Report of the 2005 Death Valley Adventure - Part One of Four [Thanks to John Paul Daly]
Hey there fans of the motorcycling adventure ! As scheduled, the Roadrunners conducted the annual Death Valley Adventure from Thursday, March 10th through Monday, March 14th. Departure was at 7 o'clock from Atascadero.
Part 2 of 4 -> or
HomeThe weather was very good, but the route was changed to avoid the prospectively heavy foggy areas over SR58. As an alternative, we rode over SR46 to US 99 thence south to SR 178 and the Kern River Canyon.
In this fashion we rode on sunny highways in cool weather. Over Walker Pass and down into the high desert found us refuelling bikes and us in Ridgecrest for our noon meal. We spotted the Redwood Roadrunners at a sitdown restaurant as we rode through Inyokern. Since they'd already started their activity we figured they'd catch up when we paused. It never worked that way, however, reinforcing the rule that: " If you want to ride with the group, you have to start out with the group." The route across the Panamint valley, Emigrant Pass and down into Stovepipe Wells was good. But once across Death Valley, we discovered that the short route to Beatty and our accomodations was completely closed.
The detour added about 8 miles to the route, but the entire day's travel was less than 360 miles. Our rooms at the Burro Inn were biker friendly in several respects.
Convenient to the Death Valley area with downstairs rooms immediately adjacent to the bikes, and offering a very modest price and an accomodating restaurant where the servers were quick to slide tables together to permit us to sit as a large group. After an evening's rest, refreshments and benchracing we turned in. One rider with passenger arrived some three and a half hours after the main groups, mainly because he missed the short detour to Beatty and travelled north the length of Death Valley by Scotty's Castle. The following morning we elected to depart south along the eastern side of the Amargosa Valley to Shoshone.
We stopped for a bit at the Longstreet Casino & Hotel which has been restored after its fire and is now in full business form. The quaint Opera House and Hotel is still thriving and has been tidied up along the front. Because SR 190 from Death Valley was destroyed during the winter floods, we wondered from where Marta Becket drew current audiences. Once at Shoshone we refuelled and began to travel north over Jubilee Pass and the length of Death Valley. There the widely publicized explosion of wildflowers greeted us.
Because of the extended and very wet winter, the lake at the bottom of the deepest spot on land in the western hemisphere ( read Badwater, Death Valley, 283 feet below sea level) has become a huge lake. Folks were kayaking and rafting there.
After checking it out we proceeded to Furnace Creek Ranch where a few had a late lunch and a shaded rest on the grass.
The remainder of the day saw us returning to headquarters in lovely temperatures, and to a wonderful vista entering Nevada with the setting sun behind us.
Stand by for our second full day on the adventure, including our customary visit to Rhyolite and the races. John the Interlocutor.