THE DEATH VALLEY TOUR Five or six days, 320-400 miles, plus optional prologue rides Most people don’t think of Death Valley as a cycling destination: 120° days; dusty, desiccating winds; bleached bones on a sere, salt-caked desert. But those who know better–and who know when to visit– appreciate the severe beauty of this stark, tortured wonderland. However, this is not everyone’s cup of tea. If you like your scenery green and woodsy; if your ideal cycling environment looks like a classic English landscape painting, then this is probably not the place for you. Death Valley is a harsh, alien landscape, comprised of rock, sand, and salt flats, with minimal vegetation and only a few green oases scattered about (fortunately within cycling distance of each other). Yet its austere beauty and unreal quiet and solitude can be wonderfully refreshing. Most of these roads are very remote and untraveled. You may only see two stop signs in an entire day, and only a handful of cars. For such a desolate region, there are a surprising number of points of interest along every stage of the tour. Often these have to do with the rich and fascinating geology of the region, while some are significant in terms of human history. If your visit comes in a year when rain has been abundant, you may be treated to an impressive display of wildflowers on the desert floor. You may even find the salt basin at the bottom of the valley filled with water...a temporary lake. This region and this tour are unlike anything else we offer. Not only are the physical attributes of the place dramatically different, the tour format presented here is somewhat different as well. It can be ridden as a point-to-point progression as we normally do, or it can be modified to include a series of day trips from one home base. Furnace Creek, at the heart of the valley, is the hub for most of the tour. You can journey south in a loop up and out of the valley–and back–or you can content yourself with staying in Furnace Creek and doing shorter out-&-backs from camp. • Tour packet: 30 pages; 36 photos, 5 maps, covering up to 8 stages • Where does it go? Prologue: Lone Pine out-&-backs 50 miles, 6000' up and down 32 miles, 5000' up and down Weather permitting—meaning if the snow has melted in the high country—two optional rides of epic proportion: out-&-backs to Horseshoe Meadow and Whitney Portal. Wonderful adventures on the steep flank of the Eastern Sierra. Or simply enjoy a shorter exploration of the wildly contorted geological fantasyland of the Alabama Hills, right near camp. Day 1: Lone Pine to Panamint Springs 52 miles, 1600' up, 3200' down Begins in the shadow of 14,495' Mount Whitney–highest peak in the lower 48–and the towering ramparts of the Southern Sierra Nevada. Climbs very gently into the Inyo Mountains before dropping in a wild ’n crazy descent to the tiny outpost of Panamint Springs. Camp has showers. Day 2: Panamint Springs to Furnace Creek 56 miles, 3400' up, 5500' down After rolling to the bottom of Panamint Valley, climb infamous Townes Pass, one of the most notorious cycling torture racks in California. Then descend forever: 5000' of continuous drop to Stovepipe Wells and the bottom of Death Valley. Continue down the valley over rollers to the oasis of Furnace Creek. Several camping options. Showers and pool at Furnace Creek Ranch (free to campers from nearby national park campgrounds). Day 3: Furnace Creek to Tecopa Hot Springs 67 miles, 3300' up, 1750' down Bonus miles: 27 miles, 3500' Climb up and out of Death Valley on a journey to sample the waters at Tecopa Hot Springs, a funny, funky spa in the middle of nowhere. The climb out (via Death Valley Junction) is long but never steep, and once over the top, the run south through the Greenwater Mountains is all downhill. Optional out-&-back to the stunning vista point at Dante’s View...one of the most panoramic views in the world. If you prefer, you can skip the trip to Tecopa and do one or two day’s worth of day trips from Furnace Creek. The options are explained in detail in the tour packet. Day 4: Tecopa Hot Springs to Furnace Creek 85 miles, 3300' up, 5000' down 90 miles, 4700' up, 6400' down Back into Death Valley by way of Salsberry and Jubilee Passes...long climbs and longer descents. Work your way up the length of the valley, passing through Badwater, the lowest spot in North America (282' below sea level). Terrain (after the passes) is either level or rolling. The longer route takes a detour around Artists Drive, a steep and very twisty roller coaster ride through incredible, contorted rock formations. Return to base camp in Furnace Creek. Day 5: Furnace Creek to Mesquite Spring 60 miles, 3500' up, 1500' down Travel north to visit Scotty’s Castle, climbing very gently for most of the stage. After visiting the famous castle, retrace route a few miles to campground at Mesquite Spring. Sorry: no showers and no streams or lakes. Just faucet water for getting clean. Day 6: Mesquite Spring to Stovepipe Wells (plus side trip to Ubehebe Crater) 56 miles, 500' up, 3500' down It seems a shame to end the trip after the long climb to Scotty’s Castle, so we encourage you to ride back down that long grade: yesterday a climb; today a 30-mile downhill. Add in an out-&-back at the start to scenic Ubehebe Crater. Camp in Stovepipe Wells. Showers and swimming pool available at adjacent motel. (Or stay at the motel.) • How hard is it? Some of the climbs on this tour are quite challenging–in particular Townes Pass and Salsberry Pass–making the entire package a bit of a chore for a moderate rider. However, most of the tour is quite easy, and with selective use of sags or triple chain rings on those few tough ascents, this tour should be manageable for most riders. • When should you do this tour? In February and March, when most of the rest of the state is still wearing its winter woollies, Death Valley is a delight, with daytime highs in the 70’s and 80’s. That’s the time to visit. April is good too, but you begin to run the risk of hitting some hot weather. After April, forget it! Mid-to-late Fall is another popular season in Death Valley...October on. The only problem with doing this trip at the outer limits of the seasons (February or late Fall) is that the start over in Lone Pine won’t be as warm as the rest of the tour. In fact, it can be freezing. If you want to do the prologue rides up into the Sierra, the only realistic time window for this is October...after the heat in the valleys has abated but before the snow begins to fall in the high country. • Accommodations Campgrounds in the desert tend to be quite bleak: lots of sand and rock and very few shade trees. (But that’s part of the charm of the desert. Either you like it or you don’t come here.) All of the campgrounds can be reserved, except for Mesquite Spring. All have access to showers, except for Mesquite Spring. There are two campgrounds on this tour without motels nearby, which will make it difficult to modify it into an entirely motel-based trip. However, if you are willing to modify the routes, you can build a very good tour around motels in Lone Pine, Furnace Creek, and Stovepipe Wells. • Travel..to and from The start in Lone Pine is about four hours from Los Angeles and about nine to ten hours from the Bay Area, depending on your route. Add another hour to that for the return trip from Stovepipe Wells at the end of the tour. Adventure Velo 7315 Fircrest Avenue Sebastopol, CA 95472 707-823-9807 backroad@sonic.net