Day 4 - Las Vegas to LA—Soda Lake
Right outside of Baker a bit to the east there was a large lake marked "DRY" that lead to the Mojave Trail. After eating at the Mad Greek again, I checked out the Desert Information Center to inquire as to if the lake was passable. The past few days had seen quite a lot of rain and I didn't want to get into a silt situation like I was in Baja. I was assured by a Ranger that the trails that crossed the lake were rutted but dry so I decided that it would be a good route to get across the lake.
Of course, I was to find out differently in what turned out to be a test of will and testament.
<click on any of the photos for an enlargement>
GPS desert trails from Las Vegas to Los Angeles—crossing the Soda Lake
Video - Soda Lake
You can hear from my on-air commentary that I'm trying to be
nice about the Soda Lake and just describe what I'm seeing.
Of course, right after I shot the video the riding deteriorated to the point of
walking and cursing so I didn't shoot any more video
preferring to focus on trying to get the bike upright and rideable. What you see
is that there is a crust of white alkaline everywhere
and underneath this was clay and traction was terrible.
Photo - Dakar on the Dry Soda Lake
Well, I thought that I would just zip across this lake as it
wasn't too far from the dry lake where we did our training in Nevada.
I was sorely mistaken and as I got closer to the entrance of the lakebed it got
really slippery and started to remind me of the terrain
near the silt-beds
that I found in Baja. Feeling secure that I got out of those problems I
decided to press on (my usual train of thought).
From this picture you can see large tracts of white deposits
of alakline. I felt that if the going got tough that I could either ride it out
or choose a path around (which didn't turn out to be possible as the lakebed was
so big).
Photo - Dakar on the Dry Soda Lake, again
This photo is a bit closer and you can see the ruts and the
clay underneath the crust.
What happened when you drove on this stuff is that it cracked and you went from
semi-dry traction
to wet and heavy mud traction with salt spray everywhere. The fact that this
crossing was done at 2 pm
didn't help any as it was really hot and each time I was to get stuck I used a
lot of water.
Photo - Boots and mud
This is shot looking down at my boots which were really heavy
from the clay mud.
You can see an indent from my bootprint to see how deep this stuff was and then
imagine walking
or trying to get the bike upright and moving again. Did I fall alot here - yes,
how many times, perhaps about 50.
Photo - Down on the 'dry' lake
<ENLARGE THIS ONE - YOU'VE GOT TO SEE IT>
So maybe you thought that it wasn't bad getting across this lakebed. Well take a good look at the path of my tires and you will see that cutting a 'straight' path is near impossible. The times that I was able to get the bike going with any kind of momentum sometimes I lost the straight path and had to ride in a circle to stay upright. If you zoom in you will see that the tires and the whole bike very quickly get caked with the heavy clay which makes it impossible for the tires to clean themselves and find traction. This stuff is very heavy and get everywhere drying very quickly and adding substantial weigh to the bike.
Many times I was only able to go a few feet before the bike would start to lose it's balance. Sometimes I had to run with the bike and sometimes just work the throttle and let the bike drag my boots over the mud. Every 10 feet or so there were large puddle of salt and alkaline water which were even more treacherous with unknown footing and traction. I tried my hardest just to get through these as quickly as possible without dropping the bike in one of them. Going around wasn't an option as jumping the tracks to try to find new traction wasn't any helpful. There were just too many tracks across the lakebed and they all sucked.
I figure that it took be about 2-2.5 hours to cross the 5-10 miles of this stuff. Many times I just had to rest to catch my energy. I resorted to my grunting and some swearing to get the bike upright many times. It was hot enough to have some light visions of a house at the far side of the lake that I thought of walking to for help before I killed that idea for shear stupidity.
Eventually due to sheer determination and willpower I made it across and got onto firmer ground. My water had run out and I was looking for the continuation of the Mojave trail which would eventually lead back to the highway.
Photo - Down on the 'dry' lake
Using my newly sharpened navigation skills I found the Mojave
trail and just took any available path west.
Eventually I was able to stop and find a small rest station that sold soft
drinks and water to refill my camelback.
The locals were really surprised that I crossed the Soda Lake - and so was
I!