Coarsgold - Shashoni - 470 miles Temp - 64F morning - 112F through Death Valley rising to 120F Riding - 0800 - 1830 Sights - Yosemite, Death Valley     This mornings route was to take us from Don's into and through Yosemite National Park. But due to ongoing forest fires we had to make a detour into the Park and also miss out quite a bit of the famous areas. The detour was actually a very pleasant route, probably more enjoyable on a bike than the route we had originally planned, but we did have to miss a large part of Yosemite.   The views in Yosemite were fantastic, but evidence of the fires were very close to the road.              From Yosemite it was onwards to Death Valley, somewhere I had been having very mixed feelings about. Coming from Scotland where a good summers temperature is about 80F (and even then I find those temperatures a bit uncomfortable), the stories I had heard about 100F plus temperatures were worrying me as to how I would cope. Before we arrived in Death Valley we encountered a very long traffic jam due to road works up ahead. At this point it was feeling pretty hot to me and the last thing I wanted to do was sit in a traffic jam for hours, so I did what we would do back home and filtered for approx 20 miles to the front of the queue. Phil followed me as he was use to this type of manoeuvre having followed me many times in the UK, but Andy was a bit more apprehensive as it is not a normal thing to do in the USA. But eventually Andy got fed up sitting in the queue and followed some Harley riders down the hard shoulder, so we all arrived up the road a the same time. As much as Im used to filtering it did feel a bit scary with the size of some of the trucks here.  As we arrived in Death Valley I wanted to get a picture of the sign, but UNFORTUNATELY some girls kept blocking my view. It was at this point, with these thoughts that I knew the heat was affecting me.  At last I managed to get a shot of the Death Valley sign.  Elevation Sea Level.........but I couldn't see any sea!!!!!  Temp 115F at the Ranger station and this was in the shade. We reckon as we got to the lowest point in Death Valley it got a lot hotter, so was nearer 120F at that point.    As we rode through Death Valley it was very strange that normally I would have the electrically operated screen on the Honda up when it was cold, and down when it was hot. But the heat here was so extreme it was actually more comfortable to have the screen up to keep the HEAT off me. I have now turned vegetarian as I cannot face cooking an animal, as during one of my hallucination periods I'm sure I kept hearing a voice say......"Leave the Brit in there for a few more minutes, I want him Well Done !!!!"   At Badwater Basin we were 282 feet below sea level, so I would hate to be here at high tide.    During this trip I was constantly having problems refuelling, as the Petrol Stations do not use Pin numbers with credit cards, so it was difficult to pay at the pump as Phil and Andy were doing. I had to keep going in to the cashier and pre paying with cash, as they dont trust you to fill up and then pay afterwards as we do it in the UK. But it looks like this poor guy was having more trouble than me!! |
Day10 |
