Friday–Monday, 5–8 October 2012
Marc writes:
Friday
I awoke earlier than planned and wound up leaving the house about 5:40. I’d be taking the “spring” route to get to Death Valley. That would make a nice loop of about 1000 miles given that I was coming home from Death Valley using one of the typical fall routes. See my route map, below.
I could have left earlier, but was worried about getting to my planned restaurant stop – the Cozy Cup in Hollister – before they opened. Not a problem. There were already serving a few people when I got to the restaurant a little before 7 AM.
Just me and the cows on 25
On SR 33
Lost Hills Oil Field
Granite Rd
SR 155
Five riders stayed at or near Stovepipe Wells. As is somewhat traditional most of us rode alone. Tom left Thursday and spent the night near Bridgeport. He was going to meet Carl Friday near Lee Vining but got tired of waiting and wound up riding to Death Valley alone. Carl didn’t meet with Tom as he left a touch later than usual to meet up with Dan. Checking notes later it looks like Tom left Lee Vining about 10 minutes before Dan and Carl arrived.
Carl
When you ride with us
The fifth rider was Jerry who often rides alone. He had a Friday morning Rotary meeting to attend before hitting the road. Given his time constraints Jerry planned his ride in great detail, listing everything he’d need and checking it not once, not twice, but thrice. After making sure everything was planned to the appropriate detail he packed most of his gear into the liners for his saddle bags. Odds and ends went into that gigantic tail bag attached to his bike.
However, one important item got left off of Jerry’s packing list. He says he was at Altamont Pass when he realized that in his rush to hit the road he left his packed bag liners at home – he’d forgotten to actually put them in his saddle bags. He wanted to get to Death Valley before it got dark and decided he couldn’t afford the two hour hit in time it would take to fetch the missing items. He rode on to Death Valley… alone.
Near Onyx on SR 178
Entering Panamint Valley
On Trona-Wildrose Rd
I took a slight detour after turning onto SR 14. Bowman Road is a dirt route that will take you through Ridgecrest. It’s easy dirt, but just soft enough that you don’t want to be taking it too slow. More about dirt and riding slow later. Alas, on this road there is a 15 MPH limit to keep dust down. I gave up after about 6 miles and took Brown Rd north to get back on SR 178 at Inyokern.
Leaving the Panamint Valley I took Wildrose to get to Death Valley. The pavement on the bottom section of that road has always been rough with a few short stretches of missing pavement. It’s worse. Or I have a knack for picking the wrong line through rough roads. When I got to Stovepipe Wells my handlebars needed adjusting, having been forced down from the jolting of some of the deeper potholes.
They paved paradise
Home
Home, with bike
Tom’s GS in front
Dan took the first picture showing the newly paved driveway to the Roadrunner rooms at Stovepipe Wells. The other pictures show the campsite where Tom and I spent out two nights in Death Valley. The campground had just opened the first of October. There were very few campers and most of those were in the full-hookup section for RVs at least 500 feet from our campsite.
The Death Valley group was small this year because of some kind of special event in Beatty, Nv. that raised the hotel rates. As a result the Beatty contingent spent the previous weekend in the area. No trip report from that group other than an email mentioning how hot it was in the valley. Heat wasn’t a great issue for us. I believe it was in the upper 90s, perhaps hitting 100 ºF for a Saturday high.
Saturday
Anyone want to give him water
After digging out the rear wheel
Carl back on pavement
Saturday Dan and Jerry went to the Dunes for a little hike. The three GS riders went looking for (and found) the unmarked gravel road to Grotto Canyon. Being unmarked it was not well travelled. As a result the gravel was quite loose and deep in spots. I managed to bury the rear wheel of my bike up to the brake rotor in one spot. The picture shows the wheel after digging it out of the loose gravel. Eventually we muscled the bikes mostly off the road and hiked the rest of the way to road end. I rested in some shade whil Tom and Carl hiked an additional way into the canyon. They were back within 20 minues. The canyon quickly becomes quite narrow.
We hiked back to the bikes and managed to get all three of them pointing in the right direction, one at a time. It was at this time that I finally thought about airing down my tires. What a difference. Much easier going. Why didn’t I do that on the ride in? That is, after all, why I carry a compressor on the bike.
Where’d the bag of cracker jacks go?
Airhead toolkit
Remove brake caliper
The front wheel will come off
Changing wheel direction
Clean up
Heading to Lunch
After our little hike we returned to Stovepipe Wells where I aired up my tires. Dan took that opportunity to check out his never used Slime brand pump. It worked. But he did notice that the direction arrow on his front tire was reversed. Since his wheel can be mounted either way he decided to pull the wheel and flop it arround. If nothing else it was a chance to show off the great tool kit that came with his new-to-him R100RS.
After the bikes were back together Tom, Carl, and I headed to Furnace Creek for a late lunch/early dinner. I needed to hit the Furnace Creek gift shop to replace a Death Valley T-shirt my eldest grandson lost. Of course I picked up an extra small version for my youngest grandson. Carl scored a pair of swimming trunks for Jerry while there, too.
Salt Creek board walk
Marsh
Dry on the surface
Oops
Tom and I stopped at Salt Creek on the way back to the campsite. This time of year all surface water is gone. The scrub brush is green; I expect there is still moisture just under the surface.
The road to Salt Creek is hard packed dirt. When leaving I told Tom to go ahead and that I’d wait a bit for the dust he kicked up to settle. I did that. When I took off I wasn’t paying enough attention to the road since it was hard packed dirt. Except in one small spot where it was soft. When I realized I was aiming for that spot I did exactly the wrong thing: I slowed down which put more weight on the front wheel just as hit the soft stuff. Needless to say I wound up on the ground. Idiot.
The dirt was just soft enough and just deep enough (maybe 2-3”) that when I tried lifting the bike the front wheel would slide out from under me. After about 5 or 6 tries I gave up and waited for Tom to get bored waiting for me and come back and help me lift the bike. About 5 minutes later that is exactly what happened.
We rode back to Stovepipe wells where we got into our swimming trunks and joined the others by the pool. The shower I took before getting in the pool was much needed!
Sunday
Sunrise
Looking west
Heading out
Dan follows
Dirty
Manzinar reproduction barracks
Barrack wall
We had breakfast at Stovepipe Wells on Sunday morning. The buffet there is better than the buffet at Panamint Springs. After breakfast Tom and I broke camp. The others packed up their stuff. Jerry was going to stick around Stovepipe Wells for a few more hours and meet us in Bishop. Carl, Dan, Tom and I hit the road for a planned stop in Manzinar.
We spent about an hour at Manzanar before heading to the motel in Bishop. We didn’t want to get there too early as they have a 3 PM check in time and a history of never have rooms ready earlier. This trip was no different. Tom’s room wasn’t ready until almost 4 PM. We got there around 2 PM.
While waiting for the rooms Tom and Dan checked out the motel across the street. Room quality is about the same. They had rooms available. If you ask for early check in when making your reservation they will try to accomodate your request. Best of all… $10/night cheaper. I know where people are going to stay next year. The hotel info will be on the 2013 schedule.
We had a great dinner at the Whiskey Creek then congregated at Tom’s room to watch the beginning of the shellacking that the Reds were giving the Giants in game 2. I gave up on the game around 8 PM and headed to my room.
Monday
Almost at the 120/395 junction
North on 395
Monday morning we went to Jack’s for breakfast. I highly recommend their corned beef hash. The bran muffin was pretty good, too. Quite large. I could only eat half.
Jerry decided to take SR 6 north from Bishop. I assume he picked up 120 east of Mono Lake. The rest of us rode up 395 with a stop at 120 for gas. Carl and Dan continued on 120, riding through Yosemite. Tom and I kept going north on 395 until Sonora pass. We stopped at the Donnell Lake overlook for a rest stop. We also wondered if we could see where we had to turn around during the GS ride in August.
Donnell Lake overlook
Donnell Lake
East end Donnell Lake
Donnell Lake Dam
Our next stop was at the Valero station in Oakdale. We arrived there slighly after Dan and Carl. It was almost like we planned the meet-up. At the gas station I managed to tweak something around my left side rib cage. I’m guessing I stressed a muscle on one of the attempts to lift my bike on Saturday and exacerbated the problem when my foot hit my camping gear while lifting it over the bike at the gas station. Ow! [It’s finally better, now.]
It’s about 100 miles from Oakdale to my house. I said good-by to the guys as this would be the last stop, together. Dan pulled away from the group approaching Altamont pass. Tom waved good-by in Hayward. Carl and I separated at 101 and 92 in San Mateo.
Great ride. Good weather other than a little bit of wind the final leg home. We didn’t have the heat that the Beatty group had. We also didn’t have snow on mountain passes. The timing was just right.
