Death Valley

After leaving Mt Whitney I enjoyed the always stunning scenery on the drive into Death Valley. At Panamint Springs the decision was made to camp at Mahogany Flats as I had last year. It’s about 8200’ and always cooler than the usual 100F in the Valley. It was a good choice. I met two groups of great people that night: Judy & Stow Chapman from Kentucky and 'The Crowd' at the top camp. Stow gave me some great ideas on places to visit in Utah and we all shared some great conversation and a taste of old port. Hopefully we can meet up again on our own coast someday. Then there was 'The Crowd'. A raucous bunch of retirees, celebrating Steve’s 66th birthday. He loves the area and told me some less common places to visit. I stayed with them until about 9pm and had breakfast with them in the morning. They were fun.

After breakfast I headed out for some remote exploring on the bike. It required some treks off map, cross-country. I made it back alive – just. After stopping at the ghost town of Ballarat and chatting with the old timer (you have to call them that here) running what resembled a store, he told me my choice of cross country treks would end at a 400’ drop into a ravine, not something I really wanted to do. My goal was to cross from the East side to the West side of Death Valley, using only old mining roads. It’s about 40 miles across and there are literally hundreds of little trails crossing the area from the Gold Rush days in the 1800’s. Of course most of them haven’t been used since then either and therefore are not readily recognizable. He suggested following Pleasant Canyon road (even though my map showed it stopped) and told me “if you knew where to go you could find your way across”. Of course I didn’t know where to go but I thought I’d try anyway. Well, I got through 2 mountain ranges and could see the road I was aiming for. Unfortunately it was about 10 miles west and 5000 feet down. I just didn’t have enough water or time before dark to continue exploring. It will have to wait for another trip. I made a nice meal and have plenty of ice to spend some more days here thanks to my friends from last night.

Today, Tuesday, I woke up with the sun, around 6.45am. I'll finish the sightseeing I planned, mostly on pavement so I'll actually get to see everything. Death Valley distances are much larger than they seem on most maps. I'll head to Titus Canyon through Stovepipe Wells and onto the town of Beatty, just outside the National Park, to fuel up. Well, having completed the Titus Canyon trip now I must say there was a bit of excitement. Having used more fuel than I expected yesterday messing around in the canyons, I got past Stovepipe Wells and was heading up toward Beatty for refueling when I hit reserve. With only 20 miles to go for Beatty I thought no problem. I was wrong. I ran out of gas about 4 miles later - in Death Valley, about noon, with the temp around 95F. At that point it was about 16 miles to Beatty and about 20 miles back to Stovepipe Wells, neither good pushing odds in that heat. I had passed an un-manned ticket station a few miles back and thankfully it was downhill. From there I would consider my options in the relative shade of the covered station. Long story short, I discovered the right hand side of the gas tank holds an amount that doesn't get picked up by the fuel tap. Removing the gas tank and tipping the fuel to the correct side helped somewhat, but I still wasn't sure if it'd be enough to get me the 16 miles back to the gas station. A few minutes later some people arrived to buy a ticket. As the Universe would have it, they were visiting from Brisbane, Australia. After some advice to them on locations to see, I asked if they would mind following me back to the gas station (they were heading that way anyway) just in case I ran out. I coasted about 7 miles downhill and then rode the last 9 through the hottest part of the Valley without issue. All was well but certainly taught me to top up my gas at every opportunity when in the Desert. If I'd run out on one of those back roads 20 miles from anywhere it could have been a much worse situation. I'm here now, back at camp, 6pm, dinner cooked and eaten, a Screwdriver happily behind me (the type with Orange Juice), windproof jacket, beanie and camo neck gator (Doug, remember me buying the hideous thing on our Blue Ridge Parkway ride last fall - it's been very useful) keeping me insulated from the wind and chill at 8200'. It'll be dark in about 30 minutes. I'll either read or just go to sleep. Decisions are simpler in Death Valley - mostly life, death or just irrelevant. I heard today the stock market had crashed again sometime in the last few days and it really makes no difference out here. The birds still chirp, the trees grow and my iPod still plays. Not sure if I want to rejoin the "real" world.

Wednesday morning now and the plan is to head to Las Vegas to get a new tire for the motorcycles on my way to Southern Utah. Choice is highway or a 4x4 trail that will take 4 hours longer. I'll let you know.....

As it turns out I didn't leave at all. While heading for the quicker highway route a small detour to Chloride Cliffs as suggested by Steve provided such amazing scenery I decided to stay another night. At the very cliff edge, about 5300' I camped at possibly the only place you can overlook BOTH the lowest and highest points in the Lower 48 - Badwater Basin at around -250' and Mt Whitney at 14,495'. This is Harley's place, the wind never stopped blowing.