Bottom of the 9th......Score is tied....It's time for the big one!

Follow me up the hill!      Kardung La    

So here is the delio.  Hard core motorcycle dudes, and chics of course, come from all over the universe to ride the infamous Leh-Manali Highway, northern Himalayas, Jammu-Kashmir......whatever you wanna label it....... for ONLY one reason,  to ride a motorcycle up the highest motorable road on the planet. The rest of the scenery and meeting folks is a bonus.  

Dub Ya evidently didn't get the memo and decided to take a Taxi to Nubra Valley to take some pictures of greenery, the pictures better be worth it.  Hey Winston, maybe you can remind those pricks to drive on their side of the road.  I also heard they have cute skirts over there!

So, Bobo mans up and decides to ride his pristine RD350 up the mountain with me.  He's actually pretty pumped and excited, even though this is his backyard, he doesn't get the opportuniuty to do it and the Misses won't let him go alone.  So it's me and the Mayor of Leh.

There is Leh in the background, we're snapping a few photos at just over 12K.  See the white capped peaks way in the distance, make a note Sports Fans.  Twenty minutes out of town on brand new asphalt.....I'm thinking what a F'n joke.  I read all these horror stories about rock slides and D10 dozers every 2KM having to clear the road.  Oh SchlepRock.......your beat down is coming Monkey nutz!

Then we start climbing into the crap........and it is STEEP......and then I see dozers.  They have freaking garages on the switch backs they store these enormous steel tracked behemoths.  Hit the first land slide and theses dudes are trying to push boulders off the road the size of Volkswagens.  To add to the pain.....the dirt that comes crashing down with the rocks is really soft and fluffy.  Zero traction and burning the clutch up on the Battle Wagon like you read about.  Hop off and push while working the clutch.  Oh.......I'm at 15K........can't breathe for shit....I'm thinking plan Bravo.......nude up.......curl up into a ball, and commence with sucking my thumb!

 

Yeah man, that's is a long ass way down into the valley.  Like straight down, I tried holding the camera over the edge to give a better perspective, but when I noticed the road edge crumbling away and these erosion points where all the water was flowing over the road.....I hopped on my bike and was Audi 5000!

 Two hours in and we hit our second land slide.  They were busy with the heavy equipment and I was glad I was on a bike, despite the pain in the ass riding through the soft dirt.  There was a serious back-up going both ways and TATA trucks everywhere.  We managed to get through and kept heading up.  The RD350 was kicking the Enfield's ass up the hill.  I got mine pegged in first with it sounding like it was going to explode and  Bobo was just ripping around on the two-stroke like it was cool.  Oh the traffic......worst part was trying to get the bike moving again.  I basically ran next to the bike and jumped on.

Oh the TATA!

Yo Broseph, have fun backed up at the two nasty landslides 10 Klicks back!

2km From the top.  Bike is sucking air like you read about......ZERO freaking power and I even took the air filter out the day before in hopes a squeezing another quarter of a pony.

VICTORY!

Yep, sore ass neck, bruised ribs and some Vitamin M for the shoulder, I wish they had a drug that kept your lungs inflated.  I was up here about 20 minutes and it was noticeable.  When I kick started my bike to come back down, I was winded and gasping for air. 

That's Fo Damn Sho!

Couple trophy shops and the medical building up in the background.

Main Street!

Bobo, the man himself.  Thanks for coming with me Bro!

The Motrin ain't cutting it so I bust out three KingFisher Strong FO-TEEEEEES and pound them because I heard the record for making it down from the summit is one hour!

After 20 minutes we were feeling the affects of the altitude so we fired up the Hooprides and made our way down.  Pretty tame coming down and took our time back to Leh.  Overall great day and I want to thank Bobo for Sac'n up and riding the monster with me!

So......I rode up the highest road and all I got was this lousy T-shirt!

9 Bucks, dude stitched it with a sewing machine.  Doesn't have the entire route, just the gnarly Manali-Leh portion with all the passes!

Back to the smog and dirt and hopefully one more worthwhile excursion!