Sunday, August 2nd.
California was the plan for the day. We started in Blythe and headed west into the heat. When we rolled out of Blythe it was already 99 degrees at 8:30 in the morning. Our plan brought us around the north end of Salton Sea, through Borrego Springs, and up into Julian.
We were honored today to have our second ride-along: Jeffrey has been Hank's friend for over 10 years and he figured out how to come out to Blythe to meet us and ride with us. This
is Jeffrey and his mom, Jane.
Jeffrey's a motorcycle nut and he has to be to choose to join us for the Blythe to Julian stretch of our journey in August!
We had a goal of covering as many miles as possible as fast as possible, but it was not to be. We lost a bolt out of Jeffrey's front brake almost right away.
We found some shade (yes, Hay has many uses!) and scavenged a bolt from another less important location and moved on. Our next delay was my pannier bags. It's apparent that these are 6000 mile bags and we are trying to push them to 7000 miles. A bit of rope and some ingenuity, and we were off.
On our way to the Salton Sea, sometimes the trail disappeared and we had to go cross-country:
We had the throttle pinned a lot today in hopes of avoiding the heat!
The Salton Sea is a great mix of life and death. In many ways it's a dead area because it's been largely abandoned after being touted as the next Las Vegas but the plans to rejuvenate the area failed, The few that are left are are crazy bunch of tough individuals.
There are still a few residents here
This marina had been abandoned for awhile. The price of the gasoline here was marked at a little over $1, and what's up with the "no dirt bikes" sign?
The fish in the sea go through cycles of crazy population growth and then decline
Salton Sea. Elevation 250 feet below sea level.
From the Salton Sea, our plan was to head through Ocotillo Wells OHV Park but even though we wanted to play in this familiar area, it was just too hot. We hit the highway to try to get up to higher elevation.
One last look at our Ocotillo Wells before heading for higher elevation.
Borrego Springs was a bit cooler. We stopped by these cool metal sculptures. There are dozens of these scattered around the area and of course, the boys have to show their excitement:
It finally started to cool off as we approached 4000 feet.
We arrived in Julian about 5pm.
Tomorrow is our final day! Wow, it is only just starting to sink in that we are one day away from completing a dirt bike ride from Maine to California. We plan on leaving early so we can make the Pacific Ocean in the early afternoon.
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