Ride 4 - Mesquite, NV - 7/11/09

View Larger Map
I finally did my long-awaited Mesquite ride, and an eventful ride it was! I had contacted two friends from motorcycle school, Renee and Dolores, and they wanted to come along with Stephen and I. I had set a time for 9am to meet in Santa Clara and head out. Stephen told me on Friday night "we should probably go earlier, like even 7am. This ride is going to be very hot". It's not like riding to cool Pine Valley. But I couldn't contact everyone in time, so we stuck with 9am.

Unfortunately Dolores had to cancel and then Stephen's rear brake went out that morning. So it was just Renee and I. We got going about 9:30am and hide a nice ride to Mesquite. Renee was worried she'd look like a newb, but she did great.

So we hit a convenience store in Mesquite and hung out for a while to rest before the ride back. I called my sister Janet who lives in Mesquite for a possible visit, but couldn't reach her and so left a message. As we were ready to depart, my motorcycle... was dead. Just wouldn't even make a noise. The lights would come on but that was about it.

Coincidentally, Renee had just learned from her dad how to push-start a bike and the poor girl pushed me around the parking lot forever trying to pop it into life, but to no avail. At least we didn't try this (haha):



To make a loooong story short, after talking to a Harley biker, after calling a bunch of people including my brother Stephen, after losing my glasses, after pushing the bike to two auto parts dealers, we finally got the thing jumped to life! The little lady at the Mesquite AutoZone rocked. Awesome customer service. Janet had gotten my message by that point and came out to meet us at AutoZone. She took my happy picture in the shade (it was HOT outside).



The funny thing was that I left my helmet in the helmet lock, so I had to (really fast) turn off the bike, pull out the key, unlock the helmet, and restart the bike. It worked (whew)!

So we rode back and I clicked a few pictures of the ride, shown below. Due to the casual pace of the ride and the hassle in Mesquite, I got home at 1:30pm. Four and a half hours after meeting. Much longer than I thought the ride would take (sorry Renee!). I also hadn't realized how truly hot it was. When I got off my bike from home, I was sweating like a dog. It took a while for my body to cool down. How did humans live in this area before air conditioning? (P.S. - I found my glasses after all, I had stuffed them in a pocket of my bike bag)

So that was the adventure. Let me describe the ride. It really was a beautiful trip.

North Half: The variety through the Shivwits Reservation was eye-candy. There are so many cool hills and types of rock. The road is very curvy which is always tons of fun to ride. And the trees! The dead trees are totally awesome. Apparently a major forest fire went through there years ago and the entire first part of the trip is filled with these gnarly, charred trees. I am so not an arborist, so I'm not sure what kind of trees they were (I think Juniper? no idea). Very twisted branches. Because the trip already took so long, I didn't stop to take tree pictures. I will do a "dead tree tour" another time though.

We passed an abandoned building that was falling apart. It had an old flagpole in front of it, so maybe it used to be a school or something? I'm not sure when it was built, but it looked very old. Click all pictures to see them large.



On the final edge of the curvy part of the ride we passed a funky cave. I think it was supposed to be the start of a mine-shaft or something.



I had seen the outside of the cave from the road on many car-trips in the past but never stopped before. I had this grand vision of some totally cool cavern or something. Well, in reality it went back about 20-30 feet and was unfortunately filled with litter, old couch cushions, and the smell of urine. We didn't stay in there too long.



Here is Renee's bike out in front of the cave. I believe she thinks her bike is cooler than mine. Hmm, you decide...



South Half: After the reservation, the curvy hills completely stop and the land spreads out in a vast, flat wasteland. Very cool to behold from the higher elevation. The road goes completely straight in a long grey line as it descends to Littlefield, AZ. As we dropped into the valley, I started to feel the heat kick me in the face. It didn't feel good.

The forest fire had spread to the first part of this stretch, and the trees had changed to Joshua trees. The dead joshua trees looked like they came straight out of a Dr. Seuss book. Insane shapes. Again, I will get some cool pics the next time I go.

The next time I do this trip it will be a little different. I will:

• leave earlier so the heat doesn't kill people.
• stop at Janet's house and swim in her pool. Partay!!
• take pictures of many dead trees.

Who wants to come?!