Cool! Glad you all like.
How hot was it in Death Valley when you were there?
It wasn't too bad this time of year. The highest it got was 93 at Furnace Creek but most times it was in the lower 80's. Nights got pretty crispy though, like around 40's. I only had to run the A/C a few hours over the entire trip.
Day 6: Thursday, March 28th – Death Valley
Goal: Continue having fun!
So Thursday morning got off to an exciting start. As I crawled out of the camper and stepped off the tailgate to relieve myself I see a lightening streak of a lizard shooting from under my foot with a path of blood trailing him. At first I thought it was a snake then I looked at my shoe and there was his poor severed squirming tail stuck to it. Poor little guy.
We never really got the camper perfectly level the night before and I think MIL must have slept with her head towards the low side because I am not sure what she was thinking Thursday morning when she passed me my morning coffee. One big gulp and I about burnt my complete face off! This must have been the hottest coffee in the entire Death Valley! My tongue is still fried! She normally made luke warm coffee.
Poor Mr. LeeZard…He just sat there glaring at me the entire time we packed up the camper mumbling something about how how I broke off his tail.
GoPro leaving camp Thursday morning. The clutch release bearing makes a lot of noise when it is cold. Interesting pucker spot at 4:15. Another at 13:08. Of course I had to stop in the middle and get some pictures.
[youtube]6cDbXg_Jb-Y&list=PLlRxeg9lCAEQzoxik-75tybl8QIZTRYnO&index=19[/youtube]
View from the driver’s door
MIL snapped a picture of the right front tire at the hill side. This picture ss actually far away from the hill. Many times we were right up to it in order to keep the left side of the truck on the trail.
Picture she took at the 13:08 spot where she jumped out. This spot wasn't that bad and not nearly has tight as the others we had already crossed.
View of Saline Valley below. Ty’s Dodge rounding one of the switch backs
The Mighty Dodge Ram behind. He is now at the spot where I just took the picture above.
Little Elvis was complaining that the roads were so rough and puckery the day before we never took time to take a picture of him but he wanted proof for his Facebook page that he had been on Lippincott. So, here tis folks…..
Well it was bound to happen. We no sooner did we get Little Elvis back in the cab when he and Jake the Snake started fighting. We had no choice but to separate them and Jake had to ride the rest of the way home in the Trasheroo. A snake and a duck in the same truck can only get along for so long you know.
So here we are….at the intersection of Lippincott and Saline Valley Rd.
As we tootled up towards Grapevine Canyon looking back at Saline Valley
As we were winding our way up through Grapevine Canyon we stumbled across what would become our two new best friends for the next 5 hours. My buddy was a bit in front of me and jumped out of his truck as he rounded a canyon corner waving me to stop. I figured there might be some vehicles coming down. Then he waved me up (our Cobra’s were dead so we had to rely on hand signals). I get up there and see this poor guy trying to prop up a dual sport motorcycle. As it turned out the bike just lost all electrical power and died as he was coming down the canyon and almost laid down on him. Behind the motorcycle was a sweet 1st gen 4Runner loaded with many fuel cans. We learned there was a dual sport motorcycle rally thing taking place the upcoming weekend and they were out setting up fuel stations in the desert to support the racers. The bike that broke down as actually a bike being prepped for a round the world tour and was being used in Death Valley for this race as a validation run. Good thing they gave it a good test drive before heading off to Africa!
We helped the guys look over the bike for obvious blown fuses, chaffed wires, etc. Being a car guy, looking at one of these bikes is like looking up the tailend of a space ship. He asked if we were headed to Panamint and we replied that was indeed our plans. He asked if we could stop in the camp ground and let the other riders know he was broken down. Just then my buddy Ty spoke up and said, “heck, we’ll do better than that. Let’s just throw your bike in the back of my truck and we’ll carry it back to camp for you”. The guys eyeballs about popped out of his head in amazement that someone would do that for him. The two guys were supper cool and fun to hang out with for the next 4-5 hour trail ride into Panamint.
“I dunno what happened, it just died!”
This GoPro begins at the dry creek bed we scooped up the motorcycle
[youtube]V1tNj29XvCc&list=PLlRxeg9lCAEQzoxik-75tybl8QIZTRYnO&index=21[/youtube]
A beautiful random valley seen from the top of Grapevine Canyon. This is not the Race Track, but it sorta looks like it.
So we finally get off the trail and onto Hwy 190 to head on into Panamint. Here Mighty Dodge Ram and I stopped to air up. Ty’s never let much air out the tires on his Dodge so he and the 4Runner kept on trucking towards Panamint.
Scenery on the way to Panamint
We arrived at the campground in Panamint and help offload the bike and said our goodbyes to our new friends. The bike rider (he actually owned the sweet 4Runner too) handed my buddy a whad of cash, which of course my buddy handed it back. Well, this went back and forth a few times and Pablo said he insisted we take the money and go across the street to the little restaurant and have lunch on him then stock the beer coolers with whatever is left. Okay, we’ll to it since he put it that way. Since that day we have been email pals with Pablo and hope to meet up with him at the Overland Expo in May.
Check out the price of fuel in Panamint! Thankfully, our trucks didn’t need fuel but we topped off with a few gallons just because we didn’t know where we were headed next or when the next fueling opportunity would be.
Day 6 to be continued….
Cutting though Vegas turned out to be a 1.5 hour ordeal I hadn’t planned on just to get gas and food. What hassle! I think my GPS caused more issues than helped in this area to boot. 
