Saline Valley Road
The Bacon Strip Presents: SuperBowl Challenge xixiimmcccmixxxqpr
Damn that washboard sounds awefull! We didn’t, by the way.
The Saline Valley Road/Superbowl Challenge, was awesome!
It was a late night for us, but we managed to be riding by 11:00 AM on Saturday. Here’s Smithers loading up the pig.
That thing yanked his chain pretty good on the way down the washboarded bomber into the valley. There was a fair amount of snow over the road that was dificult to negotiate at speed too.
We thought briefly about hitching a ride out for more beer.
In the pic below you can see the aluvial fan that rises out of the valley just to the right of Mark’s head. We could see the road cutting up it as we were bombing down.
Smithers took a beating on the way down from that Sibex fork in the front and the Bob in the back. When he got to the turnoff to the Springs he’d found his happy place and wasn’t leaving. It was a nice camp. A little kit fox left us chicolate kisses around in echange for the drippings from our cans of turkey chili.
The first hour on Sunday was killer with smooth roads and a fast pace. You can find good conditions on the shoulder that last for miles at a time down there. not as bad as your would think driving it in a car.
Riding past the Saline Dunes.
After riding up the fan for an hour or so we were pretty high above the valley. The cool thing about riding in the desert is that you can see how far you’ve come. The perspective of distance over time is a trip when you’re going maybe 5 MPH.
Grapevine Canyon.
And then we were at the top and celebration became necessary.
It was a pretty mellow ride from the top of grapevine canyon out to 190. Rolling hills and nice smooth DH. A Joshua tree forest and some nice streches of pavement. I’d driven the broken pavement the night before, and again I noticed that what is rough and crappy with 4 wheels, can be nice and smooth with only two.
Great touring with McD and Smithers. Thanks! What’s the Superbowl Challenge going to be next year?
-M
ps here’s that pic I promised:
See Japhy Rider’s Blog for his write-up and his smugmug for his pics.
that was Fun! thanks for making the journey, Wolfy and Smithers. next year’s anti-Superbowl challenge… well, the whole Hunter Mtn to Hidden V. to Racetrack to Saline V. and back UP Grapevine C. and out to the starting point comes to mind. that’s one year away though, so we’ll have time to consider all options.
gud times,
J. rider
[...] « Will these wheels work on my 29er? Tim Grahl | February 7th, 2007 EMail This Post | Just did a two-day dirt tour on the Saline Valley Road in Death Valley National Park. Two of us were on custom 29ers. Thought you would be interested in the trip report and pics. Click here to check them out… [...]
Saline Valley has got to be one of the country’s most seductive landscapes. Man, I’m jealous. I spent SB Sunday laying fookin’ tile cause there wasn’t any new snow to ski on.
I drove that road in 1998, in the then-one-month-old TDI. The washboard just about removed my fillings. It pretty much did away with that nice new-car feeling too.
The picture of the truck is great! If I didn’t know better, I’d think you guys were a bunch of stinky bike riders.
Hut tour outside of Aspen coming up this weekend and next week. There will be pictures and tall tales posted in This Space shortly.
S’Boy
OK, how did you keep the beer from exploding over such rough roads?
How many miles was this trip? Doesn’t look like a converted railroad, so you took your BOB over some steep grades, heh?
Gonna try a similar stunt this year. Ride the Iron Horse in Wa from Cedar Falls to the Columbia River (full distance of the State Park). Just started training with a loaded Bob on my GF Paragon 29er.
total mileage was either 84 miles(according to the sign) or 95 miles(according to wikipedia) plus the 5 or so miles out to the hot springs and (5 miles) back.
Grades were pretty steep on the way down. 4000 feet over 18 miles. Not bad on the way up. Smithers slandered that bob pretty heavily, I can’t recommend it for roads with washboards.
The beers sprayed in our faces upon opening, every goddamn time!
Thanks for reading! Send us some links to your planned ride Drool! I know nothing of that area.
-M
I spotted a pair of Maxxis Hookworm tires on the bike with the trailer - I’m glad to see that I am not the only one paranoid enough about punctures to carry along those boat anchors…
Amazing how far this post has gotten us. I have over 2300 hits on my smugmug. We got linked here too.
-M
I just spotted you guys on the Drunk Cyclist site as well. No wonder all the hits.
~R