Reno to LA Mtb Trip 2025

[Taco]

The route should have a cooler name but that’s all I can think of right now.

On October 26 I’m going to take public transportation to Reno, where I’m gonna do a bike trip south on my mountain bike. I’ll be riding up to the Tahoe area to ride the Flume Trail south along the east coast of the lake. I reckon I’ll resupply at South Lake Tahoe before heading south to the Blue Lakes area. That’s a cool looking valley with a paved and dirt road through it. Then I take the 4 east to the 89 to Walker. From there I’ll be following the Caldera 500 route for a bit, which climbs Mount Patterson, a peak I meant to climb on a ride a couple years back. Then south to Bodie, then down to Lee Vining for burgers and resupply, and maybe a secret climbing mission… anyway, head to Benton then up the 6 to Mustang Pass, which looks cool. Boundary and Montgomery peaks are there and I’d like to hike up em so that’s on the menu. Then down into the Nevada side of the White Mountains.

I wanna sleep above treeline in the whites if conditions permit/my balls don’t shrink too much, plus bag White Mtn Peak. Turn around and descend to Bishop via Silver Canyon or the other one, Black canyon I think? Otherwise I’d keep going south along the whites and descend to Big Pine. Depends on how much water I have, how much food I gotta get, etc, whatever. Big resupply spot for the next section, which is Death Valley. I’ll be following the Death Valley Dustup route for a bit. It goes from Big Pine up DV road to Eureka Dunes, somewhere new to me that I’m excited to see since I’ve been nerding out on dunes and mapping a lot of em. The route passes Racetrack Playa, Ubehebe Peak (looks like a fun scramble), up into the Hunter Mountain area, then I go further into Death Valley proper. Saline Valley Warm Springs is in there somewhere as well. I failed to climb Telescope Peak last year so it’s on the menu. I would like to ride out of DV via the Harry Wade Exit Route. I would then pass Ibex Dunes before getting on pavement to Baker. I have some ideas to take during the stretch to Baker but I’m not sure if they’ll go until I’m out there. I’d like to ride through and along the dry lakes to the west side of the road.

Resupply in Baker, then head south into the Mojave NP via dirt roads through Devils Playground. That area is one I’ve been daydreaming about for some time, so I’m excited to be there. After that I’ll be heading further west and south, roughly paralleling the Mojave Trail but staying further south along some old tracks. I’d like to see a certain valley out there, which will probably work out buuuut I don’t wanna jinx anything. Just some quiet remote places. Continue west to the Volcano House, then resupply along the freeway at one of the gas stations.

My next point of interest is probably Ord Mountain, which has a dirt road to the top. Ride that, descend, and continue to New Jack City. It has an unusual and conspicuous pass that allows one to cross from north of NJC over a short ride with a descent into the Luncerne Valley Road area. South and west from there to Hesperia, then Lake Arrowhead, then maybe an interesting route with Cleghorn Road as part of it through Cajon Pass. I reckon I’ll go over Baldy Notch before heading home, but I am leaving a lot of flexibility in the system, especially at the end. I’d like to take new-to-me routes.

I figured I’d update on here as a sort of blog post.

If you have any points of interest you think I should check out, holler at me. I’ll upload a map of the route later. Very ballpark estimate is 1,100mi with a big number of climbing, a lot. It is quite mountainous before it becomes very desert.

I wrote up most of this route to be ridden last year, but I didn’t have a suitable bike for it so I stuck to mostly pavement. I completed rebuilding my mountain bike to be able to carry a LOT of water, plenty of food, layers, and whatever special gear I’d need for bike mountain stuff. I’m going to need to carry 10+ liters of water, 3 days of food, and the clothes to be relatively happy in cold temps in places. Ballpark high temps are in the 80’s and lows in the 30’s. The highs in the Whites are in the 30’s and lows in the not-very-many’s, plus probably some strong cold winds. I’m bringing a 30* bag in my tyvek bivy sack, plus a Gatewood Cape, down jacket AND pants, down booties (man I love em), big gloves, small gloves, medium gloves, alpaca wool socks… down beanie, maybe a Pakol? Reckon I will ship the excess home from Bishop or Big Pine. Should probably insure that package. Probably light rain gear as well.

The desert should be chill. 80’s would be nice, but it’ll likely be cooler than that for the most part I’m guessing. I hope it doesn’t rain much beyond the occasional shower but you know how things can get sporty. Froze my balls off on Rogers Peak last year.

Probably gonna bring my nice camera on this trip.

Anywho, holla at me.

[HikeUp]

Yo!

[JeffH]

Damn, that's ambitious. I bet the desert temps will be pretty low at night.