Desert Dash Scouting Run.....

Headed out to the Pinyon Trail head about 11am yesterday to ride some of what I refer to as the "Anza Loop"

GPS Tracks/Photos from a previous ride with my son can be found here: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=530340

Late start allowed me to ride “jacketless” and stop at my liesure to explore some spurs and/or snap a couple of photos…….unfortunately, I quickly discovered my camera button had rotated to “on” and my batteries were toast…..so I was back to using the cell phone to snap a few pics along the way……

Conditions were truly ideal…… sunny, ~55 degrees, and moisture soaked trail……stopped and pulled the trigger on a cell phone pic looking back towards the parking/staging area at Pinyon Rd./S2.



Up through the rocks/washouts and through "The Squeeze" I went…….no issues/great day to ride……"The Squeeze" is so named because it's a pretty snug fit getting jeep through there without scraping the doors......no sweat on a bike.....



When I got to the Drop-off there were about 150,000,000 jeeps there (Ok, maybe it was more like 20 but the place was littered with people/jeeps)…….B.S.’d with the Jeep crowd for a bit then made my way around the jeeps/down the drop-off and I was on my way again...........I had planned to take a pic or two at the drop-off but I really just wanted to get away from the crowd so once I dropped down I just kept going……

I was having a blast flying through Fish Creek when I noticed my front brake was…………….gone...........I think my GPS antenna may have bumped up into the brake line and wiggled the bango bolt loose…….no brake fluid in master cylinder……oh well, figured I’d deal with it later……I tend to over use my front brake anyway so this presented a good “training” opportunity…..

Conditions in Fish Creek were great…….nice and moist…..would’ve snapped more pics but the cell phone just doesn’t do that great of a job……here are a couple…..





Once I reached Ocotillo Wells I pulled into a ATV rental place and bought some Dot 3 brake fluid (they didn’t have any Dot 4)…….did my best to bleed out air/refill the master cylinder but no dice…….put some fluid in master cyclinder…….squeeze brake lever several times, hold tight, release 8mm at bottom to purge air, repeat, repeat, repeat……got all the air out down at the bottom (I borrowed a piece of clear tubing to slip over the bleed nipple so I could see fluid vs. air bubbles escaping)……..but the pressure never built up in the lever?……kept getting air bubbles in master cylinder……I think I may need to replace the crush washers on either side of the banjo bolt (I may have overtightened them out on the trail) because it appeared to me that fluid was still leaking out/and thus air was getting in, at that spot……finally gave up and moved on…….at this point I figured I oughta just high tail it to Borrego Springs via slab to make up some time and maybe catch up with other folks I knew would be out riding the same loop.....

Joined forces with two buddies and headed back to the staging area via Culp Valley TT/Jasper TT/Grapevine Canyon TT……..man, I love that ~10 mile stretch of trail……I stayed in the rear since I had no front brake…..conditions were great……Culp was better condition than I expected given all the rains……the seasonal mud puddle along Jasper is pretty good size……..maybe ~10 feet long…….also pretty slippery…….I’m sure it’ll still be there when the San Diego Adventure Riders (SDAR) Desert Dash is held in a few weeks (http://www.dualsport-sd.com/Desert_Dash_Entry_Form.pdf )......... I didn’t set a waypoint to mark the mud puddle for new guys because…….well……that’s the sort of “oh sh*t” surprise that makes the ride an “Adventure” ( I think we might stage a photographer there during the Dash…..guys hitting that at speed will be slipping and sliding)

There were also some pretty good ruts going down hill on Jasper…….this one swallowed Michael somehow……took both of us to lift the 650R up out of the ditch….



Once we got back down to Hwy 78 we blew off the Rodriguez Spur section of the loop and just hauled the mail back to the staging area…….figured we might see some of the morning crew of riders…..apparently we missed’em by ~30 minutes…..

Fun day in the sand/mud…..loaded up the bike and shared a beer with Alex/Michael



Hey, let’s wipe the mud off that sticker and see what it says…..

i MUST have that sticker! that is awesome.