Exodus Begins

The exodus has begun.  Andy and Evgeniy left Dallas last night with 3 bikes in tow (BMW R1200GSA and G650GS, and a Suzuki Vstrom.)  Richard is flying from Austin to San Diego and Kevin from Dallas to San Diego as we speak to pick up their motorcycles.  I will be flying tomorrow at 6am to Phoenix to meet Andy and Evgeniy.

Our goal is to all meet tomorrow in Yuma at the River City Grill at 11am for a quick bite before starting the off-road adventure.  It is real now!

It is interesting how the excitement of adventure starts creeping in as the time get closer. The unknown is what makes them so exciting ... what will we find?  how hard will it be?  how cold, hot, dry, wet, messy, flooded, or steep will it be? ... and also, the expectation of experiencing and seeing the beauty of nature at its best?  To see unique, desolate, and hard to reach areas?  The energy for the soul that we will experience by being in the middle of it all.   Ultimately, this is why we do these things ... right?

Stay tuned for our first post of the trip at the end of the day tomorrow.

In far west Texas making our way West

Carefully Preparing for Extremes

This is it!  We are in the middle of getting ready to go ride the newly minted Backcountry Discovery Route (BDR) for California.  5 riders will be undertaking the challenge ... Richard Schiller, Andy Scott, Kevin Duc, Evgeniy Gentchev, and me ... riding big dual sport motorcycles ... BMW R1200GS Adventure, Suzuki Vstrom, BMW G650GS, and a KTM 990.

The adventure will start in Yuma, Arizona (on the Mexican Border) on Thursday, March 7, 2019, and head straight North all the way to Lake Tahoe and on to San Francisco.

The logistics to get to the start have been a project in themselves:  Andy and Evgeniy will trailer 3 bikes from Dallas to Phoenix, Rene will fly to Phoenix and meet them there, Kevin and Richard are flying to San Diego to rent their rides ... and we are all converging in Yuma on the 7th, fully loaded and ready to start.  Cross your fingers!

The planned route will take us across deserts at or below sea level with temperatures ranging from 60-90 degrees, and go all the way to the mountains in the Sierra Nevada at altitudes of 10,000+ ft and temperatures ranging from 20-40 degrees.

So how does one prepare for something like this when we are planning to camp at least half the time we are out there? The answer: carefully and methodically.

Camping gear needs to be up to the task, including the food.  Tools, tires, tracking devices (SPOT), emergency kits, maps/GPS ... and most importantly, lots of water and extra gas, just in case.

We have also been hearing reports of how bad the weather has been in California over the last few weeks, and that many of the passes and roughest trails are closed so we will just have to wait and see what we encounter.

They do not call this Adventure Riding for nothing : )

This is a high-level view of the route we will follow.

Evgeniy's Vstrom beast ready for the challenge.