DG Rider
Member: Triple Clutch Club
Lifetime Member
I was out on Florence Kelvin highway. That's kinda my go-to for a just-to-get-out ride. I missed the 1st one that rolled through about 9:00ish by minutes. But It looked like it had dumped pretty good on Florence. Couldn't even see north and south buttes until I was almost even with them.
If you haven't been out there lately, they are finally doing a bridge/culvert over the big wash just past Cochran road that always runs under heavy rains. I was worried the fresh dozing dirt might be impassable after the rain, but I was surprised to see the bridge completed and the run up paved. By the time I unloaded at Tecote ranch road, it was sunny and in the 90's again. I did my usual meandering around.
My intentions were to do the loop around Ripsey mine, over to hackberry wash and back up to Tecote ranch road. By the time I goof around a lot, that's usually a pretty good few hours, time wise, but by the time I was into the head of Ripsey wash, another cell was over me with lots of thunder and lightning strikes within probably 5-10 miles, so I hauled down into Ripsey wash to get low.
For those of you reading this who "know", you're probably thinking aren't you supposed to avoid low places like a wash during rain? And you're right, BUT...Ripsey is a wide "wash", really more like a small canyon at it's lowest points. It'll take a biblical downpour to make it flow with a dangerous amount of water up that far, and I was parked right next to the turn up out of the wash under a small tree (where I broke my tailight). The lightning was of far more concern than water at that point.
It passed, but my view of the direction the weather was approaching is blocked by about 3/4 of the loop I was planning and another shower hit before I could even get over to Ripsey mine. I backtracked up to the wide valley with Tecote ranch road and thought about just going that way for a bit, but at that point I could see that rains were going to be continuing for some time, so I called it and headed back to the Tahoe. It just started raining as I was loading...and it was good timing because it POURED all the way back into Florence. The 700 is clean as a whistle.
I only have a rain poncho. I guess if a had a full rain suit on a warmer day like that, it wouldn't be all that just to keep going...but that area up out of the washes is fairly flat with lots of exposure, and the lightning was flashing in the distance. Just had to do the smart thing and live to ride another day.
