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Cold front in May.... Let's go to Death Valley!


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So for the past few weeks a small group of us had planned to ride up and overnight in Sequoia National Park.  About a week ahead of time the forecast starts to look pretty iffy....  By Thursday they were getting snow with cold temps and a mix of rain/freezing rain predicted for the weekend during our trip!!!!

 

So instead some last minute route crunching on the part of Orbel along with work and family commitments for others we decide to detour to Death Valley instead.  We found temps ranging from 45F all the way up to 90F over the 2 days we were on the road and had an absolute blast on a very quiet trip.

 

We departed up Hwy 2 to Angels forest and up to the 14.  From there we headed through Mohave and then CalCity where we took off down a whooped out dirt road for a good ways cutting out to the road into Trona

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From Trona it was a quick fuel stop and cruise up to Ballarat Ghost town where we had a cold coke and then proceded into Death Valley up through Coyote Canyon I believe.

 

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Coyote Canyon beat us both up, with gravel/water/loose substrate taking us both down.

 

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Then the temps started to climb as we entered the park from the South West Corner.  We then stopped at the Geologists Cabin

 

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Nothing like these long lonely sections of dirt to make you feel really alone in the world

 

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Quick stop in Furnace Springs for a late sandwich.  We were the only Adventure bikes when we pulled in, but a couple of guys showed up as we were leaving on GS1200's

 

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Then into Titus Canyon where the yellow flowers were blooming from the recent rains and we had zero traffic problems.

 

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After that it was a quick run over the Pass on the 190 to Panamint Springs where we pitched the tent's and settled in for the night.

 

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And a much earned Beer!!

 

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I will get some more up about day 2 tomorrow.

Edited by NavyNuke
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Day 2 started a bit late after a nice breakfast from Panamint Springs.  A group of big KTM's left early, all loaded up and looking strangely like KLR's with milk crates and bungees holding more things on than seems really necessary.

 

We headed out towards Darwin Falls and circling around to the Hillbilly Estates, where they protect the town with this flower cannon??

 

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After crossing through the Hillbilly Estates we headed up the most epic section of trail, a winding 2 track with a moderate amount of sugar sand that ran between the shrubs and Joshua Tree's up to a pass between two very large rock outcrops in the distance.  No picture would do it justice, so I didn't even try, but it looks similar to this section.

 

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Then we crossed the HWY and headed to Tea kettle junction, as we climbed over the pass the temps really dropped off.

Then a stop at the Racetrack Playa, man this place is cool to walk around on, again the pictures don't do it justice

 

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Edited by NavyNuke
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Thank you Ken for the report, as always I take way too few pictures, and say way too little. But, this was a great overnighter. 

 

Ken riding down Mengel Pass.

 

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Striped Butte from the Geologist Cabin which by the way was unoccupied at that time.

 

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Striped Butte, Butte Valley.

 

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Edited by Orbel Zakarian
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