Christmas Eve Ride

[donaldcc]

  Happy Holidays all!

  Went for nice ride up through east side of Joshua Tree Nat Park to Twentynine Palms and out through desert around mtns and home.  about 230 miles.  temps in mid 60's and sunny. it was like santa gave me an early gift.



  i love the desert in the winter.  up through the park about 50 m to 29 Palms.  about 25,000 population but over 8,000 just out of town at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center and one of the largest military training areas in the nation. almost all troops in middle east spend a month there.

  it is great riding up out of the Colorado Desert to the higher Mojave desert. up to 4-5000' elevation and then down to 29 Palms at about 2000'  Here are a few pics going up.



nice rock covered elevation



cactus fields



great rock formations



coming out of Twentynine Palms i rode about 50 miles east and then made a right turn at a stop sign and went about 25 mi south.  about 65 miles without a single structure except a few cell phone towers.  going east there are no curves but just some gentle direction changes.  no traffic.  great 2 lane road to cruise about 85 mph.  but a few times got up in very high RPMs and low MPG for a while (well past century.  put bike on lift and had safety check of tires, pressure, etc. before this ride).  only animals to worry about at very high speed were lizards, maybe a rabbit or road runner. a few places i could see the road ahead for 7-8 miles.  going south 25 mi like an arrow flies, not a single change in direction.  then onto I-10 about 60 mi home.  what a great day.

[hal47]

Good report and pictures ,brings back lots of menories, marry Christmas to you.

[Phil57]

Looks like a great ride. Thanks for sharing.

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

Thanks for sharing. Great pics and ride report. 

[scoot]

Thanks for sharing. It looks like a nice ride. It's this time of year when these ride reports are so much appreciated.

[BF]

I wouldn't dare ride the Valk around here on Christmas eve. 

I was taking my life in my hands just getting out for a little while in the Expedition yesterday. 

People drive like crap the day before Christmas......AND the day before Christmas eve too.  They're all crazy.