So, yesterday, i took a "Sunday Drive" just for fun and relaxation...my destination was Furnace Creek; deep in Death Valley.
The desert has always been one of my favorite destinations. Ive never been troubled by or made uncomfortable by the heat, so its a year-round playground for me.
Ive taken motorcycle trips, on my 1982 XR500R, deep into Death Valley - intentionally - in the hottest part of the year, just to prove the machine and my ability to navigate with only a map and compass.
In some ways, calculating available fuel, consumption and cruising range, along with navigating by map, is one of the aspects of these trips that i enjoy the most, and one of the things i loved about flying small aircraft
Yesterday, it was about 83°F when i left our pad and headed north on 395 into the desert.
Listening to the mufflers (a chum and i made) is also a lot of fun. The exhaust note is very unique.
My fuel supply is about 15 gallons, but using an old crop duster trick, i filled the airspace in the tank, which adds an addition 2.8 gallons. This yields about 330 miles cruising range.
So, just past the community of Red Mountain, i changed course easterly towards Trona, California. Trona is about 135 miles from my home.
As a precaution, i topped off the tank before entering the "no signal" zone. This is about 110 miles of desert with no road signs, no cell service and no sattleite phone service unless one is passing overhead. Calls cannot be placed to 911.
The roads out here are a red color, left over from the 1960's.
The drive takes you past the ghost town of Ballarat, where a car from "The Great Race" rolled through it at 3:00am on March 3rd, 1908.
Further east across Death Valley the scenery is very similar to the views sent by the Mars Rover. You are surrounded on all sides by mountains, but the peaks are as desolate as the valley floor.
Trona Road will eventually turn into S.R. 190. The road into Furnace Creek was closed due to damage from flas flooding, so i turned NE.
Along this northeastern route, you will pass the famous Joshua Tree site from U2's album, past Star Wars Canyon and through the restaurant/lodge/gas station of Panamint Springs. The terrain is super rugged and the mountains are vividly bright red and black in color.
S.R. 190 weaves through a swatch cut through volcanic rock, up to about 4,000 ft/asl.
On highway 190, about 47 miles from Olancha, i encountered a Cal-Trans roadblock. Part of the road had been washed out and the crews were working to repair the roadway.
A few minutes chatting with the flagman got me an escort through the construction zone.
The next stop was the modern day ghost town of Cerro Gordo, just outside Keeler, California.....
