The Valley of Death

another shot of Gen Sherman

Updated for your Sunday morning viewing pleasure

Let me state that this post is not for the faint of heart. it gets rather lengthy

ok so just when I thought it couldn’t get any dryer or hotter. To be honest I don’t know why anyone would live in a place without rain. It just doesn’t computer in my head. So we found a campsite about 120 miles from Death Valley.

on the way out of our campsite

headed to the great Death Valley

I was excited to experience it, to see how bad it was, and see if I could stand the heat. We fueled up before entering Death Valley and we got a map and some tips from Bruce on where to go in the great valley of death. It was maybe 10am and it was well over 90 degrees! At this point I was still optimistic about my experience in Death Valley. So we saddled up and headed out with the highs that were supposed to be close to 120 degrees I prepared myself mentally the best I could, but came up a bit short. On the way in I said over the CB “I feel like we are on the verge of an epic adventure” little did I know just how epic it would feel. 

the valley of the shadow of death. i told my self "i will fear no heat" didn't work

We went to a small “town” that was basically some old buildings a “campground” and a care taker named Rocky. We looked over a map with him and then consulted each other on what direction to take. Dwayne and Chad wanted to take it easy on their bikes and stick to the more paved roads, and Nate, Laban and I wanted to explore this trail Bruce had told us about that supposedly had a spring feed swimming pool on top of the mountain along with the enticement of traveling through gold country. So we decided to split. With no cell service in Death Valley we decided that who ever got out first would find a camping spot and call the others. So with that we headed in different directions.

Chad and Dwayne headed north up and around the mountains and the rest of us headed south to find a pass that went over the mountains. About 30 miles into a sandy wash boarded road, ok let me just stop here and try and give you a little picture into what it was like riding down this “road”. Now imagine trying to balance a 900 pound plus bike on two wheels while driving over 6 inch high ridges of sand and dirt that where spaced close enough together to make your teeth chatter something fierce and make you feel like every nut and bolt on the cycle were about to come loose. All the while just trying to keep your front tire headed in somewhat of the right direction while plowing through some sand that at times came up over our rims and trying not to think about what would happen if you veered off into one of the cactus and prickly bushes along the road. Oh and it was 112 degrees and sunny. I can’t tell you how many times I check to make sure my heated grips were turned off. I could’ve sworn that they were on high all day. Anyway some 30 miles into this “road” Laban suffered the first mishap. He wiped out and somehow had the bike land on his foot, kind of pinning him till Nate came running to his rescue. Laban was unsure if he wanted to continue on with a bruised foot.

Laban checking out his foot

So we escorted him back to “stable” roads and he caught up to chady and dwayney, and nate and I continued towards Coyote Canyon. We stopped and talked to some jeeps that had just come down the pass that Bruce had told us about. They said it wasn’t too bad but there were some spots that were washed out and could be tricky. Bruce had said that there wasn’t any loose stuff and that it wasn’t very steep. Well as we found out it was a lot of both, but that’s getting ahead of myself. Ok so shortly after the second of three jeeps I washed out trying to get up to speed and went down with a sandy thud. Quickly picking up my cycle before the next jeep could see or any pictures could be taken. I knew right there and then, deep down in my gut that we should of turned around but not wanting to be the voice of reason we picked her up and went on. After some more sand roads we took a left and headed up Coyote Canyon whose name will forever be burned in my memory. It turned from sandy gravel to stony gravel to just plain rocky and steep. After going up the canyon for awhile my bike and I were both getting well above our comfort zone as far as temperature goes. So we found one of the few shaded spots in Death Valley and stopped for a drink and breather. 

taken a breather

This is one of our last pics for the day. as it was just too much effort to try and get our cameras out an my battery died shorty after. so here is the beginning of  an in depth look at our day

I was leading up until this point so we switched leaders and headed up the canyon some more. Just a short while later on an exceptionally steep, loose, and rocky section I see Nate hit his brakes and come to a dusty stop/tip/drop/jump off his bike. 

I couldn’t see what he saw so I parked my bike and ran up to his aid, and to see what he saw. What we had staring us in the face was some kind of pure rock steps/ledge. It totaled maybe 5 feet high and 10 feet long, the whole width of the trail. The first kicker was that some of the steps were well over one foot tall with close to 90 degree angles. The second kicker was that it was quite steep and loose with rocks ranging from the size of large tomatoes to the size of watermelons.

The pictures don't do it justice at all

Looking back down the canyon

Not sure what to do we hiked up the pass a bit to make sure that there wasn’t anymore of these in our near future, as we both decided that we didn’t want to try these on a regular bases, but as it took the jeeps 7 hours to get over the pass we couldn’t walk the whole thing. With some more discussion on what was about to take place nate stated that the Landis in him was saying “turn around” and the Sensenig in him was saying “I wonder what is around the next corner”. Anyway after trying to pile up some rocks to make our attempt a little more possible and a little bit of video commentary Nate unloaded his bike and got a run for it, three time it took him to even make it too the rocky ledge. On his third try Nate made it halfway up the rock ledge then we pushed and pulled the bike up the rest of the way. 

second try FAIL. third times the charm

After a long time of sitting in the shade and trying cool down, I decided to head down and give her a shot. My first try I didn’t even get close to the ledge and had a less then graceful drop. I told nate that if I didn’t make it this time then I didn’t have it in me to try again so it was now or never. Nate headed up to video my final attempted to make it up.

Now let me tell you a bit of what was going through my head. I head left my side boxes on for two reasons, first to try and keep weight on the back end because it was so loose and nate was having a hard time getting up speed, and secondly I wanted some protection for me and my bike incase the worst happened. I knew with my whole being that this wasn’t a very bright idea. But a small (but very powerful part) didn’t want to admit defeat and turn tail and go back, plus if nate did it I could too, though I new that there was no pushing my bike up as we did with nates, it was too heavy and we were too tired. Now at this point I was hotter then someone eating hot peppers, drinking hot chocolate, holding hand warmers, all while sitting in a hot tub in the sun on a mid summer day in the desert. My water was hot enough to brew coffee with, my feet were on fire, and my head was thumping something terrible. But with a little adrenaline and a deep breath I picked up my head and my feet and headed up the hill. Now I was just rounding the bend and getting lined up when I felt the whole bike trying to washout and lay on its side. Bound and determined to get up and over this obstacle I did a quick stab with my foot and a blip of throttle and I literally launch up and into the air. I knew right there and then that this was my worst idea ever and I my “blip” of throttle was actually full throttle and it was way to much. All I saw was sky, I was standing straight up on my pegs and my handle bars were at my chest. All I could think was that I was going over backwards and it was the end. All I know is that it was completely silent, I could only see the sky, and that when in mid air there is nothing you can do but close your eyes and hold on. Next thing I know I landed on the bike, with the tires on the ground only to bounce hard to the right and land with a very hard bang and thud. Out of instinct I pushed myself away from the bike to get clear of any more tipping or tumbling that might occur. Only to scramble back to hit/break off my kill switch and listen to my motor bouncing off the rev limiter till it ran out of fuel. Fluid was everywhere, nate had practically dropped the camera as he scrambled around completely helpless as to the outcome of the event taking place. Nate still holding the running camera asked if I was ok. My adrenaline had just shot through the roof so of course I was fine; my main concern was my bike. I new it wasn’t good but didn’t know exactly what had happened. So we heaved up the bike and pushed it up the final hump. To make this long story from turning into a book, basically my handle bars were out of place and my front brake reservoir was busted and leaking everywhere, peeling my paint off and fogging up my display. I quickly took off the leaking reservoir and pulled out my trusty duct tape and taped over the reservoir hole. Finally the voice of reason was heard and nate said we should probably turn back now and limp your bike to Las Vegas to get parts. I immediately stated passionately “there is no way I’m turning back now!” Well after some adrenaline wore off I saw the light and not knowing if my breaks would even work I decided that it would probably be for the best before anything worse happened. So with that we turned tail and fled, riding back down the rocky ledge without further mishap. We took some more breaks as we packed up our bikes and headed back down the hill and back to the pavement. By this point we had spent over 3 hours in this blasted hot canyon that had just kicked our butts. And we were well over 5 hours behind the other guys. But we pushed onward with the sun setting at our backs. We had hope that it was going to cool off. Ha yeah right, I had no idea that it could be so hot and so dark at the same time. It was pitch black and well over 100 degrees! My body was on the verge of a complete shut down, and there was no relief in site. My bike as making noise, my hi beam wasn’t working, and the sweat was still beading up on my face. Oh and to top it off my poison was very hot and itchy. We stopped for a cold drink at a gas station and then continued on our way. Chad had left me a message to call when we got service. I called while we were blasting down across the valley of death. We got directions and it was going to be over an hour till we got there, there being a campsite with no trees for my hammock. At this point I was getting stiff and sore, and completely toasted and beyond any logic. With no trees to set up my hammock and no water to wash my poison, nate and I decided we didn’t care anymore and were headed to the nearest hotel with showers and a swimming pool. After wearily stumbling into a best western and getting a room I went down and jump into the pool to ease the itchiness and heat. Then we retreated to shower and the AC with nice soft pillow to easy my sore body. By this time my little bit of interaction with the bedrock in Death Valley caused a scrape and bruise through my padded riding pants and it was catch up with me. So I practically passed out till morning. If you stayed with me till now in the rather lengthy chapter of my trip then I thank you can hope that you got a small picture of what my day was like.

i guess my filling word for this morning would be alone