1105 Mile Day on a Busa - The Pashnit Iron Butt Ride

[pashnit]

Rode Hwy 318, which was to be the site of the Silver State Classic the following morning. After riding the 100 mile leg, I could see why you could easily hit 215 mph speeds out here on this particular road.

It was in the tiny ranch town of Lund where I ran into Tim. As vast as Nevada is, actually saw several of the Nutcracker 1000 riders running opposite directions of my clockwise loop.

Longest jaunt without gas was to be 256 miles from Lund to Tonopah: to make that loop, the Busa could likely make it, but the spare gas in my MSR Fuel Canisters gave some piece of mind. Busa is getting 48-52 mpg, even at highway speeds. But at 48mpg & 5.3 tank, that's 254 mile range. This is on the calculator I'm figuring this out on the side of the road. It's the plotting & recording keeping that makes it interesting.

Made it to Hwy 375 - the famous Extraterrestrial Hwy on a dead straight run to Rachel.

No aliens except this one.

 

[pashnit]

Bring on Hwy 375...

What they don't tell you in the brochure is that much of Nevada is mountainous high desert.

No sand dunes here, actually it's a series of mountain ranges running north-south, with much of the elevations running 5000+ feet. It's these mountains that make it an amazingly beautiful of a state!

What's also interesting to see along some of the highway is snow fence. Likely my constituents in California don't even know what snow fence is. I remember as a kid setting up snow fences around our farm in Wisconsin every fall & down it came again in each spring.

Wide open...

Up and over the next range. If you run East -West, you keep going up and over these mountain passes.

Lost count after riding over 10-15 summits

For scale...

 

[pashnit]

Reaching the other side.

Only to be presented with another run

Come on board & ride with me for a spell

Fields of Joshua Trees at higher elevations

 

[pashnit]

I've made it!

Reaching Rachel after riding some 14 hrs to get here. Nothing more than some buildings out in the high desert.

One instantly wonders what is this town even doing here?
But there's an answer for everything:
A Short History of Rachel, Nevada

The requisite stop at the Little A'Le' Inn

 

[pashnit]

Rachel reminds many outsiders of a visit to "The Twilight Zone." After miles of lonely highway without a tree or building in sight, you come over a crest and there it is: a scatter of mobile homes spread out like buckshot across a Mars-like valley. Rachel seems almost like a planet of its own, cut off from the rest of the world by miles of emptiness. It doesn't help that the nearest civilization is a top secret military base known for its UFO stories. To the outside world, Rachel is "Lost in Space," and a visitor passing on the highway may wonder what it is like to be stranded here, miles from the conveniences of civilization. Would living in such a place drive you mad? Would you make a deal with the Devil to get out? Rod Serling could have probably knitted a surreal and haunting story out of these circumstances, but in reality Rachel is a village not much different from any other. Once you have lived here for a while, the distances vanish, and the desolate setting is forgotten. All you see, over time, are the people here and what they have done to make this place a home.

A Short History of Rachel, Nevada

This was my favorite.

 

[pashnit]

They're real I tell ya.

And they're coming to take me away.

Couldn't resist, and bought a book on Area 51.

Lots of history & pics of the SR-71 Blackbird development.

Do stop by if you're ever in the area.

Cool places in America - this is it.

 

[black diamond busa]

Awesome pictures as always. I too have always wanted to make it to the salt flats.

 

[pashnit]

Sun is starting to go down.

Several more hundred miles to go.

And open range. No shortage of cattle on the road.

More wide open.

...and casting a yellow glow

 

[pashnit]

Sunset....

The sun finally drops below the horizon. I've watched it make a full arc from sun up to sun down. At the 800 mile mark, reflected on my Iron Butt Ride: the day was so fun, it felt not like 800, but more like a relaxed 300 mile day.

An odd thought, I know. With wide open country of Nevada roads, no towns, no people, no traffic, 70 mph speed limits, not much of anything, every 100 mile leg just flew by.

Made the dead-run to Tonopah past the 250 mile mark to last gas of the day.

 

[pashnit]

I did it! The 1000 Mile mark.

Still another 2 hrs back to the hotel. Here I stopped for my 1000 mile pic and shut the bike down. Moonless night, pitch black out. No lights anywhere. Could see the Milky Way directly above. A massive narrow cloud of dim light arcing across the sky directly above. That's cool. Made it back to Carson City at 11:15 just shy of 20 hrs in the saddle. Although some of the riders easily rode it in 16-17 hrs.

Strangely enough, can't wait to do it again.

If 30 riders signed up to do this (20 made it) this year, maybe we'll have 60 riders sign up to do this next season for the 2013 Nutcracker 1000 Rally.

Same weekend - September 14th, 2013.

Several of the NutCracked Riders already mentioned since they've crossed off the 1000 Mile Day off the list, let's go for 1500 miles in one day. Crazy I know, but I was thinking the same thing.

It'll be a full moon out.

See you in Sept 2013.

 

[newman]

I like this very much.

 

[MelodicMetalGod]

Great stuff. Thanks!

 

[mabupa]

Great pics Tim!!! Thanks for the share

 

[warp10]

Very nice pics, brought back many memories of riding across hwy 50.

 

[busagirl4444]

absolutely gorgeous Tim. Post card / calendar material here.

I've made it!

All those years of reading Hot Rod magazine as a kid...

And yes, you can just ride right out onto the salt.

And into the obligatory Pashnit Photo Shoot. Of Course!

The salt was quite fascinating.

The Salt Flats are so flat, you can see the curvature of the earth.

When it's wet, it's kind of like cake batter. Or like frosting. Hard enough to put the side stand down & not sink in.

And coating everything on the bike.

I'm told it's caustic.

 

[dadofthree]

Great post

 

[Stilslo]

Good Stuff. I need to get out and see more of the U.S.

 

[sanket_420]

wow.. man.. some fo the best pics. I've seen so far on the org. and on your 1000 mile ride. keep err rolling.

 

[Sum Beach]

Awesome!! Awesome!! Awesome!! Thanks for taking the time to actually stop and take the pictures.
Everyone else that did the ride probably rode strait through. Very cool!!!!

 

[FALQN]

Very cool Tim! Great .ORG documentary! I'll be in San Diego next week for a conference, wish I could take the Busa with me. First trip to the west coast and I'm excited to see some of our I beautiful country. Thanks for bringing us along.