Sunrise Mountain Today! (Las Vegas) 04-28-2020

In clip two we ran across a decent size Mojave Desert Tortoise. We try very hard not to disturb them. They recycle their urine which is part of how they survive with little to no water. If you frighten them they will sometimes piss and that puts them in real danger of dehydration. This time of year there is enough vegetation but later in the summer things get pretty rough for them. I have ridden desert off and on since I was a teen so that's over 50 plus years and have never even come close to hitting one. No one else I know that rides desert has talked about that happening either. They like to travel on dirt bike trails because it's the path of least resistance for them and often times there is more vegetation growing along the trail that's easier for them to get to. When I see one I will shut down my machine and push the bike around them a ways. The noise from the engine doesn't seem to startle them unless your right next to them. So long as you don't pick them up they are fine. Today's ride went well for my knee which is about 80%. You might notice in the videos when making right hand turns I was really slowing down so hopefully I wouldn't re-injure it. Impacts on it are fine but any twisting motion is not good. Even if I stayed off my bikes I'm at the recovery stage where it's going to takes months anyway. I do live in Las Vegas! (rolling the dice) Lol!