Dual Sport Fund (Fun) Raiser!

#33(Eric), Dale McKenzie, and I rode the RUTS (Racers Under the Sun) fund raiser two day Dual Sport ride late this past summer.  We rolled out at 8:30 Saturday morning from Sopiago Springs Resort which is near the corner of Hwy 88 and Omo Ranch road and 170 miles later ended up at Topaz Lake off Hwy 395 in Nevada. Our overnight bags were waiting for us at the motel when we arrived at 5:00 PM. Dale was relieved because he said he wouldn’t be able to sleep without his jammies.  I didn’t have the guts to ask him if he had a teddy bear in that bag as well.

I’m not sure if the 170 miles was the correct mileage or not as we got lost a few times and may have ridden a few miles out of our way. Actually I didn’t get lost at all and that’s because I just followed Eric and Dale, they did all the roll chart eyeballing  (No stinking GPS for these guys) they don’t need reading glass (Yet) like I do. As expected we road over around and through some absolutely beautiful country and ended up at Kyburz on Hwy 50 for gas and lunch.  Oh did I mention the weather was perfect, except for the dust which at this time of year you expect.

The route sheet provided bail outs for those whose bikes, or rider skill level wouldn’t allow them to tackle the A/B loops. I’ve ridden a lot of nasty sections in enduros over the years but some of the A/B sections were right up there with the best of them. So in some of the really gnarly sections I struggled. I do have my excuses ready and here they are, I was riding a basically stock Suzuki DRZ 400S, its heavy especially when it falls over on you or you have to pick it up or push it. Low gear just wasn’t low enough at times, I’m spoiled because I’m used to the Rekluse’s (Auto clutch) in my other real dirt bikes, so I wasn’t used to using the clutch lever and it showed. I do have a few more excuses but that’s enough, besides Dale was riding and old 90’s something Honda 650L and he loved those sections as did #33 of course. That’s why I mentioned Dale and his jammies because he spanked me in those gnarly sections. Whinny aside it was all good.

Sunday morning we left the motel around 8:00 AM and doubled back on some of Saturday’s course until we went through Markleeville again. Where we turned left instead of right and road up and over Ebbetts pass and 8730 foot altitude, that area is just spectacular. It seemed to me that Sunday’s route had more A/B loops than Saturday, I didn’t count them, and maybe I was just more intimidated or tired on Sunday than Saturday. Did I mention the weather was perfect?  The club had a nice lunch waiting for us lake side at Silver Lake; the club did an excellent job of support throughout the weekend.

After lunch we went down the road and up a gnarly 4x4 jeep trail, past a few 4x4’s clawing their way up the hill, saw more spectacular sites and Dale and Eric got lost a couple more times, they were mumbling something about mileages not being right. Again I wouldn’t know I was just riding taking in all the beauty.(Sometimes it’s good to be far sighted)  It’s interesting in the two days of riding we saw a lot of obvious trails and more than a few OHV trails but most (If not all) were posted no OHV’s allowed. We know why they’ve been closed but it makes you wonder just where and on what our OHV funds are being spent? (As a side note Eric and I rode the Georgetown OHV trails recently and they certainly aren’t spending OHV money on maintaining that very popular trail system)

Our Sunday ride ended at 130 miles and at about 3:00pm. Our bags were there waiting for us, the three of us had no mechanical issues, we got along well, all of our fellow riders we encountered were also great.

Overall the ride and scenery were as advertised we saw some wild life, a white dog guarding a donkey with a bell around its neck out in the middle of nowhere, some cattle and at times a lot of fly fisherman, oh and we also road over a snow pack. And again the club did a great job and we thanked them. And did I mention the weather was great.

Doug 21J