Well, something a little different this month in preparation for the Dakar 2010. We were training in the desert in California for the weekend of 25-26th of July. We collected two new Honda CRF250’s from Eagle Rider in Los Angeles and trucked them down to Octillio Wells courtesy of Nate Markley and his F350 pick-up.

We travelled south from Los Angeles to Octillio Wells SVRA (an 80,000 acre desert for pure offroad riding), this is a 3-4 hour journey, and when we arrived at Octillio is was hitting 43 degress centrigrade even hotter again outside. Needless to say there were very few riders in the desert at these temperatures but undeterred we kitted up and headed off for some good training.

The first run was unbelievable with so many natural offhill cambers and knife edge drop offs you had to be wide awake and ready for action. With the temperature reaching scorching by midday we had to return to the truck to reload on water as we were basically dehydrating rapidly.

For the second run we moved into the devil’s creek area to try some dry river beds which, minus the shale, are a little similar to what one would see in Argentina. Octillio is a great training area for desert rally practice and would make a great place to run a future long endurance event. In any case a great time was had by all and thanks once again to Nate for the use of the pick-up truck and to the boys in Eagle Rider in Los Angeles.

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