deathvalleypilgrimagep4

Death Valley pilgrimage

Saturday morning. Waking up early in the Springs often offers a great scenery with the surroundings mountains lit by the rising sun. This morning was no exception. We dropped our luggages (finally!) all geared up and went for a pretty long "loop": Steel Pass to Eureka Dunes then Racetrack and Lippincott to come back to Saline. It is by itself a long ride but what was making it even longer this time is the closure of Scotty's Castle's gas pump. Because of that we had to do 85 more miles of pavement

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Last night after a few scotchs and many hours in the tub, Eduardo started to hesitate about such a long day with some challenging sections. But this morning, with a beautiful weather he wanted to try anyway

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The long uphill to Mengel Pass is not difficult per say but follow a dry river bed with lots of gravel. For someone with limited experience in the dirt it is easy to get your shoulders and arms tense and get tired rapidly. The GS especially has a tendency to plow its larger 19 inches front wheel in the deep gravel. After a while it just seemed like too much work for Eduardo and he decided to go back to camp instead.

We were sure he would have a good time there so Dirk and me continued on our way...

Dirk arriving to the last part of the climb (the most challenging). Saline Valley on the background.

I was really pleased to see that Dirk liked the place so much. It's always nice to make someone discover something you're found of. The last part of the climb was no problem either and we were soon on the plateau on top of Steel Pass.

At the end of the plateau, starting the downhill. What made the ride even better is that we hadn't see another vehicle for the whole morning.

Then, the very spectacular canyon! It could be difficult to manage for a long vehicle or going up but it's quite easy going down on a motorcycle.

Dirk and his 950 are doing great on the "steps"

I didn't say anything to Dirk to not spoil the surprise but I still remember the "shock" of the first time I saw this view. What makes it stunning is that it's just after the canyon. So you are in this narrow, darker, rocky environment and a minute later you're in the open, contemplating a valley and a huge sand dune in the middle!

(The picture definitely doesn't do it justice)

Hard to realize it on a pic but it's HIGH!

Then it was all about very high speed dirt roads towards Death Valley. It was almost strange to see vehicles again, including many motorcycles of all kinds. We went to check Scotty's Castle just to make sure the information on the internet was right. Sadly it was: major work going on around the gas pump (changing the tank?) which meant that we had to go back and forth to Stovepipe to refuel - 85 miles of pavement

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At Stovepipes we loaded the bikes with gallons of gas and water and also filled our stomachs at the restaurant. Then backtracked up North towards Racetrack with a mandatory stop at the Ubehebe Crater.

No pic of the Racetrack since the day was getting short and I realized when I stopped there that my front tire was half deflated

. It's so strange the exact same thing happened at the exact same spot on my last trip with cRAsH! We couldn't repair his GS tubeless despite putting eventually 2 plugs in it and going down Lippincott on a flat front tire was NOT a fun experience

. Before to get the tools out and try to repair it on the side of the road we decided to try to re inflate it with our compressors. Luckily it was a slow puncture and by re inflating it 2-3 times we were able to get back to the camp.

Here is Dirk at the start of Lippincott:

No more pictures that evening: we still had a long way to go to reach the camp, a tire to repair and a hot tub to soak in!

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