2023 was a full year with the goal of maximizing time outside and nights under the stars! Just as every ride inspires the next, so does each year. That is why I am calling this a year in review as well as preview. January started off with a trip to Ely, White Pine Co. for some winter bikepacking, attending the Fire and Ice Festival and participating in the Bristlecone Birkebeiner. I haven’t spent enough time in Ely and it will be a goal for 2024. Unfortunately a seasonal cold is preventing me from traveling to Ely for the 2024 Fire and Ice Festival.

In February I started making trips out to the Black Rock Desert for community meetings I was involved with through Friends of Black Rock High Rock. The high country was clogged with snow and mud so I made the most of the lower elevations around the Calico Mountains and the Fox Range. Sunrise rides on the Black Rock Desert Playa were super photogenic.

In March I made a longer day ride around the Monte Cristo Mountains. This is the Rawhide Mining District so a great addition to the catalog of trips I have made in the area. This is about a two-ish hour drive from home so an ideal starting point for great adventures.

April started with our winter snowpacking trip, with the usual suspects, Doug Artman, Marc Pfister, and Mark Yakushev,  above Dog Valley on Henness Pass Rd. This has become a tradition (two years running) which means it is time to plan 2024. Mid-April was the first of seven Rides with Friends. I pre-rode the Loop Around Little High Rock Canyon Wilderness, then over the next two days we traveled the route with modification. At the end of the month I did an overnight around Hog Ranch Mountain in part to see what was going on with the newly re-permitted Hog Ranch gold mine. Which means, I should plan a follow-up.

In May I moved to Carson City, Nevada’s capitol just 30 minutes drive south of Reno, so I had a fresh perspective of new neighborhood rides. I live in between the Pine Nut Mountains and the Sierra’s Carson Range. To the north are the Flowery and Virginia Ranges.  At the end of May I looped the Smoke Creek Desert on my way to the Black Rock Rendezvous. The road along the east side of the playa has long been on my list of “where does this road go?”

The first four days of June I camped with and participated in the Howling Micro-Rally, an event for Wildwood Open Lands Foundation. Their goal is the conservation of land for public recreation and education. While this is primarily a motorized group, I think we all need to come together for the common good and amplified voice. I will continue to collaborate with WOLF in 2024. Mid-June I was back in the Black Rock to pre-ride a combined course of my June and July trips. This was a wild overnight on the side of a mountain. Then I led trip #3 of Rides with Friends, Bikefishing the Granite Range. As always, everyone caught fish!

July was spent mostly in Lamoille Canyon and in Nye, Montana. But I did lead a ride in the Granite Range to Fox Mountain. It was a trip planned for up high to beat the heat and we did. In Gerlach it was well over 100^o, at the summit we siesta’ed in the shade in the low 80^o’s.

In August Doug Artman invited me to bikeraft the Emigrant Trail and Stampede Reservoir. This was a great pedal-paddle-paddle-pedal. From there I was off to the Perseids Meteor Shower Campout and Paella In the Desert! This is the other must-not-miss event hosted by the Friends of Black Rock High Rock. At the end of the month I biked into Burning Man to be a part of the Earth Guardians Camp. I led 5 tours talking about all that can be seen beyond the perimeter fence.

I feel like there should have been a Seventh Inning Stretch in here. July, August, and September are all hot! September started with a bikefishing trip above Paradise Valley, Humboldt Co. The September Rides with Friends #6 was a real treat as we looped around Massacre Ranch and Upper High Rock Canyon to celebrate the Dark Skies Sanctuary of northern Washoe Co. The month ended with a 3 day trip that combined Doug Artman’s Seven Troughs Loop with my Lava Beds Loop. While Marc P and I had a great time on this ride, I look forward to testing this route out on others.

October is always a special month for Rides with Friends, this year we toured the micro-playas above Black Rock Point as well as the hot springs in the area. Immediately after, I joined Doug for the Sagebrush Ripple, 9 days in Nye County touring mountain ranges and canyons I could not have imagined.

In November I repeated the hot springs – micro-playa tour with Mark Yakushev. And in December I did a solo 4 day trip from Eureka to Tybo, following the historic stagecoach route. I left out a couple S24O’s but otherwise that catalogs the 2023 Nights Under the Stars!

By the numbers 2023 was 4,000 miles at 8.6  average mph, climbing 258,000’ of mostly Nevada riding.

For Bikepacking Northern Nevada, it looks as though I published 21 bog posts between Years in Review. With that, I had 26k views and a lot more conversations about routes and access. Those conversations and connections are the most important to me. The top 5 viewed posts were Ragged Top Road and Emigrant Trail Loop, Review: How to Carry Water in the Desert, Gear Review; Kokopeli Hornet-lite Packraft, Mt Shasta Loop, Overnight, technically S24O, and Bikefishing in the Desert, Summer 2020. I hit a milestone of 200+ posts after 10 years, again nothing I could have imagined when starting this. I really appreciate the blogging community and need to dedicate more time to reading other’s content. I started a newsletter on Substack and have used it as a monthly writing assignment based on more general topics related to adventure travel, hopefully not too specific to bikepacking.

For Rides with Friends, I hosted 7 trips and guided 44 riders over 250 miles around Black Rock Country. I led 6 trips the year before and 1 before that. This year I will be leading 3 trips at Black Rock Rendezvous, Perseids Meteor Shower Campout, and our crown  jewel ride in October in High Rock Canyon. But I will be involved in route development in the area outside of Rides with Friends.

I always put it out there, if there is anything I can do to help get you out there, let me know. I always follow-up. I can look over routes, design a route, do route recon, and join in or lead a group. Here is to Nights Under the Stars in 2024.

I wrote this by first going over my Ride with GPS Activities for the year. Then I went through my photos. The photos triggered an emotional response for sure. Thank you to all I rode with this year.