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Right after Labor Day 2006, my brother and I rode our bikes out to northern Nevada and southern Idaho for a 3-day trip. I had been stressed out at work and I needed to get away from work and just ride. I’ve been up to northern Idaho before, this time I wanted to see what was in the southern part of Idaho. The route I chose had a lot of slab to ride, but I didn’t care. I needed to ride and I didn’t care if it was on the Interstate Highway 80 going across Nevada.
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The view of the Highway 80 were not very exciting. The temperature was hot as we rode across Nevada. Every time we stopped for gas or to rest, my brother complained about the eat coming off his Concours. I was hot, but with a smaller windscreen, I get a lot more wind riding on the ZR-7S to keep me cool. As we rode across Nevada east of Winnemucca, we could see several large grassfires to the north. We could also see firefighting air tanker aircraft flying to the north and dropping water on the fires.
Highway 80 east of Reno
North of Elko, we finally got off Hwy 80 and on some back roads. We traveled north on Hwy 225. Just north of Elko, there were a lot of clouds and we got rained on a little. Hwy 225 was free of traffic, the road was twisty for the first 6-8 miles but then straightened out.
Highway 225 north of Elko, NV
As we got close to our campsite at the Wild Horse Reservoir, the sun was setting and to the west we could see the smoke from the grassfires. The smoke made for a wonderful sunset. It’s sad that some much beauty was the result of so much destruction. We could smell the smoke from our campsite.
Smoke from the nearby fires
Wild Horse Reservoir
Smokey sunset at the Wild Horse reservoir
Morning at the Wild Horse Reservoir
Leaving camp in the morning, we continued north on Highway 225. For about 25-30 miles we were pleased to be on some of the best sport-touring roads I’ve been on. Highway 225 north of the Wild Horse Reservoir winds through narrow canyons and parallels a small river.
Highway 225 north of the Wild Horse Reservoir
As we continued north, we stopped for some food at the Bruneau One Stop Café. I nice little place to get something to eat out in the middle of nowhere. After a quick bite to eat, it was off to see the Snake River Canyon. Unfortunately, there was so much smoke from the grassfires in Nevada that it was hard to see the canyon from the highway.
Approaching the Snake River near Bruneau, ID
The Snake River near Bruneau, ID
Riding south from the Snake River
Turning south, we rode back towards Nevada. We stopped for a little gas in McDermitt, NV. The air cleared up and the views of the desert landscape improved. Shortly after I we left McDermitt, I started having engine problems. My engine would start missing very once in a while and sometimes the missing would cause my bike to slow down to 55-60 mph. We got into Winnemucca and looked for a motel. When we stopped, I had a hard time restarting my bike. I was concerned about the poor running condition of my engine. The motel we chose was 3 blocks from the local Kawasaki dealer. I told my brother if my bike wouldn’t start in the morning, we could push m bike to the dealer for some repair work. I filled up with gas in Winnemucca before we went to dinner. After I got a new tank of gas, my engine started running better. I guess I got some bad gas in McDermitt.
Heading south near the Nevada-Idaho border
Our motel in Winnemucca, NV
We left Winnemucca early and headed west on Highway 80. The morning was cool, but as we rode east the temp we up to the upper 90’s. My bike was running well. To get back to our homes, my brother and I split up north of Lake Tahoe. I thought I take Hwy 89 west of Lake Tahoe, then back roads the rest of the way home. This turned out to be a mistake. There was road construction on Highway 89 and I had a 20 minute wait in 90 degree sunshine. Traffic on Hwy 89 was bad because of the construction. There was more construction and traffic on Hwy 50 to Placerville. After getting off Hwy 80, it took me almost 3 hours to go about 100 miles to Placerville, CA, plus it was nearly 100 degrees out. When I got to Placerville I got something to eat and decided to ride home as fast as I could. After all the slow traffic and heat, all I could think of was getting home to a nice cold beer.
A nice view of Lake Tahoe a few miles from the construction.
This road would look a lot better without those cones.
