Cerro Gordo, Riding in the Reward Mine, and Alabama Hills: Death Valley Noob Rally, Day 1

That is amaze-balls. There it is, Cerro Gordo. Pretty cool. This is the old Manzanar Airport. Got it? Need help? Oh, that's horrifying. We're definitely in the Alabama Hills, right? Good times. Hello friends, and welcome to the official day one of the Death Valley Noob Rally. I pulled way too far forward. Now I have to figure out how to get out of here without crashing. So this is the campground, filled with eager ADV riders. So this whole place has been reserved for this event. And I'm going to go meet up with Ian and Sal and Dennis and Sal Jr., and we're going to go ride to a place I've wanted to see for a long time. And it just seemed dumb to be this close and not go. So today I think we're headed out to Cerro Gordo, which is going to be awesome, but what a beautiful place to wake up and go ride. I also need to check in, but the line is ridiculously long. So, you know, maybe we'll do that later. It is absolute chaos around here. Just like every rally, but I think we're ready to hit the road. We picked up another guy. And there's Ian on the Tiger. The other guys are on KLRs. And I think... No, sorry, there's two KLRs, a DR650, and I think the third guy is on a... I thought he was on a KTM, but I don't know where he is. I'm already hot, but it's supposed to be cold up in the mountains, so it's just like... No, maybe it's the KTM guy? I have no idea. Ah, it's good to be riding again! Hell yeah! Alright, well, if you're a U2 fan, apparently right here is the infamous Joshua Tree. We're going to go check it out. Glad I brought this bike, though. Tell you what. What the hell is this? Oh, it's a garbage dump, cool! There it is. Unfortunately, the tree has changed. Need a photo, boys? Yeah. Hold it the other way, though. Flip that flag around. Flip your flag around. Your flag's backwards. Somebody will comment on that. You look like you're on the moon. Cool. Cool stuff in the photograph. Neat. So that's Mount Whitney. Which one? Yeah, this mountain range is weird. Because you can't tell. I'll be right behind you, dude. Just don't look back. I'll be there, trust me. No, I just want to be one of those Instagram people who just, like, post and then I guess... I know, right? Go, like, to a hotel in Mexico and they pay you to fly out there and take one picture. I'm like, okay. How is that worth it? Yeah. Ha ha! What a d***. He just roosted him. Alright, then. I guess everybody just leaves whenever the hell they want. Well, I'm glad we went right into s*** sand, like, immediately. That's great for my warm-up that I wanted to do. Here we go. This is the turn to Cerro Gordo. We are headed up the road to the fat hill in Espanol. Cerro Gordo Road. Here it is. And this is Keeler, the town of Keeler. It's happening. There it is, Cerro Gordo. Rough road, four-wheel drive advised. S***, I've only got one-wheel drive. I'm in trouble. So, I don't know if you guys watch Ghost Town Living, which is Brett Underwood's channel, about his life up at Cerro Gordo since he bought it, but that is... I have watched quite a few episodes. Admittedly, I'm a little behind, so I haven't seen anything lately, but... I've been very interested to see Cerro Gordo ever since I started watching that, so... I'm excited for this opportunity. That's why I suggested it to the boys, and they kindly accommodated me. That was so nice of them. So nice of them. Also, the road that our friend Amanda got in over her head a little bit, but it was snowy. So, we're hoping for less snow today than she had on that fateful trip with Doodle. Is it going to get interesting? I hope so. But, like, mildly interesting, not super interesting just yet. With a whole ghost town, or a whole town and everything at the top, once upon a time. I brought it all in and out by burro train. It's crazy to me, on this very road. We're going up! Wow, cool, man. Super cool, man. A little snow up there, but I think we're going to be okay. The Sierra Nevada are incredibly impressive mountains, and they just go on forever. Like, I swear I was following them for a couple hundred miles on my way down here. Some of you geologists, geography people are going to be like, duh. I know, I'm an Oregon boy, okay? Our mountains go, like, up and down. They're not, like, consistently high. So much so that, like, do they even have names for the peaks? I know Mount Whitney's over there somewhere. Now, I got it wrong when we were in Mojave talking about Joshua trees, because those were yucca plants. But out here in Death Valley, they are Joshua trees. So that's what that is. The only place they grow on Earth, as far as I know. There's one right there. A Yoshua tree. This is, of course, why they took the picture for the U2 album out here, because it's the only place you can find them. There's a s*** ton of them. Look at that. A whole orchard. No trespassers. Hunting or shooting. Holy s***. Spectacular. Look at the reflection of the mountains. Oh, my God. Wow. That is amaze-ball. Look at that. Really cool spot just up ahead. Sick. I've been told there's a really cool spot just up ahead. I hope this comes across on the camera, but the mountains reflecting in the lake. Unbelievably gorgeous. Just... spectacular. It's the American Hotel Burned Down. I'm holding it. Chris Brett or Brent. Whoa. It's a lot farther down than I'm used to. I'm glad you got to come here, because... you owe me at least one. Oh, you can see the lake. Old smokestack. Kiln. Fireplace. Chapel, obviously. Pretty cool, though. Pretty cool. Come see something that you... have watched on the old YouTube so many times. Yeah. There's the guy. That's what I'm talking about. That's the YouTube channel I watch. Alright. Now the beautiful descent. This is the old Manzanar Airport. Obviously abandoned. But, uh... They use it to resupply the camp, which is right over there, which I checked out yesterday. But we're headed to the Reward Mine. Which is supposedly a cool mine that you can ride into. We'll see. Found the sandy, dusty part. As we head towards the hills. Where I'm assuming the mine is located. Just a hole in the ground we just fall into. A little sandy, but not too bad if you don't think about it too much. Now we're getting into some terrain. Seems like. A little looser. Fun stuff. I might have to stand up today. Fine. Ugh. Boring. For sure in the wrong gear. Dammit. Now I gotta open my vents and sh**. Also, these tires are way overinflated. Oh, sh**. Junior's down. Junior's down. Got it? Need help? Feels good? Ian took the tiger through his fist. That was something. This could be a terrible idea because we could have an earthquake and I could get buried in there forever. But I want to see how my Cyclops lights do in here. So. What's he doing in there? Do I even want to know? Oh, he's whooping and hollering. It is loud as hell in here. Holy crap. Wow, these lights are awesome. They work great. Look at this. I don't even know if I needed the low light mode. Oh, it is downhill. Look at that. So, you can drive a car in here, I guess. Pretty cool. And, you know, aside from the fact that we're in one of the most active earthquake areas on the planet. There's nothing horrifying about being down here. Actually, having two sets of headlights on it, it's not even that creepy. Kind of neat. Stay on the main path. Oh, look at that one's caved in or blocked in. Oh, that's horrifying. Well, this is definitely something I haven't done before. So, this is the reward mine. Here in, uh, it's not in Death Valley. Just outside of Lone Pine, really. Near Manzanar. What the hell is that? That's it? Oh, sh**, that's horrifying. Wow. Check out the difference these Cyclops makes, or lights make. Normal lights, Cyclops lights. You good? Dusty in here, bro. Yeah. Not gonna stand up, I'll hit my head. These lights are unbelievably bright. This is an ad for Cyclops right here. So, if you're ever underground, riding your motorcycle, lay into mine. I highly recommend the Cyclops Aurora lights. See the difference? It's quite a difference. Sounds so cool in here. Talk about your tunnel exhaust. Back down to fun stuff. There's some decent little rock gardens here. You just gotta find the right line. Oh, you can just go around the left side? What the hell, no one told me that before. I went right up the middle of that. Oh, no, I had to stand up through this, too. Okay, fine. So, that was a unique and interesting experience. Highly recommend riding underground if you find a safe place to do it. I do not recommend going into random-ass caves. But, that one has been thoroughly documented and I researched it last night. Just to make sure I knew what I was getting myself into. It's like a trail on onyx and everything. Well, I was cold this morning. I was the perfect temperature for about an hour. And now I'm sweltering, so... I don't know what to do for gear out here. It's gonna depend on how strenuous the ride is. What I need to do is put a jacket on over my armor. And then take the jacket off when we get to the slow, more difficult stuff. That would make a lot of sense. Oh, yeah, the air feels good. The air feels good. The air feels real good. I think we're heading into the Alabama Hills. Which is a pretty cool spot because they filmed a ton of movies out here. Django Unchained. My favorite movie they filmed out here, though, is by far Tremors. They filmed Tremors out here. In fact, they have a whole, like... I guess they have a whole film museum in town in Lone Pine. And they have a full-on Graboid there. As well as the wagon from Django Unchained. So, these are the infamous Alabama Hills at the foot of the Sierras. Look at this. I mean, we may not be there yet, but it's characteristically known for these big, round boulders. And the hills here on the left. And just being right at the base of the Sierras. These mountains, though. God, the camera will not do it justice, but they're like right there. Like, this is like the best view in Oregon times ten. Because you don't get to see this many mountains all together at once. We just don't have a place where there's this much relief. Where you can just be at the base of a mountain range. Yeah, this is definitely it. We're definitely in the Alabama Hills, right? Isn't that what all this is? Yes. Maybe we'll run into Kevin Bacon running with Reba McIntyre. That'd be cool. I'd like that. That would make my day. And Firefly. Firefly is one of the things they filmed out here. They said in the article I read yesterday. Doing my research for y'alls. Pretty damn cool. Oh, there's a horse. Just a wild ass horse. One, two, three. Wild mustangs. You don't see that every day. There's Ian, doing Ian's stuff. Are we here? We're getting into the scenic area. Okay. So, wherever you see a good picture, just stop. But are we in the Alabama Hills? Almost. Okay. I don't want to be lying to the camera. Okay, apparently we're not quite there yet. I don't know. Nobody tells me nothing. Yeah, this all looks vaguely familiar. The big rocks they're hiding on. And tremors. Right from the graboids. Kind of awesome. Out here. This is definitely it. See all the rocks? Pretty damn good. You can camp out here. That's hella cool. There we go. There's a sign. That's where we are. Wow. Okay, we're officially here. Because there was a sign. What are we doing now? Big rocks. Good times. Look at this. Wow. Pretty cool. Huh. What a cool camp spot. That's a campsite too. Why the hell do you drive in there? I think it's just right there, huh? The trick is getting up here. Need a legit 4x4 to get through some of this. Some articulation. No Honda Civics up here. Okay. I don't like this. That's not bad. Not bad. Wow, it's just so cool I don't even know what to say. Huh. Man, I might just have to montage this. It's just cool but all I have to say is it's just cool. I drove right past this on the highway and had no idea it was here. How often have I done that in my life? It's worth mentioning that they film like a million John Wayne movies in the old westerns out here too. Obviously my tastes run more towards the sci-fi. But for those of you western enthusiasts, man, this is a real mecca. Look at this. So this is kinda cool. We're on our way out now back to the highway. We're gonna go find and get some food I think. What a cool day of riding though. It's only like 2.30 in the afternoon. But. Got to see Cerro Gordo. Always wanted to see that since I heard about it. Not like my whole life but since I've watched the YouTube channel. Got to ride in the Reward Mine. That's pretty awesome. And got to see the Alabama Hills where many amazing films were filmed. And then I get to have some good food with good bros. So I want to say thanks to the crew for indulging me and my desire to go to Cerro Gordo. We had a fun day and it was a good warm up for what will undoubtedly be much more difficult riding actually in Death Valley for the rest of this trip. Excellent! Oh sh** I got it on camera! Not bad. Not bad. Not bad. This is the place where it gets that super thin layer of water and then the rocks slide around and leave tracks. Then there's Ian.