AufRoad.com

My personal journey into adventure riding

LAB2V 2023

The general plan was set. Kyle had borrowed a Toyota Tacoma and I would ride my bike down to Monterey the day before Thanksgiving. In the morning we would load everything up and drive the 5 or 6 hours into Palmdale. We were going to do the LAB2V and then, similar to last year, I wanted to go ride a little more on the way home. The plan was to ride the 130 miles to Oatman, AZ (35.02997815007101, -114.37558132026831) which is the start of the NVBDR. Kyle had expressed interest in getting away from sand and so I suggested that we jump over and do some of the Southern CABDR once we got to Primm.

Here’s the Video version for all you short attention span people.

DAY -1:

Maybe I should have called this day zero but Day 0 should be the day before the event, right? Technically this would be the day before, the day before. No matter what I started out of the driveway at 4 PM. I had the wife take the obligatory pic. I had to carry all of my race clothes as well as my BDR stuff.

Beginning mileage: 19,420

I zipped down the freeway to Monterey allowing Google to direct me the fastest way. I had to stop for gas in San Jose but other than that it was easy sailing. My Garmin XT shows me the texts and notifications from my phone so I was seeing all the responses pop up from the Group Chat (same as last year only this year Tomm was going to try to pop by). Megan was watching me on Gooogle and keeping everyone updated.

I laughed at the Martini idea.

I pulled into Kyle and Taylor’s place at 6:50 PM and pulled right into the garage. Guess what?

That’s a funny colored Martini, right? Guess who doesn’t drink Vodka and only had Whisky in the house? It didn’t go to waste.

I got settled in and Taylor and I went down into town and got a couple of bottles of wine and a pizza for dinner. We had a nice dinner, helped Kyle pack for the BDR part and then went to bed.

DAY 0:

I woke up pre-dawn and loved looking down on Monterey Bay as the sun was coming up. What a great place and great view!

In the morning we took the camper shell off and then loaded the bikes into the back of the truck. I didn’t know it at the time but there was a time lapse happening. It’s not much but here you go.

That brings up another thing. I did not bring a GoPro. Last year every time I tried to get something good the camera wouldn’t start and then it wouldn’t turn off so the next time I tried the battery was dead. This year I wasn’t going to give into the stress.

With the truck loaded we hit the road. It was 9:31 AM.

It was back out to Hwy 101 south to Paso Robles, then east on Hwy 46 to Hwy 5. South on Hwy 5 and up the Grapevine and at the top is Hwy 138. We took that east to Lancaster (technically Oban) and then south on Hwy 14 into Palmdale. We pulled into the Embassy Suites Hotal in Palmdale at 2:49 PM.

We unloaded the bikes and all the gear.

There were already quite a few bikes in the parking lot.

We picked a spot near where we were last year and posed for a picture.

Tomm was driving from camping over night in San Simeon and arrived just about the same time. It was Thanksgiving night and the staff had the bar and restaurant open. Now that is a tasty looking martini!

We had a great time chatting in the bar. Last year my chance encounter was with Joy, who we kept seeing all weekend long. She even helped when Kyle went down at the end of day 1. This year I ran into a guy in the lobby.

As I was walking past he called out, “Hey Mike!”. Naturally I turned around. He was calling after another Mike across the lobby. He was a very nice guy named Anthony who for the next couple of days would say “Hi Mike” every time we passed. Moto Guys PEOPLE are so nice and so much fun!

We kept looking down the hall checking to see when pre registration would open. I met a couple of guys doing the same. They were at another hotel and so I had one of them text me and I said as soon as I saw it open I would text them. Sometime after 9PM I think it opened.

They were already back from their hotel so no need to text them.

Pre Reg was easy and went pretty quickly. I then went to the GPS line. It was pretty long. I believe they were divided up by device. This was the first LAB2V that was 100% non roll chart. Some had a real GPS, others were using their phones and something like Gaia Maps. I had my iPad with an SD card adapter so that I could load the .gpx on to the SD card and then plug that into my Garmin XT. I also put it on Gaia on my phone. Like I said, long line but when I finally got to the front – the guy asked if I had access to my email and then simply pulled it up on his gmail account, added my email, and forwarded it to me.

Because the line for GPS was so long and the guy had emailed me the .gpx file, when I got to the end of the line I pulled up the email and told the last guy in line to add his email address. I did the same for a few others and then confirmed they all got the email. Paying it forward.

I also took the time to take a picture of the route description. Once again, for the sake of finishing our plan was to just do all of the green (easy) routes and stay away from the red (hard) routes.

We made a plan to have breakfast at 5:30 AM in the morning and then head out. I had reserved rooms in each hotel with double queen beds in each. Tonight it was just Myself, and Kyle and Taylor so we had plenty of beds. Emily and Travis would leave home in the morning and meet us that night in Barstow. Tomm checked to see if there was a room available and there was! So he also took a room for the night.

DAY1:

The alarm went off at 5 AM and we were at breakfast at 5:30 as planned. There was a long long line for registration and GPS in the morning. It’s so nice to get that done the night before.

All we had to do before we started was make sure we had everything packed and put on our numbers. Easy Peasy. Nothing mechanical like last year.

The course out of Palmdale zig zags through farm land and industrial plots.

I knew we were going to probably pass by the SR22 Blackbird again (Blackbird Airpark) and I told Kyle I wanted to stop and snap a pic of my bike. We stopped a little too early and then the sun was in the wrong direction so we got a few other planes in the background instead.

When we finally hit dirt it was that sad dumping ground area that we had passed last year. We had to dodge trash, old furniture, tires – anything that people didn’t want and were too lazy to go to the actual dump for.

I was maybe a few hundred yards into the dirt and the sun had just come up casting long shadows over the trail. There was a washed out gully a few feet across that I totally missed seeing. My front tire hit it deep and I was almost up over the bars. Somehow I saved it. It was a big hit but I lived to tell about it. I just about threw away the whole adventure just a few yards from the start!

Not long after that though I noticed my GPS had lost charging connection. So did my phone. That was odd as I had built my whole remote fuse block system behind the headlight to power it all. We stopped and took a deeper look. Oh that guy with his arm raised? Everyone checks in on you as they pass. He was giving us the thumbs up and you can see Kyle’s shadow doing the same. This is why I said that I would do LAB2V solo and not be worried.

The fuse block is powered by two cables running directly from the battery. One of the two had broken from it’s solder less connector. We decided to tape it with some gorilla tape and then see what we could fix at lunch. Just in case I turned off both the phone and GPS and we just followed other people.

Meanwhile Taylor and Tomm were slabbing it to the Lunch stop.

I don’t know if it was planned or not but this year was much much sandier than last year. Deep Deep sand. Somewhere early on I had pulled just off course when Kyle stopped and I sunk the rear so deep I had to get help from Kyle to pull it out!

Kyle was having issues with his hips, or his arms, or his hands, so we stopped from time to time. We kept questioning that this was the Easy Route? To be honest some was easy, but there was so much that wasn’t too!

We pushed on towards lunch at Kramer Junction. Tracking says we got to Kramer Junction at 11:32 AM

We found Tomm and Taylor pretty quickly. I told Tomm what the problem was and he started looking for the right parts. While he was doing that I pulled off my headlight and mask and then opened up the Fuse Block.

Meanwhile Kyle was feeling much better than he did before.

Taylor had sandwiches for us and cold drinks.

Tomm and I fixed the broken wire (he did most of the work) and I put it all back together. I turned the key and we had power yet again! Yay!

With everything good, Kyle and I sat down and ate our sandwiches in the shade.

Food and bev done we suited back up and were ready to ride. We got gas, checked in down the road a few blocks and were back at it. Total time for lunch was just about 30 minutes (according to tracking)!

I generally led the way and would ride just a little faster than Kyle. When my radio lost connection or there was a turn in the course I would stop and wait for him. There was a few sections of fast road that I had a little fun on.

Sometimes I would step back and take interesting scenic views, sometimes I would take pictures of my bike.

The course took us north and east above Barstow and then turned south to head into Barstow from the North. That flat land between lunch and Barstow was just about all sand.

Here’s a quicky map.

Somewhere the track photographer had posted himself at a small crest on a hill. I did my best to give him a good wheelie.

But I was just a little too enthusiastic and came down a little crooked with my front wheel turned a little towards him. When I landed, I pretty much ran him down causing him to drop his camera and dodge me.

I yelled that I was sorry for what it was worth.

My favorite part of the whole trip this year was riding along a few miles out of Barstow and seeing a dark Sprinter way far away. As we kept riding closer, I thought I could see a bit of red on the back. And when we rode even closer I could see 2 people sitting up top.

Yes they were sitting in the middle of the desert, drinking cold beer, watching the riders go by! How cool is that?

We stopped and said Hi! and they wanted us to come into the corner faster so that they could video it. We were happy to oblige. So we rode backwards a few hundred yards and then made an effort to look fast.

We zipped into Barstow and the route took us under a few low overpasses and we literally dodged a few homeless encampments. Odd that they didn’t just run us through the street like last year but maybe that was because of the guy that got run over in traffic – the guy that Kyle and I stopped from bleeding. He had a pretty big bleeder on his right hand. Bunch of broken bones and if I remember right the truck shattered his elbow. Hmmmmm.

We pulled up to the hotel and found out that the check in was inside the hotel so we went back to the Boy Scout park and parked our bikes for the night. 500+ bikes in a dirt lot, roped off and guarded all through the night. To pick up your bike you just needed your wristband with your number on it.

Next, I checked into the hotel. We showered (Kyle and I separately) and then all piled into Em’s car for dinner and drinks a few blocks away.

Tomm decided he was going to sleep in the van in the parking lot. Emily and Travis arrived pretty close after we did. Once again, 2 queen sized beds, plus Kyle brought an inflatable air mattress (also a queen size). Tonight it was 5 of us. I think Kyle and Taylor took the air mattress.

How’s that for a full room?

Meanwhile out in the parking lot… Tomm had plenty of space and he said it was pretty quite too!

Once again, alarm at 5:00 and breakfast at 5:30!

DAY 2:

Alarm went off at 5 again but I was already awake. I popped out of bed and got dressed. Not moto dressed, just dressed for breakfast, dressed. Breakfast wasn’t as nice as the day before at Embassy Suites but they had some of everything. I went with 2 cups of coffee, eggs, bacon and a yogurt as usual.

Somewhere along the line we took a bad picture of me and somehow that became a recurring theme. I don’t really care what I look like, I’m not looking to win any instagram points so I was happy enough to go with it.

After a quick breakfast we went back to the room and suited up. For the record we felt much better than this looked. Once again, the plan was to stick to the green routes. After a quick breakfast we went back to the room and suited up. For the record we felt much better than this looked.

Once again, the plan was to stick to the green routes. Yes, those are my cruddy ‘throwaway’ shoes at the bottom of the picture.

Dressed to ride, we headed over to the Boy Scout Lot and grabbed our bikes. It was cold and I knew we were going to be heading directly into the sun so it was thermals and then my REI Sahara pants and then my Klim pants.

We picked. up the bikes, took a quick picture and then headed back to the official start. The lot was full of bikes, we’re in the 4th row of maybe 20 and you can see how many bikes had already left. We were already running behind.

Back at the hotel and official start gate, Tomm had John the long time M.C. of the event come over and get us started. I pulled a small wheelie out of the gate.

Our first stop was gas. We both filled up. Kyle’s dual tanks somehow overfilled one or the other and started pouring gas out the vent hose. No big deal but he had a little slip and slide as he headed out the gas station.

We turned out of the gas station and headed towards the big uphill whoop section that starts Day 2. I had warned Kyle that it wasn’t all that technical but you were heading directly into the sun, couldn’t see shit, and it was full of rocks and woops. Unlike last year, I zoomed right up. At the top I was talking to Kyle and told him that there was an easier work around that he could do. He did that and then we both rode along the top of the hills following everyone’s tracks.

For some reason my tracking didn’t start until later in the day. 9:38 AM was my first ping on my Garmin Inreach and that was miles out of Barstow.

That’s a bummer because shortly into the ride – we got lost. We were in a river wash and we could see riders in the distance, but we were off course. In Dakar terms we were “Off Piste”.

Google was tracking my phone and although it’s not 100% accurate in the wild it suggested that we screwed up here:

We knew where we had come from and we could see the dust from riders but we couldn’t figure out where we had gone wrong or how to get back. We wasted about an hour climbing a ridge to see what we could on the other side. I’m still not sure where or how – but we managed to get back on a road (fire trail) and get back on course.

Back on the gas – we weren’t the only guys. We had a small amount of people we would pass, then they would pass us. I remember a TW200 and a big BMW.

This picture will do no justice to the slope but this was a serious loose and rocky downhill followed by an equally serious loose and rocky uphill. You can see a speck of a guy a near the bottom of the uphill. He had fallen and was trying to get up the hill. While we waited for him, I snapped this picture.

I have issues with the right foot and using the rear brake but I managed to roll down the hill to the bottom. When I got to the bottom I carried a little momentum and started up the hill. I passed the guy we were waiting for and made it almost all the way up the hill. Almost. A few yards from the top my rear tire hit a large rock and slid out.

There were 2 other guys coming up the hill so I stood out of the way. They got to the top and parked. Both came down to help me and one of them was that guy I met in the Lobby the first night – Anthony! We all lifted my bike upright and then I just walked it the few feet to the top. Kyle made his way down to the bottom and then learned from the Sweep that was shadowing us, that there was a work around just off to the left. He took that and I met him on the other side.

Meanwhile I heard that there was leftover pizza being enjoyed by our fabulous support crew! Go Team!

After the ups and downs of the steep fire road we got to a section that was long and flat. There was a good chance I might have exceeded the speed limit along there.

I know we crossed over Hwy 40 at 11:19 AM. We had come out on a frontage road and knew we had to get a move on or sweep was going to get us. We inadvertently turned the wrong way, figured it out and then rode the right way to get back on course.

We rode north up to Hwy 15. At Hwy 15 the Easy route ran alongside the north side of the freeway and in to Baker while the Hard route did the same along the South side of the freeway.

We were so far behind at this point that I suggested that we ride the freeway all the way into Baker – which was our next checkpoint. Having checked in at the Thermometer (I knew exactly where to go) we spent too long at at quicky mart. I think we both got coffee as it was a little cold. Back on the bikes I suggested we continue to catch up. We took the freeway again up to Halloran Springs where we rejoined the route.

This section was deep sand on a narrow path for quite a while. We took quite a few breaks along here. I would ride ahead a bit, then stop and wait for Kyle who wasn’t all that far back but out in the desert and at the speed we were going we were “Burning Daylight” – as John Wayne would have said.

After like 10 miles of this we took a right turn and it was a powerline road that was equally as deep in sand but was much much wider. This gave me the room to play a bit and I found that cruising at 32 MPH was optimum for my bike as it was. I couldn’t get Kyle to do the same so I would buzz ahead and then stop and wait here and there.

When we got to the end of the Power Line Rd (it was actually named that!) I could see a LAB2V vehicle at the end (Excelsior Mine Rd/ Kingston Road). We stopped and they said we were running way behind (DUH!) and that we should take the next right and zoom into Sandy Valley. I asked if it was that wide gravel road I remembered and he said it was – he said it was a 70 MPH road if you liked.

So we did just that. It was wide and flat gravel and I admit I had a little fun sliding the bike around corners. Apparently there was a blockage on Hwy 15 coming out of Vegas and Waze had directed a bunch of cars that should have not been on this road so we had quite a few cars coming towards us.

They were driving generally slow but pulling up a bunch of dust. I had my headlight on full so I know they could see me. No issues except for one lifted truck that didn’t want to go their speed and was passing them in bulk. When I saw it it was right in the middle of the road straddling the center line if there was one. They made no attempt at moving over so I flipped them off as I passed at high speed. Minutes later Kyle had a similar encounter with them.

Coming into Sandy Valley I knew the course took a left and circled around a few farms before finding it’s way to the Fire Station / Lunch Stop. I waited for Kyle and then told him we were going to short cut that as well.

Once in Sandy Valley proper, we circled around trying to find the Fire Station. Finally I pulled up Google Maps and found Emily on the map and headed straight for her.

At lunch it was the same as last year –

  1. Check in
  2. Get Washed
  3. Get Gassed
  4. Get Lunch
  5. Get back on the bike and ride to Vegas!

The support crew was out front and got us coming in. Yay Team!

More than anything I think we were both tired of being on the bike.

For me, I also had a mission. I knew the Firefighters supplied lunch but also had a swag table set up. We were late but I was hoping there was still a shirt left – and amazingly I got one of the last! I also said that I had a Challenge Coin and Patch for trade. The firefighter I was talking to thought they already had one from Local 1230 and didn’t think they had any patches. They are a volunteer organization. She was going to check with her Capt and see what they could do.

I turned around and grabbed a full plate for lunch and then we found a table to sit and eat at. Kyle was feeling better.

My hair wasn’t going to earn instagram points.

I could hear the officials telling the lunch crew that they could start closing down soon. We got to lunch at 3:14 PM. Last year I pulled into lunch at 1:27 PM and left at 2:03 PM. We were still waaaaay behind.

The Firefighter came back and found me – she had secured a patch and a sticker so mission accomplished! (the Coin, Patch and Sticker are for the wife at her office, I was after just the shirt).

We were done at lunch at just about 4 PM. Getting back up after lunch is always so hard. You can see it as I swing my backpack back on.

We decided to skip any more dirt and beeline to Vegas with the cars. Leaving Sandy Valley the Moon was rising above the ridge. I stopped to take a picture but somehow missed it. Travis got it though. Yay Support Crew! (shot on an iphone)

We went up and over the ridge on Sandy Valley Road into Jean and Hwy 15 and then into Vegas. It was 4:25 PM when we hit the freeway in Jean and about 5 PM on the dot when we hit the finish line at The Orleans. Here’s a few of the pics from that.

Of course we also took the traditional finish line pics with the Vegas Girls – but missing this year was Santa – maybe he already left? Two thumbs up from us for getting to the finish.

We parked the bikes out of the way and then I forgot that I had Pinhead shirts for a pic. Travis remembered. Yay Crew! So we all put one on and took a pic at the gate.

This was Tomms first LAB2V but he suggests that this should be the attire to greet finishers in the future. Just sayin.

From there we went up to the room and showered. Next we went down to the casino and found a restaurant. Having just ate a few hours ago, I wasn’t all that hungry so it was just a pretzel and Guinness for me.

We got to the awards banquet a little late. Kyle saw someone he knew and they bought us a drink. I think that was my first Coors Light Ever. Not something I want to repeat.

PHOTOS BY GRUMPY:

The track photographer (or team of photographers) got a few pics that I purchased. I’m not sure where along the course they happened but here’s a few…

TRICKTRACKS:

When I got the GPS for Day 2 I happened to see this piece of paper on the guys desk. I asked him what it was but he didn’t know and wouldn’t give it to me so I snapped a pic and then looked it up at home.

One of the issues I had with my GPS is that it would only show one set of tracks at a time. You could see your list of tracks but you could only pick one. That one that showed would give you a start and a finish on the map but that finish was just the finish of that one track. Once you passed that finish line you had to stop and pull up the next track that you wanted to hit. Of course none of these were marked in real life so many times we blew right past the end of one and were miles down the next one before we wanted to see where to go.

Tricktracks allows you to upload a .gpx file and it converts it to a map image with all of the tracks, all of the routes, everything you need all on one thing. It’s kind of how I used to ride with my iPad and Gaia Maps.

The downside is that you need a computer to do this. It’s a custom map that you would have to load into your Garmin with a laptop and a cable. The way that LAB2V issues the route on the day of, doesn’t make that all that feasible and would require that everyone carry a laptop.

They could however make the maps for people and then at the GPS table have cables and laptops and load them on your Garmin for you. That would be one option for the future.

DAY 3:

That night Travis had said he wanted to get an early start on the drive home. At the same time, Kyle was searching for clutch parts online and on the phone. The free play in his clutch was gone and he said it was slipping on the freeway at one point. He would have to do something for us to continue on pour plans and get on the NVBDR. After a little thought I suggested that we wake up early too and then go look at his bike. If it was an easy and obvious fix we could do that and send Taylor and the truck home with Travis and Emily. If it wasn’t, then I suggested that we bail on the BDR part, go home and fix what needed to be fixed and come back with proper bikes to do the BDR when we were ready. He and Tomm were thinking a full on clutch replacement and I was hesitant to jump to that conclusion.

In the morning we went down to the bikes and started looking at the issue. We took off the reservoir cap and it was over flowing. Kyle said he had filled it to the suggested 4 mm below the rim on a level surface and it was obviously way over that.

My thought was that the slave cylinder was letting motor oil back into the system. That additional fluid put pressure in the line when there shouldn’t have been any. That allowed his clutch to slip as well as take away any free play.

Either way there was no easy fix so we packed it all up and we drove all together. Tomm suggested we stop at a place along the way for breakfast – Peggy Sue’s. It was a way out so we first stopped at a Starbucks in Vegas before hitting the freeway.

We got to Peggy Sue’s and took a picture.

After a short wait, we happened to be sat at corner table and I looked and most of the pictures were of Emily so we had to have our Emily pose.

That other Emily would be Emily Gabler and we didn’t recognize her name or pictures. Back home in writing this I found her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/emigab/ And from there, it led me to the story at https://www.vvdailypress.com/story/news/2020/10/07/champ-gabler-co-owner-peggy-sues-50-s-diner-yermo-has-died/3634483001/ where it was reported that Peggy Sue passed away (and so did her husband) but the enlightening thing is that Emily is their daughter!

After Lunch/Dinner we continued our caravan on towards Lost Hills. That is where we pulled into an Arco and unloaded my bike off the truck. Kyle and Taylor would continue on from there towards Monterey, while I would ride my bike up Hwy 5 to home.

It was 3:06PM when we stopped at the Arco. The sun was shining at it was warm. Taylor asked if I wanted my electric jacket or thicker gloves. I foolishly said I was warm and didn’t. As soon as the sun went down I was freezing!

Hwy 5 was stop and go and I was splitting lanes. I stopped for gas at one point at a gas station at Panoche Road. I looked at the map to see where Travis and Emily were but they were more than an hour behind me so I “Toughened Up, Butter Cup!” and froze my ass off the whole way home. I was watching the temp on my Garmin as it dropped from 54 to 44 degrees.

I pulled into my driveway at 7:30 PM. I took as warm of a shower as I could. My hands were too cold for a hot shower. I put on some comfortable clothes, had a bite to eat, and the wife brought me a delicious martini (more like 4). Home martinis are always the best after a long ride!

In the morning I took a pic of my odo.

That would make 726 miles on the bike, half of which would be dirt or sand.

I also noticed I had an oil leak. It might be a clutch slave leak. I’m investigating that right now. Note, both bolts that are missing in the picture were there and were tight. They are part of the Vanasche Case Guard that I took off for the pic. I also removed my skid plate.

Interesting tid bits

In the Awards banquet I did heard that

  • The #1 brand was once again KTM
  • The #1 model was the 500
  • and the 31 demographic was Men aged 60 – 70!

Oh and I did a search for videos on Youtube and this was the first LAB2V2023 that I saw published. Of all things, you can see us at the start gate at 39 seconds in and then he passes us as we’re pulling over for the airplane museum at 1:20 in.

Not only that but he also parks his bike right in front of us at the Boy Scout Lot in Barstow.
He literally walks past Kyle’s bike at 44 seconds in on his Day 2 video. How cool is that?

Oh and I found a video of the original start from B2V in 1989 – I am in there somewhere. Turn up the volume and bask in the glory of 2 strokes and all that noise! I couldn’t handle that today!

Mike Mueller
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