If you have never heard this Robert Earl Keen song, I suggest you go on line, it's a great road song. I don't have it on my I pod, but I can hear it in my mind. I have only being riding with any kind of music on a bike, for a couple of years, I tried cassette tapes years ago, but I never got the hang of reaching into a tank bag at speed and either turning a cassette over, or by feel, finding another one. I later tried CD'S with skip buffers, but they never worked that well. I use to travel with my Ham radio when a riding friend also had one, but somehow having him sing HOME ON THE RANGE over the radio, did not cut it. Now days, if I want to, I can turn on my i pod and have both music, and if my Valentine One picks up radar, it cuts the volume and I turn my attention to the music of the spheres, K band, X band and Laser.
I thought I might be making a desert trek this week through Nevada and then after that to Yosemite and then Fresno to see my sister, but it maybe another few weeks, if I end up going at all. Over the weekend I spent some time with an old friend who was telling me about his young teenage son, who loves flight simulation programs, he's been doing them for years and on his computer he routinely fly s F-16's. So view the rest of this installment as my virtual ride.
Although over the last thirty plus years, I have played around the whole West and have spent time in the Rockies, the Tetons, the Wind river's, the Wasatch, the Pequop's and have made pilgrimages to South Pass, the very important, but very unassuming major pioneer crossing point of the Rockies. When you ask me what kind of riding I really love, its riding, crossing, cursing and hopefully surviving the Great Basin. I am a child of the Great Basin and although Salt Lake City is a major urban area of this country, to me its still a desert town. A green Oasis, between here and Reno. John McPhee in his wonderful book Basin and Range, talks about the geology of this area and I always remember his little saying, “Basin and Range, Basin and Range, a mile in height between Basin and Range.” I can't ride from here to California without thinking of all those early trapper's and explorers from Kit Carson, John C. Fremont, Jim Bridger, Joe Meek and last but never in any sense least, Jedediah Smith. He was the first personal of European decent, doesn't that sound less potentially racist than white person, to cross in both directions the Great Basin. He was also the effective discoverer of South Pass in 1822 when he was about 23 and he just disappeared near Santa Fe in 1831 when he was about 32 The route that he walked, not knowing when or where he would find water, is within about thirty or so miles of the present highway 6 in Nevada, This highway is one of my favorites. There's an old adage among motorcyclists that if you think Nevada doesn't have any curves, you not riding fast enough.
So for this my simulated ride, We will ride first to Wendover, or as I have heard it called several times, Bendover, because you will end up getting fleeced. Wendover will be our first stop for gas, mainly because our next stop Ely, is about 240 miles from SLC and that's beyond the range of my current BMW. If I am alone, I don't even get off the bike, Pay at the pump, then back a couple of feet, and grab the wand to clean my visor, this gesture always brings a smile or a laugh to anyone who sees me doing it.
After that we pick up highway 93A for the ride to Ely. Most people don't think of Nevada as being a mountainous state, but it really is. Sometime get an Atlas and look at all of the different mountain ranges. To this day I am sure that are peaks where no one has ever climbed, and who knows, there might even be a lost Indian tribe that hasn't been cataloged by anthropologists. There's a migratory bird refuge during this stretch and White Horse pass as well. I have seen a wild horse in Nevada, but not in this area. Looking at the clock on my bike as we get close to Ely, I see that it has been three and a half hours, plus or minus fifteen minutes since we left Salt Lake. Time, after getting gas, to get off the bike, drink some water and use the facilities.
Ely is a major junction for both highway 50 and 6. They talk about highway 50 being the loneliest road in America, but I sometimes ride the road we will be taking today, highway 6, and between Ely and Tonopah and will not see more than about three cars heading to Ely and about the same number in the 167 mile stretch I will be riding. This is Desert riding at its best with Mountain peaks and ranges as far as the eye can see. There is visually so much going on, that I don't know how anyone could get bored. We will ride in and past the Egan Range, Grant Range, through Railroad Valley and just pass a spot in the road called Current, we will ride past an oil refinery in the middle of know where. I find so much visual stimulation that I even kind of envy that UPS or FEDEX driver that I sometime see. Because I am riding somewhere between 85 and 90, almost always, just as I start up the hill towards Tonopah, my fuel light will come on. After gassing up, I take a much longer break than before and will usually even have a candy bar or some sort of a muffin. When I stop, I turn off my GPS, to stop the timer, what I am interested in is riding time, not accumulated time, for I certainly don't time myself when I am drinking coffee or doing other things. Generally, it takes me a little more than five and a half hours of riding time to get to Tonopah.
Although we will ride through several junctions from here to the California border we will stay on highway 6 till we get to Benton and after getting waived through the inspection station, we turn onto highway 120 on which we will stay till its junction with 395 near Lee Vining. . Between Benton and Lee Vining there is a stretch of road, as we continue to climb towards the Sierra's, the famous roller coaster road, a stretch of about 3 miles of undulating, what a wonderful word, road that at speed you get the feeling of flying at the top of every crest and then gravity seems to suck your back down, its rather hypnotic and its not as noticeable if you were going in the other direction. As we get close to Lee Vining, you can see Mono Lake off in the distance. I have stopped at Mono lake and even in hot summer, there is an eerie quality to it, with it TUFA formations of calcium carbonate. One can imagine microbes, maybe not entirely of the earth, clinging to life for billions of years.
If I was with other people I would probably stop in Lee Vining, after getting gas of course, at Nicely's restaurant.. They have the best deep dish pie, with real ice cream, that I have ever had. But since I don't enjoy eating in restaurants alone, I opt to back track the few miles to the turnoff to Yosemite and highway 120. We now start climbing and climbing and its become both more rocky and alpine like and the temperature starts to drop. It is roughly 150 miles from here to my sister's house in Fresno. After paying my $10 for a seven day pass, I start to notice the traffic density coming the other way. This helps me guess whether it is going to be slow going, or extremely slow going with in the confines of the park . The language of the most gifted poet, falls short of really describing Yosemite, even for a secular humanist, it is a religious experience. Just as the vistas I have seen on the ride today, have reminded me, the sheer scale of the natural world, within Yosemite at every turn you are overwhelmed. I watch my average speed on the GPS drop by miles at a time, as I negotiate around the through the traffic. Although its only about 40 miles to the junction at the bottom, it may take an hour and a half or two to get there. For arguments sake, the traffic today will be minimal, and as I pass the exit gate near El Portal, I know its about 100 miles to my destination in Fresno.
After Mariposa, where I have gone to many BMW rallies, you get the rolling foothills of the golden sierras and small village after village as I drop down to the San Joaquin Valley. Highway 49 is an old friend, and I will be on it, until it has turned into a divided road and I hit the freeway exit and my sister Kathy's house. Its been a great day and in riding time its been a tad less than 12 hours since I left the Great City of Salt. The distance as per GPS is about 745 miles.
“ She pulls back onto main street in her new Mercedes Benz. The Road goes on forever and the party never ends.”
