Leaving Reno through the high Sierras

On our way back to the hotel from Virginia City, we stopped at Reno Harley Davidson. Laurie had seen a full coverage helmet at the Carson City dealer and fell in love with it. I was surprised that she was even considering it but she confessed that if it was raining on the way home and windy as expected, she'd really be more comfortable. No worries.

The gals at the Reno HD dealer were the greatest. Big props to them for taking time to properly fit Laurie with a nice helmet. Neither of us are helmet nazis. We figure to each their own and in fact, we have ridden without when we're in a state where it's legal. But she totally fell in love with this thing.

So we did some more vendor stuff downtown on Saturday night but planned on heading out on Sunday.

After another night of gambling (and losing) we woke up Sunday to rain again but figured we should get out of Dodge before it got too bad. We loaded up, waited for a little break in the weather and took off. And it started to pour.

Now I know a lot of y'all are used to riding in rain but hey, we're in southern California. If it's raining, it's usually in December-March and there is no good reason to be on the bike anyway due to the "cold". So we rode down 395 in a light to mild rain. Laurie was totally diggin' on the helmet while my mug was getting soaked.

We got out of it and rode on down towards Bishop, California where we planned to spend the night. I have to tell you that the ride down 395 through the Sierras was breathtaking. We were literally openmouthed at some of the scenery.

A little north of Bishop is the old mining town of Bodie California where I'd always wanted to visit. The place is a ghost town now and the buildings left standing are virtually the way they were over 100 years ago. The casino still has chips on the tables covered with decades of dust.

After a gas up in Bridgeport, we took the turn off the main highway to go up to Bodie. What I didn't know was that it was 10 miles of paved road and 2 or 3 of gravel. Hmmm....what the hell, let's do it.

We started climbing and the clouds started getting blacker and blacker and it got colder and colder. We got about 7 miles in and we said, "Screw this" when we started seeing little flurries of snow coming down. Cold? Uh....yeah.


At 8,000 feet it can get cold. Bodie can wait for the summer!
We got back on the main highway and took off for Bishop where we had some dinner and crashed.

The next day we took off for the last leg home. This was a great trip. Reno, in my opinion is a better run than Laughlin for a few reasons:

1 - Scenery. Living in southern California, there is way too much desert. And while I love the desert, I miss TREES! Riding on lazily curving rodes surrounded by oak, pine, etc is my idea of a great ride. Blasting through the desert areas of LA is not.

2 - Weather. Laughlin is in late April and late April in Nevada can be brutal. Last year the temperature was 112 degrees. Nice huh? While our first trip up to Reno this year was during a freak cold/rain spell for California, late September in the high sierras and Reno are is usually perfect for riding.

So, while we will absolutely hit Laughlin in 2008, we have pretty much decided that instead of doing the Vegas bike week in early October of '08, we'll do the late September Reno run again. This time though, we'll leave a day early and go right up 395. Our only regret was that we pulled in on Friday rather than Thursday. Next year, we'll have all day Friday for more riding and fun.