Death Valley MLK Recon Ride Tale (Part One)

[KMG_365]

Okay, here's the first installment of a more complete update on the "Longstreet to Death Valley on MLK Weekend" Recon-Ride which "The Magnificent Seven" and I did over the weekend of October 21-23, 2005! If you haven't gotten your reservation in yet check out the info you need at the Official Planning Thread (here), and if you're looking for info on routes or rides, check out the "Excited Chatter" thread (here).

 

Here are the guilty parties:

 

 

L-to-R: Leslie ("Les_is_more"), Phil ( "pdegnan"), Todd ("graydude"), Greg ("flyingreg"), Joe ("JoeG"), George ("GeorgeLT") and his wife Joan

 

 

 

I had that Thursday off so Leslie and I took the long way up to Temecula to Phil and Carole's new place and had a nice evening the night before we took off. Carole wasn't there as she was up in Alaska witnessing the birth of a new grandchild! It was a bit foggy at Phil's before we took off.

 

 

 

 

Todd showed up shortly and the four of us took off for the desert. The first stop was the newly-remodeled old train depot at Kelso in the middle of the Mojave Desert National Preserve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They've really done a nice job of restoring the old train station to how it would've looked in the 1920's-30's, complete with a few authentically furnished rooms upstairs where the Union-Pacific railroad workers would've lived. They plan on reopening the little restaurant/cafe soon for travellers through the area:

 

 

 

 

And they have many other interpretive exhibits on the local history, including a very nice short film showing the highlights of things to do and see in the area.

 

Here's one of a stack of many laminated cards giving details on the desert flora and fauna. It had just rained the weekend before and the desert plants were rejoicing in the abundance of life-giving water. We saw many, very large Datura plants along the road cuts with beautiful, HUGE lush trumpet blossoms--an extravagant luxury they could only afford due to the recent precipitation. This is a very small example:

 

 

 

 

Here's Todd and Phil waitin' for a train:

 

 

 

 

And here's Les and me mugging for the camera:

 

 

 

 

We rode on to Pahrump for a late lunch and checked out "Wulfy's", which is next to the Best Western which we were considering as a possible replacement for last year's Exchange Club in Beatty for the January MLK Weekend Death Valley Ride Headquarters.

 

 

 

 

 

While the Best Western might've been a bit fancier than the Longstreet, the town of Pahrump itself didn't seem to lend itself to the kind of event we had in mind for our idea of the perfect "Death Valley experience". There were lots of shops and places to eat, but there was also lots of traffic and the whole town seemed laid out like four looooooooooooooooooooooong continuous strip malls on either side of the street that intersected each other in the middle of town. There was a very generic sort of "national name brand/franchised" feel to it and it lacked a certain charm and quaintness we were looking for.

 

So we continued over the 25 miles via Bell Vista Road to Death Valley Junction just back across the California State Line. When we got to the Junction--home of the "Famous" Amargosa Opera House, and made even more famous by the Documentary: "Amargosa" (2000)--I noticed a HD dresser and a car pulled over on the side of the road. Now, me being the helpful sort, I decided to go have a look to see if our fellow biker was in need of assistance--as we are now pretty much in the middle of nowhere at this point and the nearest "civilization" (outside of the Longstreet) is 25-30 miles away. It turns out the couple on the bike were both tourists just out for a day ride and the European couple in the rental car were asking them for the shortest way to Las Vegas--but nobody knew where they were! After listening to some grief from my "riding buddies" over the GMRS, I show the couple on the GPS where they are on their map and the shortest route to Vegas (which is in the direction we just came). We exchanged pleasantries and as they went back to their car, I noticed that there seemed to be some unusual wildlife in this area!

 

 

 

 

The Amargosa Opera House and Hotel in DV Junction seemed to have far too much "charm" and "quaintness" for a group of 80 hardened BMW riders: only 14 rooms in the hotel and no phones or TV's! ), so we headed on another 7 miles north to our night's destination the Longstreet Inn and Casino. Here's the main entrance with regular-sized M/C spaces for the RT's:

 

 

 

 

And the other side with the larger spaces for LT's!

 

 

 

 

We weren't sure at first whether the Longstreet would have the basic minimums we would need to gather together 60-100 riders, but we were very pleasantly surprised! The Hotel has a bar, restaurant, small convenience store, a casino (with penny, nickel and quarter and dollar slots! ), a nice outdoor patio (with a few tables and chairs) which faces a very nice little lake which separates the hotel and the RV/camping area on the other side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We met up with flyingreg there at the hotel and were soon joined by JoeG . . . who appeared to be having a bit of trouble with the local constabulary!

 

 

 

 

The rooms were nice and newly remodeled since spring of 2004 (the place was built in 1995). We got some of the last rooms (large bus-tour group beat us in) facing the sunrise over Mt Charleston (elev. 11,915ft.) just about 40 miles to the east. It was phenomenal, but I only got pics of the rooms:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greg had brought an amazing selection of appetizers, Todd had the LT's icebox filled with beer, and I had brought a few bottles of red stuff, so we "dined" on Brie, smoked gouda, assorted crackers, artichoke dip, assorted nuts and other snacks and hung out on the patio enjoying the quiet of the lake and the entertainment of the ducks.

 

 

 

 

We sat on the patio and swapped lies until the sun set over the aptly named "Funeral Mountains" to the west. We eventually remembered that we were supposed to recon the food here and that if we kept sitting out here eating Greg's sumptuous spread, we'd have no appetite left whatsoever! So we dutifully checked out the breakfast menu for the morning:

 

 

 

 

And tried to pick out something from the dinner menu:

 

 

 

 

But before we finally tore ourselves away from the view and went inside to eat, we were treated to one of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen in a while:

 

 

 

 

 

Amargosa Valley lies in a little valley (about 2200 ft) where the basin-and-range topography of Nevada surrenders to the mighty Sierra Nevada range further to the west. The mountains just west of Amargosa are some of the last of the smaller ranges (the Funeral Mountains to the north and the Greenwater Range to the south) before descending to the HUGE sinking basin that is Death Valley. As the towering Sierra Nevada and the more humble Funeral ranges continue to be pushed up and slightly away from each other, the valley floor continues to sink and dry up. Now, with no outlet for the water running off of the mineral-rich mountains on all sides, the rain carries the softer, more soluble salts and various borates and chlorides down to Badwater where the heat and aridity speed evaporation leaving behind a small amount of very concentrated saline water and miles of bizarre crystaline formations.

 

The CA-190 which goes into Death Valley from Amargosa snakes in between these two ranges down to the valley floor. On it's way into the valley it passes by "Dante's View" a beautiful valley overlook near the peak of Funeral Mountain (elev. 6384) which can be seen in the pics above looking across the lagoon to the west. Dante's View (elev. 5475) looks almost straight down on Badwater, the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere (-282 feet below sea level), which is less than three miles away, but more than a mile below. From there you can also look right across the valley at Mt. Whitney (elev. 14,494 feet), the highest point in the 48 conterminous states. This is an area of extreme contrasts in both weather and topography: it is a mere 85 miles from the peak of Mt Whitney to the basin at Badwater--but a difference in elevation of 14,776 feet!

 

 

All the pictures from the Pre-Run are still up on my SmugMug site: HERE.

 

The rooms at the Longstreet are going fast if you haven't gotten your reservation already, the deadline to secure the group rate is December 10th--after that it's catch-as-catch-can!

 

 

I'll leave you with my favorite pic that looks like one of those Corona Beer commercials:

 

 

 

End of Part One. Stay tuned for Part Two . . . coming to a computer monitor (very) near you!

[graydude]

Great job Jamie! I think you captured the spirit of the trip exactly. Your pics brought back the sunsets. The trip is worth seeing those if nothing else.

[Whip]

Jamie

 

Thanks...I'm looking forward to meeting everyone.....and ya'll picked a great place....

 

Larry

[RET2]

Hi again Jamie, just read your post re: the wild life circa the Amargosa Opera house. One morning coming out of DV it was raining and blowing sand to beat all and when I went thru that intersection a guy was out of his car(nicely left with doors open and still running) trying to get an live ostrich ( honest!)out of the road. Obviously someone has a thing for big birds in that area.

Cheers, Ralph

[Tank]

I finished reading this and went out to pack the bike, than realized its only November 16th Nice report , I'm excited, I'm now going to work to pay for this ride

[1MPH]

Jamie, Way to whet the appetite for DV. Don't know if I

will be able to wait till January. Great pictures, thanks.

 

Jack

[Tom P]

Jamie, what a beautiful place. You guys are fortunate to have such a wonderful place to go to in (brrrrrr) January.

[1MPH]

Jamie, when do we get to see part two? The suspense is

 

starting to get to me.

 

Jack

[KMG_365]

Jamie, when do we get to see part two? The suspense is

 

starting to get to me.

 

Jack

 

Sorry, Jack!

 

I'm at work in the middle of a 72-hour shift (we've been getting hammered with calls) and at home I've been trying to get the kitchen done in time for Leslie to be able to cook Thanksgiving Dinner. If I get a chance here at work tomorrow night, I'll try to knock it out.

 

In the meantime, I stumbled across a GREAT and suberbly ILLUSTRATED ride tale by the wonderful "1st Shirt" (and his lovely wife, Sun-joo) from their trip with us to the Village Idiots/Airheads Death Valley Daze in 2004 (back when we used to stay at Furnace Creek in the valley).

 

Check it out here.

[1MPH]

Sooooo sorry that you are so busy, but I understand. I'll wait till you are free. Thanks for the reply. You are a good dude.

 

Jack

[Francois_Dumas]

Oh what a great story..... to us, so wonderfully 'foreign'.... especially watching those menu cards 'Breakfast accross the border'.... sounds like something from a Western Movie ...

 

Thanks for posting the beautiful sunsets... and some of the 'faces' ! Looking forward to more !

 

Francois

[KMG_365]

Part Two is finished and available for your reading pleasure: HERE!!!