Warchild
Banned
This has been an exceptionally busy summer - only now am I freed up enough to try to do the Nevada Tour Of Honor sites.
Since the route is very conveniently just over 1000 miles, I thought I'd be the first to to an all "in-state" SaddleSore while scoring the ToH sites - an Illinois ToH rider did a SS1K earlier this year, but used a neighboring state for a gas receipt. I knew that Nevada would be a very fast SS1K, which proved to be the case as it was just a little over 15 hours of riding time to get all seven in Nevada.
My K8 is outfitted with a 4.7 gallon aux fuel tank, Hella HID lamps, and a 1.5 gallon Coleman insulated water jug on the rear rack (note insulated drinking tube - nothing like drinking cold ice-water when rolling through the burning desert!). The small Givi bags hold cold weather gear, bike cover, tools and tire repair kit. The tankbag hold the all-important camera/rally flag. Not carrying much else, because I am not stopping much.
Here was the preliminary route, starting in Reno, ending in Elko:
I started by contacting fellow ToH rider Brian Roberts to see if he was interested in doing a SS1K with me since he hasn't gotten the Nevada sites either, but he said he wasn't sure about it. However, fellow LD Rider "Reno John" Austin said he'd be around for the weekend since it was the start of "Hot August Nights" in Reno. He was able to hook me up with a very funky but interesting room at the "Club CalNeva" in the heart of downtown Reno. THANKS, RenoJohn! Um... it was interesting, to say the least.
RenoJohn provided a critical piece of advice: leave Reno very, VERY early so as to arrive in the blazing hot Boulder City/Hoover Dam area before noon. I decided on a 2am departure, and with a fast pace and good luck, I'd be in and out of the searing-hot Vegas area before noon.
RenoJohn came downtown to the Club CalNeva to see me off... here I am at approximately 1:45am, ensuring SPOT Tracker is set in "Tracking" mode.....
Ready to roll!!!!! I give RenoJohn the AdvRider Salute while he captures me rolling out of the Valet Parking area at the Club CalNeva:
Departing under the "Reno Arch" in the middle of downtown - Virgina St was closed off for "Hot August Nights". I got my Starting gas receipt at 2:02 PDT, 6Aug11:
34 miles later, I rolled into Site #1, the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Carson City. Since it was 2:42am, nobody was around to object to placing the bike right next to the Memorial:
Then it was off into the inky black night, hauling down HWY 95 to Tonopah. This was a lengthy little roll, about 230-ish miles, which placed me in Tonopah at dawn. This was a very neat memorial; the .30 cal machine gun is a nice touch!
A second shot here to include the bike in the memorial....
Got my second gas receipt in Tonopah, taking on-board a total of 6.877 gallons for the previous 261.7 miles. Now it was time to descend into the inferno of southern Nevada. I made decent enough time, rolling into North Vegas just before 9:30am.... and it was 97 degrees already. Sweet.
Since the route is very conveniently just over 1000 miles, I thought I'd be the first to to an all "in-state" SaddleSore while scoring the ToH sites - an Illinois ToH rider did a SS1K earlier this year, but used a neighboring state for a gas receipt. I knew that Nevada would be a very fast SS1K, which proved to be the case as it was just a little over 15 hours of riding time to get all seven in Nevada.
My K8 is outfitted with a 4.7 gallon aux fuel tank, Hella HID lamps, and a 1.5 gallon Coleman insulated water jug on the rear rack (note insulated drinking tube - nothing like drinking cold ice-water when rolling through the burning desert!). The small Givi bags hold cold weather gear, bike cover, tools and tire repair kit. The tankbag hold the all-important camera/rally flag. Not carrying much else, because I am not stopping much.
Here was the preliminary route, starting in Reno, ending in Elko:
I started by contacting fellow ToH rider Brian Roberts to see if he was interested in doing a SS1K with me since he hasn't gotten the Nevada sites either, but he said he wasn't sure about it. However, fellow LD Rider "Reno John" Austin said he'd be around for the weekend since it was the start of "Hot August Nights" in Reno. He was able to hook me up with a very funky but interesting room at the "Club CalNeva" in the heart of downtown Reno. THANKS, RenoJohn! Um... it was interesting, to say the least.
RenoJohn provided a critical piece of advice: leave Reno very, VERY early so as to arrive in the blazing hot Boulder City/Hoover Dam area before noon. I decided on a 2am departure, and with a fast pace and good luck, I'd be in and out of the searing-hot Vegas area before noon.
RenoJohn came downtown to the Club CalNeva to see me off... here I am at approximately 1:45am, ensuring SPOT Tracker is set in "Tracking" mode.....
Ready to roll!!!!! I give RenoJohn the AdvRider Salute while he captures me rolling out of the Valet Parking area at the Club CalNeva:
Departing under the "Reno Arch" in the middle of downtown - Virgina St was closed off for "Hot August Nights". I got my Starting gas receipt at 2:02 PDT, 6Aug11:
34 miles later, I rolled into Site #1, the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Carson City. Since it was 2:42am, nobody was around to object to placing the bike right next to the Memorial:
Then it was off into the inky black night, hauling down HWY 95 to Tonopah. This was a lengthy little roll, about 230-ish miles, which placed me in Tonopah at dawn. This was a very neat memorial; the .30 cal machine gun is a nice touch!
A second shot here to include the bike in the memorial....
Got my second gas receipt in Tonopah, taking on-board a total of 6.877 gallons for the previous 261.7 miles. Now it was time to descend into the inferno of southern Nevada. I made decent enough time, rolling into North Vegas just before 9:30am.... and it was 97 degrees already. Sweet.
- The tour of honor looks pretty cool - bookmarked
