Salton Sea 2011



Spotwalla/Spot tracking
Total: 472 miles




Total: 320 miles
Estimate time: 12 hours

Day 1 - [ Friday - July 8, 2011 ]

It's a short two day trip so we're traveling light.  Once again, the R12R as opposed to the 8GS.  The choice is made mostly because of laziness in maintenance.





Ortega HWY/Lake Elsinore.


Fools (Alphaville - Prostitute)

Pala Casino for brunch.


Funny things about the reflective tape...





It's nice and cool in Julian.  What a quaint little town.  The people are really nice and we didn't even have to lock up our stuff.








Thinking About You (Ivy - In the Clear)


This is just the start of the heat.  The temps climb higher as we get further into Anza Borrego.


The only way to survive the heat, wetting the cool vest.



It's freakin' HOT!  108-114F through Anza Borego.  That tops my record of riding in the heat without trying to purposefully find heat (e.g. Death Valley).  The last time I involuntarily rode in 111F heat was when a heat wave struck Pasadena (Hell has nothing on Pasadena!).  Minh's thermometer showed 119F.  The cool vest took the temps down to the 75F so it was survivable.  However it only lasted for about 30 minutes.  There were several times I lifted my face shield only to be greeted by the hair drier blast.


You can't see it from the video due to the wide angle lens, but there was a car a blaze in the middle of a field.  Crime scene?  Pyromaniac?  Perhaps it's somebody who doesn't realize that parking a hot car over tall dried/dead grass will lead to a fiery, stinky, and smoky end for their mode of transportation.  BTW, here is proof that Hollywood is full of it.  Cars don't explode when they catch on fire.  They simply burn.  The notion of gasoline boiling and pressuring the gas tank to the point of exploding is completely bogus.  There are vent holes in the gas tank.  Then again if you believe in Hollywood physics, you should check yourself into the near mental hospital, or you can simply use your cell phone to have Scotty beam you up off of this crazy planet.  Warp factor 9 Mr. Sulu.  Engage!






At last!  The Salton Sea.  Things have changed.  Minh and I are caught standing for a short time to reasses the situation from the last time we were here.  I can't believe it's been more than three years already.  It looks a lot better.  Like somebody wanting to revive the area.



The North Shore Beach & Yacht Club was previously an abandoned restaurant, or something like that.  There was also a two story crumbling hotel that no longer exist.



Apparently Riverside County has decided to resurrect the area.  It can only be guessed as to how much money was sunk into this area for this level of revitalization.  At the same time, this building looks recently completed and doesn't appear to be populated.  Either that or people are on an extended 4th of July weekend.  Who knows.














Total: 152 miles
Estimated time: 6 hours

Day 2 - [ Saturday - July 9, 2011 ]

9:00AM in the morning and it's already in the 96F.  It's going to be a hot day.


Empty...


Empty...


Loaded...


... traveling light.

Instead of taking the I10 straight home, we went the roundabout direction.  In other words the 74 and the 243 HWY.  Once we got into the higher elevations, I'm reminded that I'm riding in Yosemite or the Inyo National Forest.  Awesome!  It's so cool to have such an environment so close to home.

What I didn't realize this entire day was the battery pack I was using for the helmet cam had a chaffed cable.  As a result, I wasn't able to video any of the ride back home.

At the outskirts of Idyllwild we stop for a break at the three way intersection.  Next thing we know, we're greeted by a train of Porsches.  One, two, three, four, ... and on and on.  There must have been at least 30 Porsches.  These people definitely has some bucks, or they owe a lot of bucks.


What's the deal with all these Porsches? ...


Here's another train...


Oh... that looks like the last of them...


Nope!  Here's that last one.





Once we touch upon the I10, we're pretty much home.  Except for one crazy ass charter bus speeding at 80+ MPH, it was an uneventful trip home.



Written on: July 9, 2011
Last modified: July 26, 2011