Conditions for Santa Barbara, CA at 5:53 am PDT

Current Conditions:
Fair, 58 F

Forecast:
Wed - AM Clouds/PM Sun. High: 73 Low: 61
Thu - AM Clouds/PM Sun. High: 73 Low: 62

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Another fine multiday dualsport campout, 1,300 miles or so over 6days. Fully Ridable. Scary out in the middle of a huge dry lake bed, some dust and wind, Hit it too.

This ride was envisioned as a long distance dual sport, self supported, multi day camp adventure. Ride till you turn around! Destination unknown! 400 cc dirt bikes XRs and DRZ geared up for highway, full super moto ratio. This type of ride took years of preparation, and was not our first mini epic.We've spent many days in the sand getting together the tools/ gear and balls, needed to ride out and back... We like to hit the dirt as soon as possible, using smaller and twistyer pavement when needed to connect singletraks. Some of the deep sand washes take some real wallowing to get up, what with 40lbs of fuel and maybe 25lbs more gear and water(+coffee maker) Then there's the hogback ridges, 10 inch wide singletrak on a sheer drop cliff.! I dont think we would have crossed the 40 mile dry dust lake without a GPS .... it was spooky, We had camp/cooking gear and used it most nights. but temps in the 20s brought out the plastic and we locked our bikes outside the motel! of course the heated grips and vest got a workout most days. (get them now!)

So the best days rated a 7 out of 10 for deep sand and no roads of any kind...the best views? high in the hogbacks of darkest nevada and the crazy dry lake bed . The worst camping? how about 60 mph gusts at the foot of mount Whitney...It blew my bike over! Its all good training for the Very Boring Ralley this summer.. Aerostich in Duluth puts on the feed bag and we just need a reason to ride 10,000 miles in 60 days. Cascades/ Canada/ Sturgis... stay tuned for further details.. :-D

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