The Trip To Gerlachfest 2016

I had an interesting trip to Gerlach, NV for this year's Gerlachfest (a Cognoscenti/Iron Butt social gathering). Gerlachfest was a good event this year. As always, there are motorcycles, guns, and liquor. We're sane, so the liquor is never combined with the guns and motorcycles. But after we're done with the riding and shooting the liquor flows freely.

I usually do the 650 mile trip all at once but I get in late and am tired. Plus I haven't ridden much this year, so I took 2 days for the trip. Made a back road route of about 750 miles. I visited with a friend and had lunch in Hemet, CA then meandered to Lone Pine, CA where I stayed at a hostel. Good facility and considering the $30 total price was more than $100 less than the lowest cost (and probably cheapest) motel I was pleased.

I took off fairly early and my EPA for Gerlach was about 1430. That was before I got rear ended at a stop sign in Hawthorn, NV. I was stopped at the stop sign waiting for traffic to clear for a right turn. There was a pickup in front of me. Since the turn was at a 45 degree angle as the pickup rolled forward I was going to angle to the left a bit so I could see better. Just as I started this maneuver, my bike violently took off. In the split second before I hit the truck, I thought my clutch had engaged. Of course, once I'm crunching into the truck and going down that thought disappeared.

The young man that hit me had gone to sleep. He has no recollection of the accident. It's hard for me to piece together the sequence of events and I was awake. In surveying the damage to all the vehicles I'm having a hard time figuring out what really happened.

The impact was pretty major. You can see from the photos that his car traveled at least one car length after the impact. All of the ram ball mounted equipment on my dash shelf was completely straightened out. My Storm case which was securely fastened and had a security strap was ejected. I was thrown to the pavement landing on my right side.

Because I was slightly angled when he hit me his bumper got my tire and muffler. I think this launched my motorcycle into the truck at an angle. You can see that the truck took a good hit on the right rear bumper but the obvious damage to the front of my bike is the right crash bar and the left side of the windshield. Go figger. [This keeps playing in my head and I'm now wondering if my rocketing Pelican case is what hit the truck's bumper. The Pelican case does have some damage.]

I was damn lucky. This could have easily been a major injury accident. Incredibly the bike was ridable and after a 2+ hour delay I made it into Gerlach at 1630. The ride home was all in one leg and with the aches and pains from Friday's event was not particularly pleasant. But I did make it home safe and sound.

Here's a couple of the photos to show the accident.