Making The Trail Rider's Greatest Dream Come True...

RIDING the real West IN NEVADA’S LONELY AND SPECTACULAR OUTBACK

By C.J.Ramstad, editor-Minnesota off-road magazine

July 2003

The trail led ever higher, crisscrossing the outcroppings along the top of the ridgeline. We climbed ever higher until the row of bikes was streaking across the very crest of the range, looking down at valleys on either side, jagged ranges breaking the horizon in the distance. A mountaintop breeze was blowing as we slowed to ride one-handed, surveying a world filled with ranges of peaks, some snow-covered, marching off into the distance in every direction, each growing more faded as they approached the horizon.

Riding for four hours that morning, we had crossed no roads, seen no people, but we had witnessed innumerable abandoned mining sites of every shape and size, rode past the forlorn buildings in silent ghost towns and glided through narrow canyons guarded by ancient rock towers.

This mountaintop, towering over 8000 feet, was just one spectacular moment in many, part of a motorcycle adventure in what is surely America’s emptiest place and an off-roader heaven almost beyond description. “Ride the Real West” the tour poster had proclaimed and, after experiencing several days of endlessly changing high desert vistas rolling out under our knobbies, we were sure the claim was true.

Our guide for this tour of dirt bike paradise was Matt Ernst, a transplanted Brooklynite who moved to Nevada over three decades ago and found his true home. His “Real West” is northern Nevada, the location of among other things the nation’s “Loneliest Highway,” dozens of ghost towns and the largely undisturbed remains of a fabled gold rush era that produced the largest lode of gold in U.S. history.

Whether you care about all this history or not, the fact is the mineral exploration and exploitation activities of the last 100 plus years in this lonely American outback has left 10,000 miles of 2-track road winding in and out and up and over literally thousands of square miles of prime riding area. It’s paradise and all you need to experience it is an expert guide who knows his way to and through these storied mountains.

Matt Ernst and his Nevada Motorcycle Adventures has a fleet of fresh, well-equipped Suzuki DRZ400s and a totally fitted-out support vehicle team that, together with his intimate knowledge of the northern and central Nevada outback adds up to one of the world’s greatest off- highway motorcycle rides.

A veteran of more than a dozen years of organizing, equipping and leading groups into this remote and achingly beautiful terrain, Matt knows his way around in an incredible array of Nevada mountains, as well as all the attendant canyons, dry lakes, and valleys. The high peaks that are part of each day’s ride, provide sweeping vistas overlooking an almost endless array of vast and mostly empty Nevada outback.

Included on our recent tour were visits to several remote mining sites - some old and some older - where Nevada’s fantastic history lies exposed. Ernst’s extensive knowledge of the mechanics of mining and the century of Nevada mining culture brings the history lurking in the rubble and wreckage of Nevada’s rich heritage to shimmering life, adding a dimension to every tour that’s unique in the world.

Ghost towns dot the Nevada landscape and the tours visit many of them in a cavalcade of back country riding that ranges from improved dirt roads to barely visible single track winding through the mountain pines and prehistoric rubble of the vast Nevada outback.

More mountainous than most people realize, Nevada has hundreds of separate individual ranges all stretching out across the state in a panoply of riding splendor. It’s a menu of almost infinite variety as tectonics, volcanism and millions of years of erosion go together to create an endless, ever changing panorama to both delight the eye and challenge the rider.

What rider hasn’t ridden along a too familiar trail, circling a route almost on automatic while imagining a dirt bike trail going deep into unexplored terrain, over challenging hills and through hidden canyons to places not imagined. Who hasn’t dreamed of endlessly exploring - man and machine - a world full of trails going left, right, up and down, beckoning you to cross one more stream, plunge into one more canyon, set one more goal across a distant empty horizon.

On our trip to Nevada in June, we discovered it can happen. After spending five days on the trail, we recommend to every rider to make this unforgettable bike tour happen. CJ Ramstad.

The following quotes are from a half page advertisement that CJ generously inserted in Minnesota off-road magazine, to coincide with the above story in the August issue.

Explore America's Outback

"Experience the ride of a lifetime in the mountains, deserts, and dry lakes of Nevada, with Matt Ernst's Nevada Motorcycle Adventures"

"A world class trail riding experience, with expert guides, expert support, fresh bikes, great food, great lodging, and 10,000 mi.+ of fantastic trails"

"The best trail riding money you will ever spend"

"Nevada is dirt bike heaven"

"Terrific mountain riding, includes two track and single track trails leading to ghost towns, Hot Springs, and mining claims. Truly the real West"

Check out the details at NEVADAMOTORCYCLE .COM or call the friendly and loquacious Matt Ernst at 775-849-3898.