Trip Report: Death Valley February 2024
Diana H
Total miles: ~165 miles
Total Elevation Gain: ~14,400 ft
Intro:
The inspiration for this route came from the Bikepacking.com- Echo-Titus Canyon, but Titus Canyon is currently closed to all traffic (including bicycles), so we were looking for a way to extend our tip another day. We added Rhyolite Canyon from the Dirty Freehub.
Bicycles
Diana’s Bike - 2022 Platypus (50 cm, 38x24 crank, 650Bx43mm GravelKing SK Knobby tires, Nitto Choco handlebar, and a 9-speed cassette)
Ran’s Bike – 2023 Kona Sutra (stock parts except the tubeless 2.1 inch tires)
Mikes Bike – 2022 Salsa Cutthroat (stock parts, 2.2 inch tubeless tires)
Day 1. Rhyolite Rumble
Total Miles: 46Average Speed 8.6mph
We drove from Reno to Spicer Ranch. Spicer Ranch is an amazing campground and the owner runs it entirely on donations. Clean bathrooms, hot showers, picnic tables, what else could you ask for? Please donate if you stay here.
Our plan today was to ride load-less and ease our way into the trip. We arrived at Spicer Ranch a little after 10am and were biking by 10:45am. The first few miles went by quickly and we passed by several old mines. There is endless gravel to ride out here and you could easily spend the day exploring mine to mine. The road is pretty tough in places, but this is how it will be the entire trip.
The excitement of beginning our adventure (and being unloaded) had us riding fast. We had great views riding toward Grapevine Mountains on amazingly packed gravel. I would get a flat somewhere along here but patched it up and moved on.
The views would continue but the road would deteriorate into more sand than gravel and had us pushing on a few occasions. Ran took a spill during a moment of lapsed attention when his tire hit the side of a wash. Luckily it was a slow fall and Ran would ride away with minor scratches. Later on in the day we hit some washboards and I was going too fast and I got a pinch flat. Patched that too, but the pinch flat happened right next to the valve and the patch didn’t hold. Replaced the whole tube just before Rhyolite. This whole time we saw nobody else on the trails.
Rhyolite Ghost town is very interesting and they have a lot of eccentric statues/sculptures. Worth a visit here if you find yourself in the area. There were a lot of tourists here and it was little jarring after spending the whole day by ourselves.
The night caught us and to try to get back to camp quicker, we abstained from the gravel and rode back on highway 95. This was very unpleasant as it’s a 2-lane highway with 70 mph speed limits. Most everybody passed us with as much room as they could spare, and we could always hop onto the gravel sides if we needed. Once back at Spicer Ranch, we set up camp, ate our dinners, and all fell into peaceful sleep.
Day 2: Spicer Ranch à Chloride City à Furnace Creek à Echo Canyon
Total Mileage: 66 Miles
Max Speed: 34.5mph
Average: 8.7mph
This was a physically hard day! We wanted more gravel riding today, so we decided to take Chloride City Road to meet up with Death Valley Road. The road to Chloride City is all uphill, riding on somewhat loose gravel, and many parts so sandy some pushing was needed again. The scenery did not disappoint though! Mike found a license plate from 1932! We harbored thoughts of going to see Chloride City Ghost Town, but upon seeing that Chloride City was another 2000 feet of elevation gain and having just climbed a very difficult 1500 feet, we opted to skip it.
We thought we were going to be golden once we got to the turnoff to go down, but the decent from Chloride City road is difficult. Thank goodness it was downhill because otherwise we would have had to push our bicycles 50% more. It was extremely sandy and only the cars with the fattest of tires would be safe driving this path.
Once we hit Daylight Pass Road it was jarring to fly down pavement to Hells Gate Viewpoint (my max speed was almost 35 mph and I’m sure I pumped the breaks). We snapped a few photos then turned left and went down Beatty Cutoff Road. Again, we would fly down this road (dropping 2500 feet!) hitting Highway 190.
Riding on Highway 190 wasn’t the greatest with cars zooming past us, but we got lucky and hit some construction. The construction turned the road into one way traffic with timed/predictable traffic. We would ride taking up a whole lane knowing nobody would come up behind us for a good 10 or so minutes. Then when we heard the pack of cars coming we would ride single file for a few minutes until they all passed and then take up the whole lane again.
We did this for a good portion of the way to Furnace Creek Visitor Center. We filled up all of our water (we each had about a 5L capacity) and took off for Zabriskie Point.
Ran would wait at the junction of Echo Canyon as Mike and I continued to the viewpoint. There were a LOT of people watching the sunset so Mike and I snapped some photos and happily left. We rejoined Ran at Echo Canyon Road and got a few more miles in before pulling over on the side of the road to go to sleep.
Day 3 Echo Canyon à Steves Pass
38 Miles7.5 avg
Echo Canyon is beautiful, but hard riding again. Sandy in parts and all uphill, but the canyo walls will swallow you up. We got an early start to try to beat the heat but by 9am the sun was hot and we weren’t to the top of the climb yet (today would be 5000 feet of climbing). We knew we would be hard pressed for water so tried to take it nice and easy. We pushed forward slowly (all of us sipping our waters a little anxiously) and an hour or so later a couple of trail angles showed up and had extra water for us! We each drank a liter of water immediately and filled up 3 liters. I will always drive around with extra water when in the desert so I can pay it forward to the next person.
Our trail angles told us all about how amazing Inyo Ghost Town was, about 4 additional miles to the trip. Ran decided to press forward but Mike and I took the detour to Inyo. There are several surviving structures here and nobody around (unlike at Rhyolite). We could have easily spent hours at this place but had a schedule to try to keep. So after snapping some photos and doing a quick tour, we turned back to climb 1000 feet.
There was some hard pushing on this stretch but doing it with Mike made it better. I wonder what Ran was thinking as he did it all alone? We rejoined Ran about 11:30am and climbed the remainder of the ascent together. Once again we thought we would be all good and would cruise down. However, this gravel would be quite challenging with large rocks and ever-present sandy places. I would fall twice (both times it was a slow fall and I would have time to think, “huh, I think I’m falling”), but rode away with barely a scratch both times. Mike (who has ridden the Divide) seemed to be on cloud 9. I was managing and Ran was on the struggle bus. Mike was found saying, “people would kill for this gravel.” I had to retighten my stem a few times because my Choco bars would get pressed down so hard it would move.
Once we got to highway 95 Ran chose to take it back to Beatty, where a warm shower, a bed, and BBQ awaited him. Mike and I are old friends from college days and we both enjoy a good amount of sufferfests. We continued forward toward Steve’s Pass where we would camp.
Day 4 Tarantula Canyon
14 MilesAvg <6
Top Speed 25mph
I love the sound of rain on a tent fly, and we would get some nice sprinkles throughout the night. Mike and I were riding by 7am. Today it rained off and on all day which kept the temperatures nice and cool. Mike and I would need to push our bicycles through the sandiest of all washes encountered on the trip. We would actually pass by running water, but it’s not something I would count on. It might have only been flowing in response to the rain.
Mike and I would climb about 1800 feet through really pretty canyons and make it up to Secret Pass by about 9:30am. Then we would finally “bomb” down the hill. However, from all the rain, the road had turned slick and muddy. I’m sure if it wasn’t for the rain we would have been riding 30-35 mph easily. As it was, I was hitting my brakes so much to make sure I didn’t get too much speed and wipe out. We are cold when we get to the bottom from not pedaling for 5 miles (dropping 1400 feet) and getting rained on. I’m not sure if the rain picked up or it was just our speed that made more rain hit us?
While we were pushing and riding through Tarantula Canyon, Ran rode back from Beatty to Spicer Ranch to get the car saving Mike and I 8 miles of riding. Ran met us in Beatty and we were able to shower at his motel room before driving back to Reno. I spent a good 10 minutes under the hairdryer warming myself back up. Pure bliss.
I love the sound of rain on a tent fly, and we would get some nice sprinkles throughout the night. Mike and I were riding by 7am. Today it rained off and on all day which kept the temperatures nice and cool. Mike and I would need to push our bicycles through the sandiest of all washes encountered on the trip. We would actually pass by running water, but it’s not something I would count on. It might have only been flowing in response to the rain.
Mike and I would climb about 1800 feet through really pretty canyons and make it up to Secret Pass by about 9:30am. Then we would finally “bomb” down the hill. However, from all the rain, the road had turned slick and muddy. I’m sure if it wasn’t for the rain we would have been riding 30-35 mph easily. As it was, I was hitting my brakes so much to make sure I didn’t get too much speed and wipe out. We are cold when we get to the bottom from not pedaling for 5 miles (dropping 1400 feet) and getting rained on. I’m not sure if the rain picked up or it was just our speed that made more rain hit us?
While we were pushing and riding through Tarantula Canyon, Ran rode back from Beatty to Spicer Ranch to get the car saving Mike and I 8 miles of riding. Ran met us in Beatty and we were able to shower at his motel room before driving back to Reno. I spent a good 10 minutes under the hairdryer warming myself back up. Pure bliss.
If I were to do this trip again I would change the following:
1) Tubeless and wider tires (50-55mm).2) Stashing water at Echo Canyon (or bringing 7-8 L of water)
3) Leaving the car in Beatty rather than Spicer Ranch for the start of Day 2.
Diana H
Keith Paugh
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Bill Schairer
Jay Lonner
On Mar 4, 2024, at 7:13 AM, Bill Schairer <comm...@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks for the great report!
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/55c1b251-b6e2-4f30-8d9f-c11a162ce804n%40googlegroups.com.
Roberta
Jim M.
Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!
Patrick Moore
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