Mojave Preserve on the CA/NV border-TR 11-8-09

[nelsonccc]

Friday we decided to do a trip out to the Mojave Preserve. We ended up doing about 220 miles. We left out of Searchlight at around 8:30 and followed the Hart Mine road into Burnell then the Ivanpah road down to the New York Mountains road. This road was great as we headed up hill into Caruthers Canyon. We came down the New York mountain road a ways but ended up getting lost. We found a pretty nasty wash and trail down to Cedar Canyon Road. We followed this to the Kelso-Cima road. After crossing the pavement we followed a fantastic whooped out route for a long time. Somehow we made it into Baker. Finally. 112 Miles. We got into Baker around 1:30. We were determined to avoid all pavement so we ended up getting a little lost coming out of Baker but we found our way. We got into Ivanpah in the dark and followed the road there to Burnell and then the Hart Mine Road again. We got back to the truck around 6:00. Ended up doing a nasty, very old, two track across the desert in the dark to make the train tracks.

We had a great time with fabulous weather and beautiful scenery. You had to stay on your toes, as there were frequent wash-outs combined with very sandy spots. Made for some exciting riding. We did 219 miles total with 112 to baker and 107 back to Searchlight!