the Eel

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Sep 23, 2000
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Reagan Holiday Ride - Jawbone Canyon

I had to be in Mojave at 8 AM this past Friday for traffic court. Since I was going to be out there, I figured I’d take advantage of the free day to hit the trails. And since KelsoRat had been telling me about all the great riding at Jawbone, we decided to meet there after court was over.

The drive up was uneventful since I’ve started doing the speed limit. While driving, I began to daydream about past presidents, Reagan included, who came out to visit this very same desert for epic riding. Yup, that’s right. Many people don’t know it but many of our country’s leaders were riders. For instance Jimmy Carter, who was known as an excellent woods rider from days and days spent in the deep woods of Georgia, would often visit this area in the wintertime to work on his hardpack skills (and word has it he always had a tasty supply of peanuts in his trail pack). And Reagan himself, may he rest in peace, was an avid and well-respected hillclimber, though some say years of inhaling high-octane hillclimbing fuels may have accelerated his unfortunate condition. I’ve heard too that Nixon loved to ride here but was always paranoid about the green rattlesnakes. And even some more recent past presidents, like Bill Clinton, came to visit solely to enjoy the riding in the Mojave Desert. “Slick” Willie actually earned his nickname not because of his smooth-talking charisma, but because he rarely spent money on new tires, though the idea that he would wear a tire out at all is surprising to many since Bill would often never make it all the way up the 14, but would rather get sidetracked by some of the seedier pleasures available in the gardens of earthly delight know as Palmdale and Lancaster. But I digress.

As I said, the ride up was uneventful but the day would prove to be quite the opposite.

Court ran later than expected but I met Kelso under the only shade tree in Jawbone right around 10:30 AM, smack in front of the big blue-green hill just a few miles up the entrance road on the right. It was a killer spot. Total shade. I changed out of my conservative court clothes and geared up. The weather was cool and breezy and around 11 AM we hit the trails.

Kelso led on his new KTM 300 and took us over close to Dove Springs. We railed flat whooped-out singletrack and were surprised by the many red trail closure signs. There were quite a few. We stopped for a break, made a few suspension clicker adjustments, and off we went again. The Gas Gas forks were feeling great. My fork caps have been broken so I haven’t had rebound adjustment for months now. I just recently installed KTM’s adjustable preload caps and they work well, though as usual it took me hours to get them installed correctly the night before (Team Knucklehead forever). The KTM caps are a nice piece of work and were inexpensive. Good stuff.

We eventually returned to the backside of our camp, just able to see the top of the blue-green hill in the distance. The backside was a great spot for riding. Full of big rollers and treacherous ridgeline singletrack. We headed straight in toward our camp and began to descend. As it turned out we were working our way into a canyon that led from the backside straight in toward the entrance road, and which ended on the entrance road just a few hundred feet up from that house with all the green grass and trees. I was leading and came extremely close to going over the bars on a very loose, very steep downhill. Kelso followed just fine and we were excited to find an extremely tight, lightly used trail through the canyon. It was more like an animal trail than a bike trail. There were green bushes on either side that smelled wonderful but made your throat sore. It was quiet, deserted, rocky and beautiful. The technical tight continued for a few more feet when we came upon an 8 foot drop-off. Slick rock, straight down. No way we were gonna get down that. And this is where all the trouble began. The problem is we had been descending the whole time and turning around meant getting back up the stuff we had just come down. It turns out we had made a very bad move by descending that last loose hill that I had almost crashed on. It ended in a ditch and there was no way to get any run-up at all to try to go back up it. We were stuck, and just a mile and a half away from our camp as the crow flies.

We weighed our options. Check the loose hill again to see if maybe somehow we could get up. Nope. Check the rock drop-off again. Nope. We finally saw a way to get up another loose hill to our right, which led to a little off-camber cut on the hillside. Unfortunately it took us nearly an hour to get our bikes up the 15 feet to the cut. There was about 2 feet of run-up and then it was up dirt so soft we nearly dug a hole to China on each attempt. We finally got both the bikes up with one guy riding and one guy pushing. We were completely exhausted and the fun was only beginning.

At this point I was starting to get a bit worried but we stayed positive and considered our next move. We were now on a small off-camber trail on a hillside. The hill went up on our right and was more of the same dig-to-China dirt. On our left was a sheer rocky drop off 25 to 30 feet down to the wash at the bottom. We found a way to follow the cut ten more feet, hop over a little rocky hill, and then slide left down the side of the hill. Which would have been fine except the cut was so loose I dug a hole up to the top of my rear tire and could not budge my bike, this while Kelso was busy looping his KTM on the little rocky uphill, and almost fell over the cliff.. I looked over and Kelso had stripped off his chest protector and shirt and was lying on the ground next his bike. I sat down defeated and tried to catch my breath. It was about 4 PM.

We sat for awhile when Kelso tells me we need to walk out. We’re both completely tapped out and there’s no way we’re gonna make any more progress in the shape we’re in after wrestling the bikes for 2 hours. He’s right. We’re gonna have to walk out.

So we gather ourselves after a long breather and start following the canyon out to the road. Along the way we come across 2 more rock waterfalls, both 15 to 20-footers. No lie. At this point I tell Kelso we are not going to be able to get our bikes out today. Not a chance. He doesn’t respond and we keep moving. It turns out the canyon only went for about another third of a mile and then spit us out in a wash that led right to the road. It was a long way back though. We walked about 2.5 miles to get back to camp. Along the way a guy drove by on the road. We asked him for a ride and he said “yes” but his dog almost bit my face when I tried to squeeze in the backseat with him ! I told Kelso to just ride in the front seat instead but the driver seemingly got spooked and just drove off. So we kept walking. We were barely moving by the time we got back to camp .. I was dizzy, overheated, and had a blister on my heel neatly cut in the size and shape of a quarter. I stripped down to my underwear and promptly cracked a Coke. We rested, happy that we had at least got out in one piece and unhurt. It was about 5:00 PM.

After recovering a little I start to tell Kelso about how we can come back in a week or so with some buddies, hike in, and get the bikes out. We also chat a bit about the ungodly cost of possibly coptering the bikes out. As you can tell, at this point I was pretty much mentally and physically PUNISHED. But Kelso stayed positive, if a little nuts, and said we could recover a bit longer, drive the cars back to the canyon entrance, hike the 1/3 mile back to the bikes with some rope, and still get them out before dark. Yeah, right. But somehow he convinced me and by 6 PM or so we had packed up the trucks and I found myself driving back to the canyon entrance.

We got to the entrance, packed survival stuff, and hiked in. By 6:00 PM or so we got back to the bikes. Anyway, the rest of the story is really just an amazing blur. We actually got the bikes out, though I still can’t really believe we did it. We literally handed them down two rock water falls which were, no kidding, close to 20 feet down, nearly vertical. He would get the back wheel and I would get under the front wheel, with one hand on the front tire and one on the brake lever. We had made it out, the entire 1/3 of a mile, in just a little over 2 hours. I got back to my truck and cracked a celebratory Coke at 8:11 PM, packed up, and left. By 11 PM I was home safe and asleep, and my Gas Gas was in the garage.
 

MelloYello

~SPONSOR~
Nov 22, 2002
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Dude!!!! That is an awesome story! I was wondering why you were writing a ride report and not out at the TWMC event, but I guess you're still recovering. I'm glad you guys got out safe and retrieved the bikes as well.

Remind me not to ride alone with you, Eric. It seems like you're always on the extreme, near-death experience rides (Cpt. Jack at Gorman, and now this):eek:
 

CPT Jack

~SPONSOR~
Jun 27, 2000
485
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Sir, you have a flair for writing and tell a fine tale indeed.

Nice adventure. Watch that hydration issue. It's a killer.

Yes, Mello, I would be very wary of the Eel. He's a punisher like Kiwi, but has a knack for getting into tough spots. He needs to tell you about the Enduro where he lost the rear tire & ended up with a hub wrapped in wire. Full on Gumby by the end of his adventure! What a masochist!
 

2strok4fun

Member
Apr 6, 2002
1,085
1
One of the biggest reasons I came to DRN was to be able to have people to ride with, but the list (according to my wife) keeps getting shorter. (X) Placelast (no unplanned overnight camping) (X) Kiwi (I have been forwarned by overnight camper Placelast) and now (X) the Eel (just dosent sound like fun venture splorin)

Good read, glad all parts, mechanical and physical, ar back safe.
 

tator

Member
Feb 17, 2004
79
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As I was heading to work Friday morning at about 6am I find myself sitting in traffic, again! I happened to notice a truck with a bike in the back heading out north for a nice day of riding. Closer inspection reveals its the Eel. I get to work and start thinking how I wish I was out riding with the Eel instead of being at work. After reading that story I hope the next DNR rider I see heading out while I'm going to work is 2strok4fun, MelloYello or anyone else who likes to RIDE, not carry and push, motorcycles. But on the other hand if I see the Eel going riding again while I'm going to work, that will be the first time in my life that I would rather be at work then out riding.
 

KiwiBird

LIFETIME SPONSOR
Jan 30, 2000
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Hee hee hee - now you know why I love Jawbone!!!!

Can we do that trail backwards next time? It sounds a bit easy the way you guys did it..........
 

holeshot

Crazy Russian
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Jan 25, 2000
1,823
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Mental note:

Never follow Eelywho or Kelsorat on a trail ride.... :yikes:
 

scar tissue

LIFETIME SPONSOR
Dec 27, 2000
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After a day like that you should've come racing. whats 3.5 more hours racing in 100+ degree heat gonna do to you that that trip didn't? Plus what else are you gonna do on Sundays? :worship:

Glad you guys made it safe. The race was fun. I'll report soon.
 

plysWfire

Member
Mar 1, 2001
100
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Sounds like a perfect Expert/Master spilt for a TWMC ride. Did you tie some ribbon on your way down?

Glad to hear that you're all out safe. Sorry that you missed the club event. We had a nice 20 mile course that used the best of the best trails in the Sand Hills. May be the last club event in the Sand Hills, depending on what's in the new BLM plan when it's published.
 

kelsorat

Knucklehead Newbie
Nov 5, 2001
916
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Well it took till Sunday for my body to recover from Jawbone. This marks the second time I have been in trouble out in the desert. However, the Jawbone disaster was the worst.
Heat, dehydration, and complete exhaustion can quickly kill you out in the Mojave if you don't have strong preservation extincts. When Eric and I were walking out of the canyon I kept daydreaming about the scene from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, when Tuco was pushing Blondie through the scorching desert while he (Tuco) on his horse was taunting a sun blistered Eastwood. And the situation was not helped by seeing a makeshift roadside memorial to some unlucky soul.(maybe a rider hit by a car--I don't know, but it was freaky).
Now I know how someone can quickly expire out in the desert. It's amazing how a lack of fluids can make your mind hazy , telling your body to just sit or lay down. And when and if that happens-- your dead. I am not exaggerating, but I really think we would have been toast if that canyon was just 2 more miles deeper into Jawbone. With exception of the guy with his dog, we didn't see another soul out there all day.

The scariest parts of the entire adventure were 1) running out of water before we exited the canyon on foot. 2) The distinct possibility of one of us losing consciousness and the perils of leaving that person behind to get emergency help.

But I still love Jawbone baaaaby
 

ktmboy

~SPONSOR~
Apr 1, 2001
2,474
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That place just doesn't sound fun to me this time of year. But then again I'm getting old and crotchety, and don't like any trail that requires dragging my bike!
 

oldandslo

Member
Aug 29, 2001
272
0
When I first saw the heading I was wishing that I had gone along. Now I am very glad I was at work Friday. Never thought I would rather be at work than riding. Glad you guys made it out.
 

a454elk

Mexicutioner
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Jun 5, 2001
7,538
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"Dirtbike Survivor" PLEASE vote me off that damn island!! lol

I'm sorry, where did you say the trails are? You musta went off course or sumthin! :eek:
 

Ol'89r

LIFETIME SPONSOR
Jan 27, 2000
6,961
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ktmboy said:
But then again I'm getting old and crotchety, and don't like any trail that requires dragging my bike!


:ohmy: Yeah, me too. :yikes:

Eel. Many years ago we did that on 400 lb. Triumphs. I can remember passing the bikes down to each other on the face of those rocks. Thought we would never get out of there. :ugg:

Of course, I was much younger and dumber then. Well, at least younger. ;) :laugh:

Glad you guys made it out ok.
 

the Eel

~SPONSOR~
Sep 23, 2000
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LOL. Definitely one of those experiences you appreciate, but only way after it's long been over. Totally nuts. But seriously, we should all get together and ride at Jawbone more often. Most of us never go there to ride and it's pretty awesome, as long as you know where you're going.
 

scar tissue

LIFETIME SPONSOR
Dec 27, 2000
1,429
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the Eel said:
But seriously, we should all get together and ride at Jawbone more often. .


Yes you can use these pics in your recruiting video.

It's kind of like recruiting people to ride the clear creek enduro through the asbestos field, with the disclaimer right on the entry form.

Your recruits will be much closer to bevis and butthead than rocket scientists :rotfl:


Mybe next time you should bring a trials bike :clue:
 

MelloYello

~SPONSOR~
Nov 22, 2002
280
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Come on, man, didn't your sig used to say something about scars heal, glory is forever? Or maybe the all bleeding eventually stops one is more appropriate.:uh:

I'd go with you Eric, . . .if only my bike didn't have a red sticker. Oh darn it.
 

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