Impossible Route: Death Valley Day 3
March 3: 70 Miles – Sahara Oasis to Death Star
We set out at 8 a.m. Despite the warming sun, the temperature was in the 30’s. We desperately needed sleep the night before, so we planned on this later start time. Tyler seemed to not want to leave the warmth of his sleeping bag. It didn’t sound like 70 miles would be much, but it would be far from a recovery ride. We hoped this day would be a chance to at least regain our composure.
The surprisingly named New York Mountains were beautifully filled with Joshua trees and were a hard-pack dreamscape. It was amazing how once we got moving our legs turned over with ease. The golden morning light passed over the nearby cliffs and beamed to the sandy floor of Wild Horse Canyon.
We flew down a monster descent on our Grails before double track took us deeper into the heart of the Mojave. Here the desert was rich with life. Cholla cactus gardens lined our path and flowers dotted the sand. I wished we’d spotted a desert tortoise or a big horn sheep.
To our surprise, we spotted an abandoned mine. It soon became a well-worth-it detour. Like an eager kid, Tyler couldn’t resist climbing the old wooded structure. Like a more cautious kid who’d already experienced some broken bones in his life, I soon followed. From atop this contraption, we stared off into the endless distance and imagined what life would be like out there permanently and a long time ago.
Then we headed north on Cima Road towards Kessler Peak Road. The mountainside roads were beautiful. The hills below the abandoned mine offered a stunningly fast rolling double track path. This riding was the stuff of my dreams!
Finally it seemed like we’d be given an easier day, but as we approached the pass we found ourselves rim-deep in sand once again. Pushing, riding, cursing, Tyler took off his broken shoe and walked along with one socked foot. This had become my new sort of gauge of how long a sandpit was.
We crested the pass, and were greeted by the sickest decent of the whole ride: a bermed ATV track. This was one of the opportunities I’d cleverly used the Strava Route Builder to reroute our course with the goal of avoiding the interstate. We followed a blown-out section of road and saw the film crew up ahead. Tyler wanted to jump on the interstate to finish but I thought it would be more appropriate (and legal) to ride the parallel gravel route that was really more sand than gravel. Yep, he did not like this decision, but we made it. At the very end of the day, we caught site of the massive solar arrays of the Iwanpah Solar Generation site.
There was a certain somber mood that evening. We knew the crux of the expedition was upon us. The next day was 163-miles across a massive mountain and with endless dry desert in front of us.
This was the impossible part of the Impossible Route.
This is the fifth of a nine-part journal of the Impossible Route: Death Valley expedition. Read part six. The journal is being released in conjunction with the feature documentary.
