Eric really missed riding at Kennedy Meadows last year (broken shoulder) with me and Dirtdame so he wanted to go down again this year. We knew it would be epic, what with all the late snow the area had gotten. Not all the trails were open but we still managed to have a good time. Eric's friend and co-worker Mark came with us, and he brought his 17-year old daughter and her XR100, too.
We had a little drama on the way up, finding a 62-year-old guy sitting in the road, complete with all riding gear but no bike. In the waning daylight we thought it was a bear or some sort of large animal! Seems he'd ridden his XR650L up the day before and had ended up on a snowy trail with downed trees every few feet. He slogged through a lot of it til his CDI took a dump. He slept on the ground next to his bike and started walking at 7am the day we saw him. We picked him up just before sundown and gave him a ride back down the hill to where his van was parked. The guy was pretty gnarly, a true rider, even though it was his own poor decisions that got him into the bad situation in the first place.
I'd spoken with the ranger a few days before going down and she assured me all the trails near camp were open, with more opening within days. Well, when we got there all the trailheads had ribbon across them and "closed" signs on them. I was not happy. I was waiting for her when she showed up for work at 8am the next morning. She claimed she said the trails would "probably" be open." I assured her that I would not have driven 8 hours on "probably." She pretty much admitted she blew it as she certainly remembered talking to me. Luckily, the OHV patrol guy Glenn showed up before the bloodletting could commence and he told me he'd open those trails right away. We decided to do a dualsport ride while waiting. I rode my KTM 450, Eric rode Mark's XR400 and Mark took his daughter Danielle on the back of Eric's KTM 640e. We had a good time!
Sunrise at Fish Creek...
Danielle at the Bald Mt. Lookout...
The view looking northwest...
Mark on the rocks...
A proud dad and a happy daughter...
Eric plotting a route...
Here we go!
There wasn't much snow at the Sherman Pass Lookout, even though the road had opened only 2 days before. There was a ton of debris in the road, though, and gazillions of trees down...
We hit Bonita Meadow on the way back down the hill and it was beautiful!
We finished up the day swimming in the South Fork of the Kern River, air temp 95 degrees and water temp 65 degrees...
More to come...
We had a little drama on the way up, finding a 62-year-old guy sitting in the road, complete with all riding gear but no bike. In the waning daylight we thought it was a bear or some sort of large animal! Seems he'd ridden his XR650L up the day before and had ended up on a snowy trail with downed trees every few feet. He slogged through a lot of it til his CDI took a dump. He slept on the ground next to his bike and started walking at 7am the day we saw him. We picked him up just before sundown and gave him a ride back down the hill to where his van was parked. The guy was pretty gnarly, a true rider, even though it was his own poor decisions that got him into the bad situation in the first place.
I'd spoken with the ranger a few days before going down and she assured me all the trails near camp were open, with more opening within days. Well, when we got there all the trailheads had ribbon across them and "closed" signs on them. I was not happy. I was waiting for her when she showed up for work at 8am the next morning. She claimed she said the trails would "probably" be open." I assured her that I would not have driven 8 hours on "probably." She pretty much admitted she blew it as she certainly remembered talking to me. Luckily, the OHV patrol guy Glenn showed up before the bloodletting could commence and he told me he'd open those trails right away. We decided to do a dualsport ride while waiting. I rode my KTM 450, Eric rode Mark's XR400 and Mark took his daughter Danielle on the back of Eric's KTM 640e. We had a good time!
Sunrise at Fish Creek...
Danielle at the Bald Mt. Lookout...
The view looking northwest...
Mark on the rocks...
A proud dad and a happy daughter...
Eric plotting a route...
Here we go!
There wasn't much snow at the Sherman Pass Lookout, even though the road had opened only 2 days before. There was a ton of debris in the road, though, and gazillions of trees down...
We hit Bonita Meadow on the way back down the hill and it was beautiful!
We finished up the day swimming in the South Fork of the Kern River, air temp 95 degrees and water temp 65 degrees...
More to come...
Well....it's about friggin' time!
I've been waiting on pins and needles (ow) for your report.
Originally designed for expedition riders that need to get out of the elements to cook, work on their bike, change cothes, etc...it's a little overkill for Kennedy Meadows. But then again, so is the bike 
) to Beach Trail and pulled into camp with 60 miles on the odo. Well, that's not entirely true...I walked the last 2/10 of a mile, as I ran out of gas right before camp, so technically I walked into camp with 60 miles on the odo 
I do dig all the extra added farkles...
There are no kid-friendly trails at KM so all the kids race around all day on the road. The parents are no better, driving a dunebuggy at all hours of the day and night, leaving beer cans (Coors, no less...) all up and down the road, playing crappy music with the volume turned up to 11 at all hours...seriously, if it had just been me and Eric we would have packed up and camped remotely after the first day. Anyway, I put up with it until I saw a dunebuggy sandrail kind of thing romping through the stream in the meadow 
I was absolutely appalled, as were a few other folks that witnessed it. I couldn't grab my camera fast enough to get evidence but there was plenty of evidence left behind. The ADV'ers finally threw logs and debris in the road at 2am and got their attention and gave them a few really big reasons to knock it off. Rumor has it that a really angry person that likes to take a lot of photos stopped by the ranger station on the way home and clued the rangers in to what had happened the night before, leading to a big fat ticket for resource damage, which the idiot vowed to fight. It certainly doesn't mitigate the damage to the meadow, nor to our reputation as off-roaders, but I'm hoping that 
guy thinks twice the next time he decides to be a total jerk on my public land 
