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Death Valley Why? Thanksgiving has been bugging me lately. Seems like all we ever do is sit in traffic for hours, eat way too much food, stay up late and then grind our way home in traffic while nursing a food coma. The next day we gripe about being fat and lazy and then deal with more traffic from all those early Christmas shoppers who are yearning to find the best deal available on things that are usually pretty useless. That’s why this year instead of following tradition I followed Kari on down to Death Valley to spend a couple of days enjoying one of nature’s marvels and a little elbow room. 500+ miles Kari and I hooked up at our usual 880 rendezvous point where we gassed up, dressed up and hit the road. No rain in site but it would be a touch on the chilly side today. Along the way we managed to find Joe Volpe sitting astride his Beemer reading a book near the junction of 880 and 238. He was so engrossed in the book in fact that he never heard my honking nor saw our waving. After a quick u-turn we managed to get his attention and then hit the road for Hollister. Breakfast at Jerry’s was good and they even gave us the large booth so we had a place to store our gear. Not bad! Afterwards we set off south on 25, one of the best roads in the region! We pretty much had it all to ourselves with nary a cop nor local in site. Joe and I wicked it up a bit while Kari motored along behind enjoying the scenery. A rather relaxing beginning to our ride. 198 was a quick blast to the left where we gassed up in Coalinga. Somewhere along the line Kari mentioned something about having never done more than 400 miles in a day. He, he, little did she know what was coming… 33 South was just plain boring. No other way to get by so we just sat tight and kept the throttle open. 58 East was a little better, well, at first. Then it too became straight and boring. No matter, 178 was coming. I’ve noticed that any road that follows the path of a river is pretty damn good. 96 along the Klamath, 70 along the American, Somes Bar to Cecilville along the Salmon, all great roads. The only time I had done this part of 178 was in my van during Dirtbike Safari II so many moons ago. This time I was able to get into the rhythm of the road and have some fun. Joe was right there with me zooming right up to Lake Isabella. Oh what fun! We continued on up and over Walker Pass and then down to Ridgecrest. The sun was quickly sinking toward the west so we hurriedly moved on to Trona. Counting on the gas stop to be open we were actually quite lucky. I believe we were the last folks to get gas that day. Whew! Lucky for Kari. Joe and I had a much better range and could have made it to Stovepipe Wells without problem. Kari on the other hand might have ended up stranded in the desert. Yikes! From Trona on into the valley it was a fast-paced night boogie. Joe and I would flip on the high beams and take over the whole road lighting the way for Kari behind us. We gobbled up miles like there was no tomorrow and by 5:30pm were in the campground at Furnace Creek. That night we enjoyed steaks grilled over the fire with corn on the cob, brie, chevre and other wonderful cheeses along with a very nice Cabernet. In time we were all snoring away under the stars. Happy Thanksgiving indeed! By the way Kari, that was over 550 miles for the day! Ubehebe Crater
In the morning we got up and packed up in search of a better campsite. The night before we simply rode in, looked around, found several places full so we took a spot out in the open parking area across from the lodge. This morning we managed to find a nice place up in Texas Ridge. Better scenery and an “official” fire ring. (The fun police had given us a hard time for having a fire out on the rocks.) We were soon back on the road in search of Ubehebe Crater. In year’s past I had always motored on through the valley taking in the easy to see sights and missing the out of the way stuff. Not this time. We motored on up past Scottie’s Castle to Ubehebe Crater. Wow! Pretty amazing sight not to mention the view from up top and the hills beyond. Unfortunately since we had gotten a late start for the day we decided to forego a good hike and instead turned off to see the Racetrack. There were 27 miles of snarly dirt road ahead of us, which meant a good hour out, and hour back. Daylight at this time of year is pretty limited so let’s go! Kari was a real trooper! I’ve seen her ride her SV out to Coco’s Corner in Baja, which is pretty damn good! This time she chose to conserve energy and go passenger style out to the Racetrack. Still pretty gusty since she was going on the back of my bike! The first 100 yards was an eye opener as the Tiger went every which way but straight! The deep gravel was a bear and I was trying to be gentle and go slow. I finally gave up and gassed it! From there on out no problem! I felt kinda bad for Joe riding out back in my dust cloud. But it couldn’t be helped. We encountered a hell of a lot of traffic out there and dust was everywhere. In fact a crazed woman in a Mercedes SUV who thought the trail was entirely hers almost nailed me! Yikes! It was worth it though. We rolled into the valley and found an incredible dry lakebed with rocks and other artifacts that had tails and trails behind them. If you’ve never heard about the racetrack it’s a dry lakebed located adjacent to the Saline Valley. There are rocks located out on the lakebed and behind them are long tracks. No one knows exactly what moves the rocks to create the trails. Most surmise that it is the wind that works the stones slowly across the surface. It’s possible that it only occurs during rainstorms or when the surface is more pliable than during the summer. Hard to say. It is pretty interesting to wander across the open lakebed and check it out. In time we came back from our wanderings and hit the return button for our ride back to Ubehebe. This time I simply wound out the Tiger and let her rip! We made good time bounding back over the rocks and sand. I hit pavement just as the sun disappeared behind the mountains. Kari made tracks for her little SV thankful for the relief from my desert storm attack on the dirt. Joe came rolling up next to me with a big grin on his face. Unfortunately I had to turn that grin upside down. Looking down I noticed that his tire was a bit soft around the middle. Uh oh… Luckily for Joe I came prepared. We whipped out my little air compressor and pressured up the tire. Joe hit the road in high gear trying to see how far he could get before needing a refill. Kari and I set off in chase as Joe make if halfway back to camp. A quick refresher charge was all he needed to make it back in one piece. Rather than attempt to assess the damage that night we chose instead to gorge ourselves on Sierra Nevada beer and popcorn in the bar and then burgers and fries in the restaurant. Once again we retired to our tents to serenade the coyotes with our snoring. Separation is a Terrible Thing I rose early and dressed. The light was wonderful so I set off to climb the hills next to the campground and enjoy the show. The sun was slowly rising to the Southeast and I had a grandstand view of the world. Kari soon joined me and we managed to hike around the hills and back to the campground. It was looking to be a nice day in the valley and the temps were actually quite nice. Back at camp we found a rather dejected Joe. Airing up his tire revealed a nice bulge in the left sidewall. Further investigation revealed a cut on the right side opposite the bulge. It was obvious that he had nailed something good and pinched the tire on the rim. Looks like his fun was over. A can of Fix-a-Flat helped him seal up the leak. Soon he was loaded up and heading for Bakersfield in the hope of finding a replacement tire and a way to continue his fun. We made plans to meet up later at Kernville after Kari and I did a little more exploring. Artist’s Palate is one of the neatest places I’ve ever been. The mixture of minerals and metals in the rock make for a colorful display found nowhere else in the world. Well, at least nowhere else that I’ve been! The best part is that I started referring to everything as ice cream. Look, there’s dark chocolate in that formation. Hmm, this looks like rainbow sherbet. Mmm, this is definitely hot fudge on mint chip! Ok, so being in the desert makes you a little goofy. So what! I was having fun! After the palate we wandered down to the lowest point on the continental US and then out to Devil’s Golf Course for a round. Then we headed over to the sand dunes out by Stovepipe Wells for a little time on the beach. It was fun to check out all the tiny critter tracks and wonder what made them. Unfortunately there were way too many people tracks and people out there so we decided to bail out and head for the hills. This time we chose to wander on out past Wildrose before hitting the road to Trona and beyond. Last New Years I spent a night camping up at Wildrose. Nearly froze my ass off! This time there was snow up high but it was not quite so cold. We motored on by and then dropped down to the highway and back to Trona. It was starting to get dark again and the temperature was dropping. We had hoped to make it over to Kernville to hook up with Joe again but time, distance, darkness, cold and hunger conspired to end our ride in Ridgecrest. We found a nice hotel with a giant bed, cable TV and hot water! Sorry Joe! The Ride Home
We slowly gathered up our gear and suited up for the long ride home today. Looking at the map we chose a slightly different route with the intent of making a speedy return to the Bay Area with minimal fun. Lucky for us that didn’t turn out to be the case. Heading over 178 we admired the acres and acres of Joshua trees up near Walker Pass. Then we came down to the lake and pealed off on the road to the North side. Our plan was to head over toward 155 from Kernville and drop down into the valley. Fortunately I got sidetracked by the scenery and started up toward Johnsondale. Kari pulled me aside and said, “Hey, we should have turned off toward 155 back there!” I simply shrugged my shoulders and said that I wasn’t done having fun yet. She grinned and said “Ok!” Again we found ourselves zooming along the Kern River. This time we were climbing even higher into the foothills and had fun swooping through the twisties with no one around. What a hoot! The smoke was thick in Johnsondale as we motored past. A quick pottie break and then we were off for a tremendous coast race down toward California Hot Springs and a return to the valley. The scenery was incredible! One of the most interesting little valley’s I’ve ever seen. The trees were all fading from green to yellow and the fields of golden grass were amazing! I would have loved to have stopped and stretch out on the hillside for a few hours but alas; we had miles to go before our day was over. Once down in the valley we zigzagged our way over toward I-5. Along the way we stopped for a little Mexican food lunch at a funky little place in the middle of nowhere. Yum! Carnitas burritos are on my list of top ten meals! Afterwards we bundled up and hit the road for a quick blast north. Stopping for gas in Santa Nella was perfect timing. The bladder level was getting pretty high, the fuel tank low, and the potential for rain very high! Checking in with the parents proved that rain was in our future so we added another layer for security. Not wanting to spend all of our remaining time on the superslab we chose to peal off on 152 for Gilroy. What a nice change! Traffic thinned out and the speed crept back up to the 75 mph mark. We had a good time rolling over the hills and were treated to a gorgeous sky as the sun set over the coastal hills. A little slow traffic at the bottom of the hill was all we had to deal with before jumping on 101 north. In time we found ourselves parting ways along 880 as I turned off for home and Kari continued toward the People’s Republic of Berkeley. The odometer indicated a satisfying 1300 miles traveled over our 4-day adventure. The sore back and shoulder muscles let me know that I had had enough for now and that it was time to sleep in my own bed for a change. But I have photos to document our travels and another good set of memories to enjoy for a very long time. Hope you enjoyed the ride!
Craig |