Hell freezes over and other adventures

I climbed out of Death Valley yesterday without too much trouble. When I got out of the valley, however, I ran into a vicious, freezing cold head wind. It was absolutely ferocious for the last seven miles. I was crawling on the flats at around 5-6 mph and freezing while doing it. I finally crawled over the border to Nevada and got a room at the Longstreet casino which is about twenty feet inside Nevada.


It's a little known fact that Napoleon didn't die on St. Helena, he was further exiled to the Nevada desert where he now has a job as a slot machine security guard.


I had a really long hot shower and then ate dinner with Jack and Suzanne, a couple I had met at a pullout on the climb out of the valley. I slept better than the previous night with the howling wind storm despite the really loud and obnoxious drunk Italians in the room next door.

This morning, I got ready to go wearing a jersey, two jackets, tights, gloves, and a hat under my helmet. It seemed like the wind had died down some but not a whole lot. I made it about five miles down the road and was even colder than last night. By that time, I couldn't feel my fingers or face. I had a 60 mile day ahead to the next town with only one convenience store on the way. I realized that this was beyond awful even for me and I probably wouldn't make it to my stop for the night before dark. So, facing the prospect of freezing all day and then having to free camp somewhere, I decided to head back to the casino to see if I could bum a ride to Vegas. I know when I'm beat and a wind chill of 22 degrees for 60 miles is where I draw the line. I mean, even the fiberglass cow by the casino was cold.


When I got back to the casino, I met up with Jack again and he and Suzanne offered to drive me to Pahrump, about 30 miles away, where I could rent a car. Thanks so much for the help!





So, Sam got stuck in the back seat and I now have an extra day so I decided to come back to Furnace Creek to camp tonight and do a bit more sightseeing before heading for Vegas tomorrow.

Happy New Year everyone!
-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Back in Death Valley?

Almost blown to Oz

Yesterday, I left my gear in camp and after a lazy breakfast, rode down to Badwater, the official lowest point in North America. The views down the valley were quite extraordinary and the weather was finally warm and sunny.



There was a shallow lake at Badwater that, in the process of evaporating, leaves behind salt deposits.



Behind the lake, the mountain tops were covered in snow.



There is a permanent spring but it is too salty to drink, however there are tiny shrimp and snails in it that call it home.



On the way back to camp, I rode out to the Devil's Golf Course which is a huge, jagged salt deposit. It's an otherworldly place.



I got back to Furnace Creek as the sun was setting.



Sam decided that he wanted to haul something bigger than just my panniers. Here he is in front of a 20 mule wagon train that was used to haul borax out of the valley.



In town, I hung out next to one of the new gas fire pits and talked to a gentleman from Albuquerque who volunteers at the Petroglyph National Monument outside of town that I remember visiting when I was biking through there in '98.

All of a sudden the wind picked up like crazy so I went and had dinner in the bar. Heather and Marcia, my neighbors from the campground who were kind enough to share their fire with me the previous night came by and we hung out for a bit.

It was really windy all night so I didn't sleep well because the tent was flapping. Every time I would almost be asleep, a gust of wind would rattle the tent like crazy and wake me up. It's supposed to be windy all day though not as bad as last night.

I have to pack up camp today and climb about 3000 feet out of the valley. I'll camp in Nevada tonight. It'll be two more days after today to get to Vegas.
-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Death valley

Chilly Death Valley

I'm currently at Furnace Creek in Death Valley, though it's a far cry from furnace conditions and is rather chilly.

Yesterday, I rode from Shoshone to Death Valley Junction fighting a fairly strong headwind most of the way. This is really bleak desert though I did see a tree.


I was really tired by the time I got in to Death Valley Junction, had a big lunch and rested up for a few hours.

I haven't managed to increase my food intake enough since towns with restaurants are few and far between and it's too chilly to stop and have a picnic lunch by the side of the road. I also haven't been on the road long enough for my appetite to really ramp up plus I have to go back to a normal life soon so I kinda don't want it to. Anyway, I end up eating a couple of energy bars during the day which really isn't enough when riding 50+ miles a day and climbing thousands of feet.

I was pooped so I was ready to call it a day and get a room at the local hotel in Death Valley Junction but they were fully booked so I decided to push through to Furnace Creek. This involved a 1000 foot climb which ended up being pretty easy due to the energy boost I got from the big lunch I had eaten. I topped out at 3000 feet and began the long downhill to below sea level. The road just kept going down and down for seemingly forever. The sun had set so it was getting cold and the light was fading. I have good lights so the few cars on the road could easily see me but I could tell that I wouldn't make it to the campground before it was totally dark and man does it get dark out here. I was also getting so cold I was shaking and my hands were going numb despite my warm gloves, not good when hurling downhill and potentially needing to brake. So, I pulled over at a trailhead and found a flat piece of ground a ways down a trail to pitch my tent on. I crawled in my sleeping bag and eventually warmed up.

The trick to getting warmed up quickly when camping is to put on a hat, change into warm, dry clothes including socks, go to the bathroom so you're not wasting heat on keeping a bunch of liquid in your bladder warm, eat an energy bar or two, and fluff your sleeping bag like crazy to increase the loft of the insulation. Even though it was in the low 40s and I was shaking with cold, I warmed up in about 15 minutes and slept comfortably. Well, that is until I was woken up by headlights on high beam shining on my tent. It was a park ranger checking up on why I was camped where I was. I explained that I had misjudged the time and it had gotten dark before I could make it to Furnace Creek so I had decided to pull off the road and camp on a flat patch of sand. He asked a few terse questions, shined his flashlight around my camp and left. I slept undisturbed for the rest of the night.

This morning, I got up before dawn, watched the sunrise, and headed down to Furnace Creek. I treated myself to an amazing breakfast (wild mushroom omelet) at the old lodge.


I then continued on to Furnace Creek which is below -100 feet.


I can now say that I have cycled both the lowest and highest continuous roads in North America (the highest was the 14,000+ summit road across Rocky Mountain National Park). I have also done what I've been told is the biggest paved climb in the shortest distance in the world- sea level to the summit of Haleakala above 10,000 feet in 40 some miles.

I hung out in town a bit then rode up to one of the campgrounds where I will spend two nights. I'll go for a ride unloaded tomorrow and then will begin riding for Las Vegas the next day. It'll be a 3500 foot climb to get out of here but I'm getting pretty strong so it shouldn't be a problem.

Sam Junior, my new bike, is doing great and I'm finding that I'm more efficient and more comfortable than on old Sam Senior. The toughest part of the trip is breaking in the new saddle though it's easier than it was on Sam Senior. Still, I get a bit sore by the end of the day. Also, trying to get in a full day of riding with limited daylight is a bit of a challenge so I can't take many breaks during the day but I end up with hours to kill in the dark. I've been reading and sleeping a lot.

Overall, I liked riding Maui a lot better than this trip mostly because here I've had to deal with cold pouring rain and flooded roads. I was hoping for more warmth and sun. Maui was harder riding though, with fiercer hills.

Still, Death Valley is really neat and I can see coming back here for another Christmas break tour. I think I would fly into and out of Las Vegas and spend most of the trip exploring this park. There are lots of neat places around here that I'd like to see which I can't this trip. Most of these spots entail thousands of feet of climbing to get to so if I had a base camp at a campground where I could leave my gear then the climbs wouldn't be that bad. I'd also like to do some day hikes. Maybe next Christmas?
-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Texas Springs Rd,Furnace Creek,United States

Rolling towards Death Valley

It was a chilly night with my thermometer reading 38 degrees inside the tent in the morning. I stayed warm inside my nice down sleeping bag and kept condensation off of me with a clip in tent liner that covers the roof. There was a gradual climb to a pass with next to no traffic on the road since it was Christmas day. This is a photo looking back down the valley to Kelso.


The road surface was a hideously bumpy mess with rocks sticking out of the pavement.


I was amazed at how smooth the ride felt on my new bike. Sam Senior would have been rattling like crazy going over this stuff but the steel frame of Junior smoothed out the bumps so I barely felt them.

After a lunch break, I rolled down into Baker, a pit stop on the interstate to Vegas. I met Pat, a wildlife biologist also out on tour.


He was having bike trouble but managed to fix it and was able to keep going into the Mojave preserve. He had ridden the Extraterrestrial highway by Area 51 and had met some serious kooks in the town of Rachel, which is the Mecca for all things alien related. I hope you enjoyed the last few days of your trip, Pat.

After Baker, the road was nice and flat for a long way and I made great time for about 35 miles.


I then had yet another climb over Ibex Pass.


There Was another 15 miles until the town Shoshone, a neat little town in the middle of nowhere.





Today, I head into Death Valley And will camp at Furnace Creek.
-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Interstate 15 Business,Baker,United States

Heading north in the sun

Yesterday dawned clear and sunny as if the previous four days of rain had never happened. I called around to hardware and automotive stores looking for Heet or methanol to fuel my cook stove. Farther north, you can find Heet in the smallest gas station since it's used as fuel line antifreeze but around here I had to hunt for it. I could run my stove on Everclear, pure ethanol, but that is way more expensive. I finally found some fuel at an auto parts store and headed out of town.

The day before I had questioned the wisdom of sitting out the day in a motel since it didn't rain for most of the day but I could see from the road that it had only recently drained and was still covered with damp sand in a bunch of places.
It was a pretty easy ride with one longish hill that had a nice long downhill on the other side.


I passed a neat geodesic dome house after getting chased by an annoying dog.


I've been in lots of desolate places but this place tops them all. The only color is brown and the mountains all look like big piles of rubble.


I crossed by a not so dry dry lake bed.


As I went to unclip from my pedal so I could stop to take a picture of the lake, I couldn't get out of my left pedal. I finally ended up unbuckling my shoe and pulling my foot out of my shoe when I stopped. I could barely pull my shoe out of the pedal. It turned out I had lost one of the screws from my shoe cleat that clips into the pedal.


This has happened to me before so I always carry a couple of spare cleat screws and even a spare cleat.
I turned onto Route 66 and headed into Amboy, population 3.


Amboy is one of the oldest towns in California and used to be a bustling stop on Route 66 until the interstate routed away most of the traffic. The gas station in town definitely has an iconic look.


I ended up camping behind the old broken down hangar by the town airstrip. I cooked dinner in the company of two girls who spend some of their vacations in Amboy with their family. Destiny and Alexis are in 6th and 5th grade and live in Needles on the Nevada border. It was fun hanging out with them and in all my many years of traveling, I've never had anyone volunteer to wash my dishes for me! Thanks girls for being great company during my stay.
-- Post From My iPhone

Waiting out the crazy weather

Yesterday, the rain and flooding let up for a bit so I rode a forty mile loop through Joshua Tree National Park. There was a bit of a climb up to a plateau full of Joshua trees and strange rock formations. The mountains in the area are big piles of bare volcanic rock. I'm all for remote and rugged living but this place on the road to the park was pretty extreme even by my standards.


Sam II got his first pose in front of a national park sign.


Joshua trees are actually members of the yucca family and look like something from a Dr. Seuss book.


With the mist and fog the park looked like I had cycled to an alien planet. What a fantastic ride despite the cold, driving rain.





There was a nice downhill all the way down to Twentynine Palms. I was completely soaked (again) and pretty cold so the hot shower in my motel room was fantastic. I had briefly contemplated camping in the park but the cold rain convinced me not to which turned out to be a good choice since it poured all night again and this morning there were all sorts of flood warnings for the park campgrounds.

This morning I woke up to more rain and strong winds with more rain on the way. The road I'm planning to take north is impassable due to flooding so I'm stuck here for another day. Tomorrow, it is supposed to be sunny so I should be good to go. I'm behind schedule because of the weather so I'll have some big mile days ahead.
-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Mission Ave,Twentynine Palms,United States

It ain't sunny in Southern California

I left Palm Springs yesterday, heading for Twentynine Palms. It's been raining a bit so the road I originally was going to take was closed due to flooding. I got help with an alternate route at a local bike shop. It was warm and drizzling for the first part of the day. I rode past the biggest wind farm I've ever seen.


It was quite a climb to Yucca Valley up a fairly steep, windy road.


It kept raining and the wind really picked up giving me a hefty tailwind. The gusts sped me up by a few miles an hour each time one hit. One more long hill with a heavy, driving rain got me to Yucca Valley. The road was flooded in numerous spots to four or five inches so I got completely soaked going through them. The cars and trucks passing me were really nice and slowed down to keep from spraying me.

It's supposed to keep raining through wednesday which is problematic for my trip because of all the flooding on the roads. Riding in the rain is rarely an issue for me but dealing with impassable roads is obviously a problem and being stuck free camping in the pouring rain with really strong winds because I can't get across a flooded wash like this one just isn't fun.


So, today I plan on riding the twenty or so miles to Twentynine Palms during a brief respite in the rain. The road after Twentynine Palms becomes pretty remote as I head north so I'll wait out wednesday because the road will probably be flooded. I'm going to have to skip Joshua Tree National Park because of lack of time. I really don't like having to sit around this much, waiting out the weather but such is life. The good news is that yesterday I had a fairly hefty climb of around 3000 feet and while I was tired by the end of the day, it really wasn't too bad. Pretty good for my first day of the tour!
-- Post From My iPhone

Location:29 Palms Hwy,Twentynine Palms-Morongo Valley,United States

Damp Palm Springs

I'm currently in Palm Springs getting ready to head to Joshua Tree National Park. It's drizzling but warm and will stay wet for the next couple of days. I had to put the bike suitcase on a 12 pound diet at the Portland airport to get it under the 50 pound limit. I ended up stuffing my carry on bag completely full and transferred some gear to my other bag.


The bike arrived safely and putting it together was pretty straight forward. Flying my new bike in it's suitcase cost $35 instead of $180. I rented a car at the airport, a spur of the moment decision, to get to my motel and then to take my bike suitcase to the UPS Store to ship it to Las Vegas. Renting a car was easier and cheaper than taking taxis like I had originally planned.


The rental was a great idea and I'll definitely do it again on future tours.

Even with the rental car and UPS shipping, the whole flying the bike thing cost considerably less than flying the old way with a big bike box.

The rotors on the disc brakes on both my wheels were bent during the flight so I needed to get new ones from a local bike store. On the flight home, I'll take the rotors off and then get a lesson at the Bike Gallery on how to align them when I put them back on. Even though I have been on around a dozen bike trips, I still learn new things about how to deal with flying, what gear to use, and just daily logistics each time I go. I have learned to not get upset over the many difficulties of the road, even when they turn out to be costly mistakes. It's all part of the experience.

Palm springs is a nice little town with lots of old Hollywood ties. There is a Gene Autry road, a Kirk Douglas road, and a Bob Hope road.


There are stars on the sidewalk on the main street though I didn't recognize hardly any of the names or pictures of stars from the 50s. Here are two that I do know.





The response to today's 'rain' (more like a mild drizzle) has been amusing. It's kinda like how Portlanders deal with snow. People loudly complain about the cold and damp. I saw some kids running and sliding on the wet pavement. Both my bike and I got specially seating/parking at a restaurant for being brave enough to be out riding in such nasty conditions. 65 degree mild drizzle. rough, huh?


Palm springs is all about warmth, sun, and golf.


It's time to head back to my motel. Tomorrow, I start riding.
-- Post From My iPhone

Location:California 111 Business,Palm Springs,United States