I haven’t updated everyone in a while, mostly because I’ve not been doing too much adventurey things! In January Kevin, David, and I ventured to Death Valley.   Death Valley Daze is an informal motorcyclists gathering in Death Valley.   Several different groups come together and have fun riding with each other and meeting new friends. Kevin and I had discussed doing this a few months ago as we now live nearly a 1000 miles from each other. Our last get together was Utah which was unfortunately cut short. Funny thing about that is I wouldn’t have met David if plans hadn’t changed. I talked David into joining us in Death Valley as a shake down ride before he heads south into Mexico. As it got closer to the day of the trip the weather kept getting worse. I figured the worst case we’d hang out around the camp and enjoy each others company. Loading up the truck and trailer the night before I noticed a hissing sound coming from somewhere. After a brief inpsection, I’ve got a dry wall screw in my rear passenger side tire!!! Not much I could do about it at this point so I finished loading and planned to hit the tire shop first thing in the morning.

Thursday I got up early and went directly to the tire shop, and somehow there were three people ahead of me. Three hours later I’m good to go and go to pick up David out in El Cajon. Leaving San Diego it was raining lightly and stayed that way until we reached Cajon Pass north of Riverside. There, it turned into snow. Most Californians have no idea how to drive in the snow so it always makes for an interesting trip. The tire repair set us pretty far behind in schedule and we didn’t arrive until pretty late. Kevin had to entertain himself for about 4 hours, so he was pretty entertaining when we arrived.

Friday morning we got up and decided to set out for Scotty’s Castle and see the Racetrack. It was overcast but generally warm at below sea level.   The ride up to Scotty’s Castle takes you up to about 3000 feet.   Amazing, how in 3000 feet you can go from 60 to 34 degrees.   It was cloudy and cold.   No rain but it looked like it could have.   We got out and looked around for a little bit and went into get some hot chocolate and coffee.   The server said “You guys should be careful of the crows, they’ll get into your stuff.”   Kevin looks outside and sure enough, a big ass crow is on his bike picking at something on his handlebars.   This resulted in guard duty for the bikes so the crows didn’t tear into our bikes (Lotes of shiny stuff).   I asked a few people about the road to the Racetrack and everyone said it was the most terrible road ever!!!   (I should have applied my own experience at this point but failed to.   People said the same thing able the Dalton, and it was a super highway compared to roads in Mexico).   With that, we bailed on the plan to see the Racetrack and head over to Beatty for lunch.   Bad choice, it was cold, straight, and we road through snow.   We thought about stopping at some hotsprings, but we all decided we didn’t want to see each other naked (And the place looked kinda sketchy).   We did pass by Angel’s Landing Brothel!   Um, yeah…   We stopped in Beatty and had some lunch at the Casino and then headed down the road to Rhyolite eventually ending up back at camp. One thing I didn’t mention, is we were eating good.   Tonight, Carne Asada!!!!   Had some awesome dinner, a few beers and wandered around the campground to meet some other riders. (Oh yeah, Kevin is a Pyromaniac, don’t let him tell you otherwise)

Saturday was a much better day.   Much more sun, so we decided to check out the West Side road and see Badwater.   Additionally we planned to take one of the roads up into the mountains but later changed our minds as we’d have to turn around and come back the same way.     Today was a picture fest.   It turns out David is the best photographer of us all.   Most of the pictures I’m featuring here are his!   I must learn his tricks!   We got to see the Artist Loop, Badwater, and some other areas in southern Death Valley.   While looking at the map we met a new friend, George!   He rolls up on his KTM 950 with the biggest grin.   We chat for a few, and he decides he’ll ride with his and we come up with a new route bringing us around through Green Valley giving us pretty much a majority day of off-road riding.   Most of it was fast open stuff but we got to see some good scenary.

As we got closer to the road, it became apparent to me that I needed to find a restroom ASAP.   I guess I had one too many Clif Bars.   DOH!   We hit the road and I hit the throttle, and didn’t let up until we got to Shoshone.     We ate at the Crowbar, pretty typical American fare.   Filling, but generally ordinary.   There were some great stories to read about the place on the walls and in the menu.   From here we headed north along the road until we hit the turn off for Green Valley.   Some more good scenery and laid back riding.   It was a pretty uneventful but pleasant.   Got back to camp and threw the Lasagna in the oven and the four of us enjoyed an evening of good food, beers, and good stories.   George is affiliated with KTM somehow, and a fricken awesome rider.   Talking to him he is quite knowledgeable about Baja California so we picked his brain a little bit.   As we wrapped up the evening Kevin decided to stop enjoying beers early, load up, and head on home.   George said he’d be by in the morning and we’d go hit the Racetrack as he said the road is cake and nothing harder than what we did that day (I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO MY EXPERIENCE!!!)   Later that night the wind kicked up and it looked like a storm was going to roll in.   The trailer got knocked around a bunch by the wind, but eventually we fell asleep.

Badwater, looks like mars!

Sunday morning we woke and it was still wet from the rain the day before and that night.   George was supposed to come by for breakfast and show off his ‘Pancakes in a Can’ but he still hadn’t arrived yet.   I wandered over to his campsite around 9:30 and no George.   I’m guessing he got fed up with the weather and bailed out as well.     David and I lollygagged around and decided to write off riding for the day.   Instead I taught him how to use his GPS software, then we gathered ourselves up and drove up to Scotty’s Castle and actually look around.   Along the way we checked out the west end of Titus Canyon.   I really wanted to ride Titus, but the weather would not permit.   After our tour, we made our way back to the campground, had some delicious Ghetto Mac, and called it a night.   (If you don’t know what Ghetto Mac is, email me and I’ll ’splain it)

Monday we packed up and drove home.   Most of the night had been very windy and it continued into the day.   There were some areas were the visibility was 100 yards at best.   This caused havoc with my fuel mileage and just outside Barstow I was worried we were gonna run out.   Then! There was a gas station.   I hopped out of the truck while David went to pay for fuel.   I figured I was going to loose my hat so I go to open the door and its locked!   WTF?!   I ran into the gas station to ask if I could use their phone so Onstar could unlock my truck.   That worked like a breeze!   The wind at this point was so bad that if you stood with your back to it, jumped up, you’d go forward about 1.5-2 feet before you landed.   Crazy!   Rest of the trip was ordinary and we rolled back into town around 4PM.

I’m looking forward to going back to DV when the weather is better and seeing more!   For more pictures go check out the album.

CIAO!