Death Valley

We set off from Long Beach at 8:30am on the 710 and then on to Route 5 where we quickly got snarled up in the last of the rush hour traffic. It was slow going for about 10km but as we progressed on to Route 14 the lanes started to open up and we could cruise more comfortably. It is quite a rush to be cruising down some of these multi-lane freeways at around 120 - 140km/hr.

We travelled over the East Sierra range and then stopped for fuel at Mojave. The temperature was slowly getting hotter the further we progressed towards the desert country. We went past Red Rock Canyon and then the 14 merged into Route 395. We stopped for lunch at the small roadside community of Olancha. After lunch we travelled a short distance up the road and turned right on to Route 190 - the road to Death Valley National Park!

It is hard to describe what riding in Death Valley is like. Try to think of riding for an hour and a half in an oven. It was very challenging and we had to make sure we were well hydrated along the way. The temperature soared to around 120F (49-50C) as we descended into the valley. The USA Weather Service takes it's readings from the community named 'Furnace' in the valley (a very appropriate name!).

I thought we were being very heroic to attempt the trip with black motorcycle gear on - until we saw that an international ultra-marathon event was also being run in the valley and to see people actually running in these conditions made me realise that we were not so special after all!

We swung on to Route 374 and climbed out of the valley into cooler air (in the low 40's!) and arrived at the town of Beatty just across the State line of Nevada at around 4:00pm. It has been a huge day with over 600km's of riding in some extreme conditions.

After we settled in to the motel we fuelled up the bikes ready for tomorrow and passed the time with the locals at one of the four saloons in town & had some dinner.

We will have just a short hop down Route 95 to Las Vegas tomorrow.