deathvalleypilgrimagep6

Death Valley pilgrimage

Well, it's time to finish this report...

So dawn was here, the 3 of us awake and humid, with a long ride awaiting us that day. What to do? Going out and packing your tent under a heavy rain is one of the most uncomfortable experience. Waiting longer in a wet tent hoping for a better weather? The dark clouds were not really encouraging

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We finally decided to wait and see for a while... Luckily the rain suddenly stopped . We packed in a hurry, afraid that it would start again soon.

Now it's time to go. The issue is that there are several floods between the camp and the 190. Well, at least it proves that we didn't pick the worst river bed

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The previous one was easy but have a look at this one!

Strangely enough we didn't feel like wheeling in the middle of the stream, place our front wheel on the bank and graciously go over the obstacle. I mean, Dirk and me would have done it but you see, Eduardo was still a dirt noob

.

So we went to look for another way to cross and found one close by...

The bank at that spot was much easier to climb, even with a tight turn to negotiate just after. No problem!

3 days ago, Eduardo would have never imagined doing that kind of ride just before breakfast

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Finally back on the pavement, we finally understood the reason from those "sliding" noises we heard during the night. The floods brought a huge amount of dirt and gravel in some of the dips in the road and I guess it was quite a surprise at night

. Some cars must have had trouble getting out of the dips.

No problem for us, just a bit of snow on the pass...

And then a freezing ride home, luckily with barely any rain. We had one emergency though when Dirk realized that his D608 would not make it home!

After many calls from Lake Isabella we finally found a shop open with a suitable tire who was OK to take care of us. The 33, 25, etc... we were back home around 8 PM after a long ride but a wonderful weekend. Thank you guys

!

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