BMW Airheads Death Valley ride report.

 Just got back from my annual run to Death Valley for the Airheads
rally. About 1200 miles over Presidents Day weekend. Not a lot of
pictures this time, but a really fun time all the same. Same old
friends
and bikes, one year older and uglier than last year, but the beer was
fresh and the war stories had aged gracefully.

Just outside of Bakersfield on the way down, I noticed that the
odometer
had rolled uneventfully over the 200,000 mile mark. In Lake Isabella,
I met
up with four other riders and we spent the night there. Overnight lows
dropped into the twenties and in the morning, the bikes were covered
with
frost and cranky to start. Worried about black ice, we rode carefully
over
Walker pass, stopping for breakfast in beautiful downtown Inyokern and
proceeding to Death Valley through Wildrose canyon.

 This year, we were stuck up in Texas Springs, out in the wind, with
ground
so hard and rocky that you were totally unable to drive in tent pegs.

Saturday, another ride through Titus Canyon, with a quick stop
to look at the petroglyphs. The guy up front was on a nice 650
with two guys on aging airheads choking in his dust and cursing.
Nice ride though, and all survived with no mishaps.

Saturday night, a horrendous wind came up and stated trashing
tents. About 5 am, a folding aluminum canopy from an adjacent
Sierra Club campsite came ripping through the campground, nailing
a pickup and knocking over somebody's shiny new $20 bike
before the canopy was wrestled to the ground.

I had put rocks inside my tent at all corners, so I came through the
windstorm OK, but when the canopy came ripping through, I tried
to peek out from under the outer tent shell and managed to bash
myself in the head with the rock I had thoughtfully used to hold
the shell down with. At that point, I decided to go back to bed and
let others deal with the canopy.

Sunday, I got off to a late start, swung by Furnace Creek for a swim
and shower, followed by lunch, then decided to take a hike up
Mosaic Canyon. I made it past the first two dry waterfalls into the
upper canyon as far as an outcrop of what I think was metamorphic
hornfels rock, but started running out of daylight and decided that
solo rockhopping in twilight in motorcycle boots might not be the
smartest idea in the world. I turned around, rode over to the salt
playa at Badwater to catch the sunset, then headed back to camp.

Sunday night, those who had not left already made heroic efforts
to finish the last kegs, but it was no use. I staggered off to my
tent, and returned the next morning on a cold but uneventful ride.

Seems like we're headed straight into spring now. Those of you
still snowbound n Canuckistan have my sympathies. I'm starting
to plan for a cross country ride in May/June for my 50th high
school reunion. Hope I see you all on the road soon.

 On 22/02/2012 6:10 PM, Rob Kleinschmidt wrote:

Well, those of us stuck in snowbound Canuckistan thoroughly enjoyed
reading about your Death Valley ride.  Thanks for taking the time to
post it.

I was especially glad I was not reading about you trailering home a
broken bike.

As for us Canucks, we are on the downhill side of winter now.  Another
month and a half and we will be able to start our riding season.

--
Disclaimer
Do not believe a thing I have said, unless you already know it to be
true, or can independently verify it from another source.

See Ya On The Road

 On 2/22/2012 8:06 PM, Calgary (Don) wrote:

<snip>

Ditto. Sounds like you had a good time, Rob.

Meanwhile, here in the SF Bay Area, we're still waiting for winter to
arrive.

Al Moore
DoD 734

 | Just got back from my annual run to Death Valley for the Airheads
| rally. About 1200 miles over Presidents Day weekend.....

Thanks for the news.  SWMBO & I were among the original Airheads.  Glad to
see they are still active!  Keep the faith .....


Short tale: Vito's 1990 HD had been butchered by a bad shop & we were
scheduled to ride out to Calif. to see my mom & friends.  I bet a guy that I
could ride an airhead beemer with 100,000 miles on it out and back.  Our
local dealer found one ("Mr. Green", an 1981) with 99,000 on it.  We took
the trip out and back -- no problems!

SWMBO

 

I'm hoping for a ride east and back on a bike with 200,000 on it
(depending
on which hunk of the bike you're talking about).