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Sarah & I left my place in Fremont at 7:50am and headed out for the looong drive to Death Valley. We took Hwy 580 to Patterson, where we stopped for breakfast at Denny's (yuk!). The trip south went by fairly fast, with a brief gas stop in Kettleman's Junction, an ice cream break in Mojave, and a bathroom break in the creepy town of Trona (it looks straight out of the X-Files!). We'd decided to take the "scenic" route into the valley, via Hwy 178/Emmigrant's Pass rather than the usual route via Townes Pass. I was glad we did, as the scenery was excellent. It was tough being so close to the Telescope Peak trailhead but having no time to bag this enticing-looking peak (nevermind the fact that it would be a horrible idea the day before a 200mi bike ride!)! The drive down into Panamint Valley was beautiful, and was just a teaser compared to the scenery in Death Valley itself!
We stopped briefly at Devil's Cornfield (a large patch of Arrow Weed that grows in weird tufts), then continued to Furnace Creek, arriving at 5pm.
After checking in at the Furnace Creek Ranch and settling into our little (and I do mean little!) cabin , we had a mediocre lasagna dinner at 49'ers Cafe. I saw a fellow I'd given some Endurolytes to on the scorching Tour of Two Forests a few weeks earlier, along with the usual ultra-cycling suspects.
I checked in for the ride with little ado. Planet Ultra's Chris Kostman announced that they'd just learned that Badwater was closed due to construction, so the rest stop that would usually be there would be moved a couple of miles closer, and there would be no bathrooms. I was surprised that they hadn't known about this closure, as I had read about it on the Death Valley website a few days before the ride.
We went to bed early since I had to get up slightly before the crack of dawn for my bike ride's mass start. It was rather warm, even at 9pm, which did not bode well!
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| Last modified
24 August, 2006 PDT
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