hiked in to camp at 11:30, having run his GS front end into a plow
share, refusing to roll with the load of playa gumbo it had ingested. He
was 1 mi from camp,100 yards from the correct path.

Barry froze, not realizing another sleeping bag was in the van, and that he
was using only one of the two air mattresses he had been issued! His
slumber party sleeping bag wasn't up to Black Rock punishment, heheh.

The van sleepers were impressed with the weather, the tent sleepers
terrorized, but the storm abated about 2AM to allow some good sleep before
the sun came up.

Next day started with a sunrise hot tub, the real treat of staying at Double
Hot Springs, for sure. We were up before the other group, and launched out
for another 100 mi loop on Mother Natures best prepared desert terrain. The
storm had its silver lining, a clear crisp, see-forever day with bountiful
traction and dust free conditions. We went up and around the Black Rock
range, attaining some awesome views in the process.

The loop along the east side was an extremely entertaining sand track,
dipping and jogging through and around washes, great traction in the
white-gray sands.

The group looped around to Black Rock Spring and into the inland playas. My
favorite is the inner one with the grand stand rock in the center. We
roosted around the dry lakes and then curled through a wash and up to an
incredible overlook.

Enjoying the view, we had time to inspect Matt's taco-ed rim and now flat
tire, as well as Barry's radiator leak! Mechanical mayhem!

Peter was quickly to work on creating clearance between Barry's exhaust and
radiator, the fretting having caused the leak. Had the earlier cascade of
hardware from the gale in High Rock Canyon caused the interference? We will
never know. Peter employed his trusty fix-all putty on the leak, while Matt
applied zip-ties around his tire to keep it on the rim. Need is the mother
of invention..

Our caravan returned to the dry lakes, and concluded we should head back to
camp,as dusk was due. On the way back, Barry and Matt got caught out by
slippery mud-sand, saturated by its vicinity of another hot spring and the
recent rain. Matt fell but was back up with out serious injury. Barry,
however, pushed the front end out from under him, 5-th gear, full honk.
Result: broken his collar bone and pinkie knuckle and collapsed a lung.

Luckily we were right at the end of the ride, just a few miles from camp. I
returned with truck to pick Barry up, while Patrick Moriarity and Matt were
packing. They graciously gave Barry a ride, and the three of them headed
out over the playa back to the Bay Area.

Kirk, Peter, Dan and I enjoyed the hot tub in the fading light with a few
libations, then got to cooking dinner.

It rained Sunday night too, even putting snow on the Calico's peaks and
making riding conditions even better. Peter and Dan sampled the riding
while Sam and I packed up our voluminous crap, Kirk extracted the mud from
crannies on his GS he never knew existed with toothbrush, screw driver and
kitchen knife.

Eventually, around noon, Kirk, Sam and I rolled out with Peter and Dan still
on the trail. All took the playa back, an extreme improvement over the road
we took in.

That my story, sticking to it, let's do it again next year!

jkl

P.S

Patrick and Matt's excellent photos.

http://brock.smugmug.com/gallery/855835

http://patricksphotos.smugmug.com/gallery/856410/1/38549933

Spectacular!

Thanks for sharing, Matt....there's a whole world of motorcycling beyond the tarmac...where're we gonna find room to store a couple of dirtbikes?

The narrative makes the picture of the zip-tied tire make sense...

MATT, NOW THAT'S A RIDE!

So I'm curious... let's say "someone" I knew thought that this trip (and a "fully supported" week-long dirt ride down Baja someday) was just the ticket. Is the preferable 4-stroke cc of choice 450 510 or 650 or (950????) Let's say KTM or even Husky (sorry "he's" a romantic Europhile). Honda would be his logical choice otherwise...

Cheers,

Scott

You would not go wrong with any of those choices, except the 950 - way too big and heavy. Some guys do it, but that don't make it right. Husky's are still out there and damn good bikes at that. However, there are not many dealers, so parts and service can be a bit of a pain. Lots of folks do Baja on 400s (of all makes) and have a blast. So if you like a lighter bike, I wouldn't shy away from the smaller displacement options.

Personally, I like the 650 Honda; they are fast, completely sorted out, very dependable, versatile and there is a ton of aftermarket stuff for them. The 650s can be a handful, especially for tight trail riding, but there is nothing quite like hustling through a deep sandwash on a big bore single.