Death Valley
2009
A Brief Pictorial
Report
Biking, Hiking and
Driving
March 4-8, 2009
Another great trip to Death Valley
National Park....19 humans and a canine gathered to enjoy the late winter time
in this beautiful grand valley. Our leader Jamshyd organized another
successful adventure that saw people arrive over a period of several days.
J and Manijeh and Ken with their well-dressed pooch Charley, Ken's brother Don,
Behzad, Faramarz, Irma and Bob driving all the way from the Bay area, Rod and
Sharlene and Efi and Chrissy arriving in style in their rented RV, Dean, Larry,
Eitan, and I--we all arrived on Wednesday. Paul arrived on (I think)
Thursday and Andy and his son Nick showed up Friday.
Dean and Eitan with bikes atop
Dean's VW Passat descend into Panamint Valley on the way to Death
Valley
The weather was cool
and sunny. Lows in the 40's at night, highs in the low 70's during
the day. On Wednesday we hit some rain on the way out of L.A. and it
threatened rain in the Valley but we never had any....it stayed up in the
Panamint Range below Telescope Peak. Our biggest challenge was the
wind that blew hard from time to time. Wednesday afternoon was tough
trying to set up tents in the howling wind. After we set up,
sometimes the wind would blow the tents over near-horizontally and it seemed
that the poles would snap. We had to tie the tents down with extra "guy
wire." No snapped poles but some torn stitching. (Even on Friday,
Nick's tent started to blow away because it had not yet been
staked)
Most days saw the group breaking up
into smaller units which either biked or hiked or drove to various sites.
On our first full day Thursday, 7 did some hiking while I was one of 9 who
mounted road bikes for a 26 mile climb from our Texas Springs Campground to
Dante's View at almost 5500 feet. With grades at times of 15-21 degrees it
was a tough climb from below sea level to over a mile up!! The hiking
group drove to the top and met us with gourmet sandwiches and other food (more
on our epicurean diet later) which we devoured.
Rob, Rod, Efi, Larry,
Jamshyd, hikers Ken and Manijeh, Irma and Bob
pose at Texas Springs
before ride start
(Riders Eitan and Dean are
not pictured....Dean was probably fixing someone's
equipment)
No, that's not Eitan trying
to find a place to pee....
he is taking one of his
many roadside stops looking for a great photo op.
Dean, Rod, Larry, and
Jamshyd at the top
Twenty-six miles of downhill back to
the campground and then a short drive to the Furnace Creek Inn for cocktails on
the patio at sunset.
Sitting clockwise from
left: Faramarz, Don, Irma, Manijeh, Jamshyd, Ken, Behzad, Bob, Dean,
Larry
The next day--Friday--was a hiking
day for everyone. We drove over to the entrance to Titus Canyon
for the hike. In 2002 several of us drove thru Titus Canyon in my
Toyota 4Runner; last year for my 60th birthday party, 4 of us mountain biked the
canyon; today we hiked about 2 or 3 miles up the canyon and back.
Efi and Chrissy (and me-I'm
only there digitally bent over) with Rod and Sharlene and Dean in Titus
Canyon
In high-walled Titus
Canyon--approximately from left: Chrissy holding Charley, Sharlene, Behzad, Ken,
Manijeh sitting, Paul, Larry behind bush, Jamshyd sitting, Efi, with Irma, Bob,
and Eitan below.
After the Titus Canyon hike the group
split up with some going on another hike and some driving to Scotty's Castle
and/or Ubehebe Crater. Arriving back at our campsite we were
greeted with the arrival of Andy and his son Nick.
Master acoustic guitar
picker Larry serenades Andy and Nick after their long
drive
While Larry provided musical
entertainment to our camping group, Manijeh, Sharlene, and Chrissy shined in the
culinary department (others also cooked such as Eitan with his heavenly
Yogi/Persian Tea concoction). On Shabbat, several of us showed up at the RV to
be blessed by Efi and share challah and wine and other delicacies on the
sabbath. Afterwards we were treated with chocolate babka by the
campfire. Manijeh was constantly whipping up all sorts of delicious dishes
including salad and falafel. Saturday afternoon a group of us was
treated to a luncheon barbeque alongside the RV. Rod, Sharlene, Efi, and
Chrissy fed us chicken kabobs, hummus, fresh salad, BBQ'd tomatoes and
on and on. I was eating better camping than at home. Thank you all
for filling me with more calories than I burned ;o( & :o).
Saturday morning saw us campers
breaking up into different groups again. Some went road riding, some
hiking, and Larry, Dean and I drove to see some of the sites. While
visiting the Devils Golf Course, Andy and Nick cruised in on their mountain
bikes.
13-year old Nick was
exhausted, and fate, according to Dean, put us in the right place
to
offer him a ride
back. His macho dad
rode back and I'm guessing put in over 40 miles.
With Nick and his bike aboard Dean's
passat we continued our drive down to Badwater, the lowest point in elevation in
the North America at 282 feet below sea level. Then it was off to drive up
the alluvial fan that is the Artists Drive.
A view of Artists Palette
along Artists Drive
Saturday afternoon saw some people
pack up and drive home. Others stayed one last night.
On Sunday Dean and I drove home via a
unique route....up and over Emigrant Pass at 5318 feet. In the middle of
the middle of nowhere, we had some dirt roads to travel on and took a side trip
to see the Charcoal Kilns on the road that leads to the Telescope Peak
trailhead.
Dean stands like a colorful
piece of charcoal in the doorway of one of the beehive
kilns.
From here it was only a matter of
following Dean's new TomTom GPS which took us down the mountain, thru the
Panamint Valley, thru industrial Trona, but took us on a new route which
bypassed Ridgecrest to the 395 and eventually the 14. We arrived home late
Sunday afternoon, ending another wonderful adventure in Death
Valley.
Humbly submitted,
Robco Baggins
P.S. In time I plan to create a
musical slide show of additional photos which I hope you will
enjoy.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Maps of the rides
