| Author | Message | ||
     Sparky |
Message from Death Valley... Dear BadWeb, Having a wonderful time. Wish you (all) could be here. Sparky ----------- Here's why: The weather is gorgeous. The coldest it got was 40 going through Lancaster. Daytime temps in Furnace Creek was 65 with cloudless blue sky. Friday evening started off with a full moon low on the horizon just peeking over the eastern mountain range. About that time, the sun went behind the western range, coloring the few wafty clouds an intense red, orange & purple, and warranted me putting on my sweater again, a Raider sweater in my case -- GO RAIDERS! Then we started a blazing campfire. By midnight it cooled to about mid 40's which was not really cold because there was no wind and the air was absolutely dry. The moon was so bright I didn't need a flashlight to see where I was walking. All the roads were open, clean and in excellent shape. This made it fun for me because I was trailing the large group of HOGs, me pulling Road Captain duty (on a Firebolt, Oh well), and I didn't get any gravel thrown my way. I noticed that the Trona - Wildrose Rd was open so I made a mental note of that as the lead RC wisely chose to take the Hwy 190 bypass instead of T-W. More on that later. Speaking of Trona, Ferris, I missed you man! Probably by 10 minutes. I left the group at the supplies shopping stop at Albertsons in Ridgecrest to find a liquor store with a small bottle of brandy as I was only staying for one night. They got ahead of me so I started playing catch up. When I got to Trona, they were just pulling out of the gas station. Darn, I was having so much fun going at my usual speed, the rhythmn of the road. So I assumed my position in line. It was then when one of the guys yelled that someone in a pickup was looking for me. Hmmm. Our group had several pickups carrying bikes, wood & a BBQ stove, so I thought it was probably just one of them. A little further down the road it hit me. It was you! I guess you were in the area making deliveries. When I was setting up camp one of the guys said that a guy name "Ferris Bueller" was looking for "Sparky". "Oh, you mean Darryl? Yeah, we know him." We laughed. Max Smart would say, "missed it by that much." Normally my wife & I go on this annual Pre-Superbowl weekend trip but she wasn't feeling well & stayed home. So I packed up Saturday morning, heading for an adventure on the infamous Trona -Wildrose Rd and the shortcut home. From Hwy 190, Emigrant Rd starts out up the mountain slope towards a tight winding canyon. The road surface is clean and mostly smooth with a few rough spots on the first half. Then it goes across the flats to Emigrant Pass & some switchbacks up and down a ridge. The road here is narrow with real tight turns, and the surface is rough, extremely textured. It looks like loose gravel but it's cemented in place. The road widens a bit and goes straight over more flats to downhill switchbacks through a tight winding canyon. The road narrows and the surface is good but with dirt in some spots along with a few sandy runoff areas. Gotta be careful here and go slow. After a couple miles of this stuff I encounter Wildrose Rd which goes left to the Charcoal Kilns. I don't take this road today but I've been up there a couple times before. The road is paved & OK up until the last mile where it is posted unmaintained and becomes a rough, rutted, gravelly dirt road. If you are not comfortable riding your bike like a dirt bike, do not go farther. It's not that far to walk to the kilns, maybe a 1/4 mile. Some winters it snows up here on Wildrose Peak. 3 years ago I took my S1 as far as where snow covered the road. I could see the kilns, but cars were sliding backwards. So I took that as a hint & turned around. Trona -Wildrose turns right at Wildrose Rd and the first thing I see is a sign, "ROUGH ROAD." You mean it gets worse? You bet. There are 4 sections in a downhill canyon that demand your attention. At first it's tight & twisty on hard packed dirt with water runoff from snowmelt in spots. After a cold winter & snowfall on the high peaks, this runoff can become ice that covers the road, like it did last year. This year it was mostly dry. Next it straightens out & becomes a couple hundred feet of loose gravel & rocks. This is not a problem as long as you hold the handlebars loose, let the bike pick its path and maintain steady speed. Next is paved twisties leading to alternate sections of gravel & pavement. Finally the canyon widens out and the heartrate goes down as it's smooth pavement on Hwy 178 all the way to Trona. Now, if you need excitement, you can lay on the tank and see what it'll do. Did I say that? To get to LA, I take Red Mountain Rd to Searles Station Rd, then 395 one mile south to Garlock Rd to 14 & all points south. Total round trip 557 miles or so. Sparky 96S1, 98S3, XB9R | ||
| Ferris |
nice work, Sparky! i missed you in Trona by about seven minutes  and did i mention how jealous i was of all you guys and gals??? FB  |
