Bikepacking Death Valley

April 11, 2018

Bikepacking Death Valley

Stories by Ana, facts and puns by Adam, photos by both.

The sun is an asshole, but the salami...oh the salami was incredible.

The plan:

Day 1-2: Racetrack Playa Loop: Start on Saline Valley Road, drop down to Saline Valley, up Lippincott Road, around the Racetrack to Teakettle Junction, through Hidden Valley, up Hunter Mountain and back to the car. https://www.strava.com/routes/12528604
Day 2-3: Butte Valley Exploration: Start South of Ballarat on Wingate Road, up Goler Wash to the Butte Valley, explore and descend Goler back to the car. https://www.strava.com/routes/12528862
Day 3: Artist's Drive spin: Lunch at Furnace Creek, drop the bags off the bikes and go for an enlightened spin around Artist's Drive in the heart of Death Valley proper. https://www.strava.com/routes/12528847

The reality:
Leaving the oasis of Bakersfield behind us, we were soon turning off of 190 onto Saline Valley Road. Finding a nice sunny pullout in a "forest" of seemingly intoxicated Joshua trees, we parked the car somewhere in the middle of the desert, and debated whether or not to leave a note. If we leave a "we're out adventuring" note does that leave it up for grabs to someone to break in, knowing we'd be out for a while? We played it cool and opted for sun shades. I think they say, "We're gone on purpose, but might be back in a few, so don't try anything."

We got a later start than expected, and quickly realized how slow-going this would be with bikes weighing in around 60 pounds. We each were carrying 5 liters of water since we were not expecting to have anywhere to refill, and the plan was to loop back to the car before starting the next route to refill on water and food.

Blissfully unaware of what was to come.

About two miles in we came across this guy.

Climbing up our first pass at the intersection with Hunter Mountain Road, we got a taste of what was to come: breathtaking views, endless gravel, and a lot of suffering. Perfect!

One would hope that descending would provide some respite, but on cross-bikes and endless loose, gravelly, washboard your hands start to go numb, your body hurts, and you wish more than anything that there was some climbing ahead. But the view was beautiful!

Saline Valley waaaaaaay down there at the bottom of this beautifully twisty road.

For being in one of hottest places on Earth, the temperatures so far had been quite pleasant. Descending into Saline Valley reminded us, however, of how this area got it's reputation as the heat became more oppressive the closer we got to the valley floor. Once across Saline Valley, we began our assault up Lippincott Pass, eager to escape the bone rattling descending and the heat. We'll let the photos do the talking:

Our plan was to make it to the "camp" at the top (camp = a flat place to sleep with a toilet) at the end of Racetrack Valley Road. But we were pushing our luck with daylight, and were tired of pushing our bikes, so we called it a night when we passed a perfect little outcropping obviously well used for the same reason.

Dinner from a bag is SO GOOD when puttin on the Ritz crackers and cheese! What looks like fire in the background is actually an inflatable solar lantern. I made fun of Adam for packing it. I'll keep my mouth shut next time (it was my night light for most of the night, because adults are scared of the dark, too).

The next morning we finished our push up Lippincott (we even got to actually ride for a bit), and descended down to the Racetrack Playa.

In all the blogs we poured over about eating/packing/riding I didn't see anything about almond milk. They're nuts! I am going to proclaim that it may be my favorite thing I packed (besides the salami, but technically Adam packed that). It travels well, doesn't need to be refrigerated, AND I got cereal for breakfast with some granola and dried bananas!

Rad photo by Adam Havner. Can you see me?

Pro tip: never pass up shade in the desert

At the Racetrack, we chatted with some Jeep guys, who kindly offered us a water top-off. Little did we know that may have saved us, or at least made the end of our journey a lot less ugly. Pro tip: always accept a water hand-up in the desert, even if you think you have enough.

Even though the race to solve the mystery of the moving rocks has been won (if it weren't for those meddling kids...) they are still super cool! And, it's (sorta) accessible by car. Highly recommended to check it out.

These two were racing across the desert just about as fast as we were.

We made our way around the Racetrack, on the worst road yet. Sure it was flat, and looked harmless enough, but no, it was endless, f@*$!ng, washboard. This was also not the end of the washboard roads. (I later learned this would be a big "I told you so" from a friend, but maybe I wasn't doing my best at listening to the routes Adam was throwing my way. Lesson learned).

Racetrack Playa, with the Grandstand floating in the middle.

We took a rest at Teakettle Junction, and headed on through Lost Burro Pass to Hidden Valley. This is where salami became my lord and savior.

We opted to leave our tea kettle at home.

Adam here: Ana had asked me a few times if we were going to make it back to the car today, which I responded to with a confident "Yes". As we started into Hidden Valley, I was doing the (mental) back of the envelope calculations and I concluded that if we could maintain an average of 5 mph we would be back to the car before dark. The problem was, every time I looked down to my computer we were at best in the mid to high 4's. Time to start crossing fingers.

Besides the endless washboard, Hidden Valley was truly spectacular! And, we would've loved to explore the Lost Burro Mine, but the thought of extending our loop at this point was too painful.

Quite possibly the BEST advice we found while scouring the interwebs was to pack salami, or some sort of cured meat. It really WAS the best advice.

The sun shines like salami, and it is delicious.

I'm not exactly sure where we were at this point, but we did come across an old mine, which was pretty neat. My Garmin says we were about 46 miles in, and it's a good thing I didn't know we still had about 3,000 vertical feet to the car or I may have just moved myself into that mine for good. All I recall at this point was a tolerable flat section, and a fun little descent before turning the corner and staring, in disbelief, up at our next pass.

Once through Hidden Valley (spoiler, no ranches to be found), we began our endless, and I mean endless climb up Hunter Mountain. On any other day, with less of a load, and fewer miles behind us, this probably would've been a super fun section. The washboard finally disappeared, the elevation gain meant the temps cooled a bit, and the scenery started to become more lush. Unfortunately we were entirely too cracked to appreciate any of that. Although, we did appreciate the cool spring we were able to filter water from, and soak our bandannas in. The periodic flyovers from the nearby Air Force base also served to distract us from the endless climbing.

The descent down from Hunter Mountain and back to the car was rippin' fun. Adam even made a new friend. Thinking back, the last few miles may have been the only time I was really smiling from pure joy, and actually enjoying the trail enough to hop rocks and get a little speed going.

We made it back to the car just as the sun was setting. The original plan was to head out on the next loop this same day. Since that was obviously out of the question, we loaded up, headed to Panamint Springs where we had glorious pizza just before they closed at 9pm, and a campsite.

Stats for the actual ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/1497297712
Even though there was a lot of suffering, I should not understate the amazing views along the way. On a normal ride of these numbers, there is enough fun riding to make you forget about the pain. Or, at least that's usually the point. Here, the fun riding was replaced with "ooooh's and aaaahhh's" from all of the cool sights. We're chalking this up to a "really glad we did it, may never do it again" type of adventure. Does that count as type II or type III fun?

Off the bikes:
Having accepted the fact that we bit off WAY more than we could chew, we decided to spend the next day exploring by car (saw the charcoal kilns which were super neat), and get a jump start on the 8 hour drive home. This landed us in Kern Valley - in contention for the most beautiful place on earth. Hot springs are abundant, camping was beautiful, and the drive out of the valley was spectacular. Oh, and we ate breakfast at Cope's Knotty Pine Cafe just inside Bakersfield - a must stop if in the area!

Really, it was.

Crappy car pictures while driving, but Kern Valley is definitely a place to return to. We hear there are great mountain biking trails...

Do NOT drive past this place without stopping. Packed with locals for good reason, Cope's Knotty Pine Cafe in Bakersfield was delicious!

Lessons learned:

Even if a route seems like a day's ride on paper (we've all done a 63 mile, 5,700ft climbing day and survived), it will be twice as hard with a loaded bike (duh), and three times as hard in the middle of the desert and packing all your water supply (duh, and duh). The icing on the cake is when the route ends up being 7,700ft of climbing.

Plan for more time. My biggest regret is running out of time to actually complete our planned routes. As much suffering as we did, I think it would have been super cool to be able to see the other places we had listed. But, in the end, we just didn't have enough time to head out on the second route, knowing that it would probably take twice as long as intended.

Always accept a water hand-up.

Go with someone who you suffer happily with - I can't imagine that amount of suffering AND fighting the whole time.

Take a wilderness first aid course (it's on my to-do list). Thankfully we didn't need it.

If planning a trip to bikepack in Death Valley, do it on a hardtail or plus bike. And be prepared to suffer. Cross bikes were brutal, but it's all we had. If possible, stash water/food at camp spots ahead of time to minimize the weight you have to carry.

Huge shoutout to Dynaplug. Before we had even left the car (thankfully), we realized my tire had a gash in it. We tried a plug before succumbing to a tube. That sucker held the whole trip! Also, always pack an extra tire (we did not, and it was the most constant worry on my mind).