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- After 45 minutes of slow uphill, I see someone ahead in the road. Stranded? No, he's taking photos of the area, and of me
- Photographer [url=http://www.joergboetel.com/]Joerg Boetel[/url] snaps one last photo of me as I ride away up Kelbaker Road
- Joerg and Elke and I have a fun desert chat for a good half hour; they visit Death Valley frequently and are on their way home
- The particle-board door on the bathroom has never been painted
- Solitude at a small dry lake in the backcountry
- Joshua trees and yellow rabbitbrush, Death Valley National Park
- I've arrived early enough to have supper at the Ludlow Café.
- Turquoise-coloured bits in tailings at Trio Mine, Mojave National Preserve
- I stop briefly on Crucero Road as I pass the powerline road leading toward the Bristol Mountains Wilderness
- After Broadwell Dry Lake, I crawl up Crucero Road toward Ludlow, which is about 2 miles beyond the transmission tower
- I start walking up and down across the rocky fan and pass one of several jackrabbits that I'll see today
- Big rigs park at the Ludlow gas station with the Sleeping Beauty mountains as a sunset backdrop
- Another beautiful morning, hot sun, cool air, and I'm ready for the last hike on this trip, into the Cady Mountains behind me
- As I hike up the canyon into the Cady Mountains, I come across a balloon stuck in the brush
- There's a bit of a wind this morning as I pack up to leave Kelso Dunes Wilderness; my now-empty tent blows over
- Across the tracks from the Stockton Amtrak station is an old house that looks abandoned, but isn't
- The dirt of Crucero Road comes to an end as I reach pavement at Ludlow and the I-40 freeway
- I'm up early this morning for the hike to Hyten Spring that I didn't get around to doing last year
- On the south end of Broadwell Dry Lake are scattered many small rocks which look like they may be volcanic in origin
- The Royal Hawaiian Motel is the cheapest motel in Baker, and for good reason (at $49/night it's not exactly cheap, however)
- I arrive at Bathtub Spring shortly after sunset and finally figure out how to get through the fence that protects the spring
- A cactus thorn punctures my tire and some Slime spurts out to fill the wound
- I take a quick look back down beyond the rock pile I just climbed up
- A few steps up...
- First, I ride down the bumpy powerline road 1.7 miles back to Crucero Road
- It gets slippery here and there on Crucero Road due to powdery surface sand
- This climb right here is short and steep, but fairly easy, with mostly good footing
- Above the little dry waterfall is easy walking on gravel below the Cady Mountains peaks
- After checking in at Baker's Royal Hawaiian Motel for Xmas Eve, I walk back up the road to get a meal at the Mad Greek
- Another cool rock wall in Hyten Spring wash
- I return to the main canyon, looking for a better route up, and head straight toward the Cady Mountain peaks and a rock outcrop
- Arriving at a saddle in the Cady Mountains, I notice a little cave
- The rocky terrain gets more interesting as I slowly get higher up this Bristol Mountains wash
- I feel like I'm on top of the world as I arrive at a local summit in the Cady Mountains
- Big ant hill at the mouth of my chosen canyon in the Cady Mountains with a nice view of Broadwell Dry Lake
- After breakfast, I dig a cat hole up on the hillside above Indian Springs Road
- Before reaching the wash that leads up to the Hyten Spring area, I hike cross-country around the left end of the mountains ahead
- I start hiking up Hyten Spring Wash and encounter several coyote melons left from earlier this year
- This hike is progressing slowly; I'm finally entering the mountain zone as I walk through this gateway
- I notice several "Chinch weeds," if that's what they are, as I walk across the alluvial fan
- I climb a short distance up and around this dry waterfall, but decide it's more slippery than I was hoping for
- I pass a deflated barrel cactus in Hyten Spring Wash that lost its footing on the steep adjacent hillside
- Great, the rocks look like a really easy step up to the next level of this Cady Mountains canyon
- I've seen Brittlebrush a few times on this trip
- I pass a number of cholla cacti on the way up the wash into the Bristol Mountains
- I hear some noise, look up, and notice an owl, noticing me
- I keep walking up the Cady Mountain canyon, looking for possible easy routes up into the rocky hills
- I take a nice water-and-energy-bar break up here on my Cady Mountains summit to enjoy the views
- A number of small barrel cacti adorn this rock wall in Hyten Spring Wash in the Bristol Mountains
- This adjacent hill has good views of the hill I just climbed, but it too is quite slippery
- The Lewis (Lew) Carpenter Guzzler, Kelso Dunes Wilderness
- It's easy to miss little piles of cactus droppings like these as you walk over them in the Mojave Desert
- Late-day sunlight looks great in Piute Gorge
- I pass through a forest of Smoke trees on the way up Hyten Spring Wash
- I follow the tire tracks a short distance off my Hyten Spring hiking route and find that they end at a guzzler
- After the fire, Death Valley National Park highlands
- I turn for a look across Crucero Valley as I stumble across the rocky landscape
- And here's one of those Goldfields-like flowers of which I saw several while hiking Sleeping Beauty a couple of days ago
- I think this is a little Claret-cup cactus sprouting an early blossom
- From here, I'll start winding my way downhill toward the Piute Spring area
- I get closer to the tailings pile at the old Trio Mine site
- Pumping water at Indian Springs
- It's fun to explore randomly, but I'm also here to fetch more drinking water
- I take a good half-hour break in the shade of the Fenner store, drinking a couple of bottles of Sobe orange-carrot drink
- Frost on my bicycle this morning near Kelso Dunes
- Leaving the Royal Hawaiian Motel in Baker to start my Mojave National Preserve trip
- Table Mountain on the left, and Twin Buttes: a classic Mojave National Preserve view that I usually see from Black Canyon Road
- The road to the Barnett Mine area, about 1.5 miles long, is rough and slightly uphill
- A little dry lake down there to explore
- I think I've found it: Bronze Mine Spring
- Well, here's how much water remains at Mail Spring in late spring 2012
- I wonder if this grassland is natural, or if it was converted into grassland by the cows that grazed here for decades
- Desert poppies, Bigelow's monkeyflowers and gravel
- Indian paintbrush, Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest
- At midnight, as I prepare to go to bed, I notice that "Royal Hawaiian" is written on my pillow--happy 2008!
- Lecyr Spring should be just down there in that little canyon
- The Amtrak bus leaves me at Baker, California at around 20h30, gateway to Mojave National Preserve
- Pancake Rock and the hungry orange lichen monster
- On upper Morning Star Mine Road, I'm heading toward the Ivanpah Mountains, with Kessler Peak at the left
- Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Barber Mountain Loop Trail is this eroded rock hotel
- After I get home next week, I'll get a detailed USGS map and try to map today's hike in the Indian Springs and Cane Spring area
- A discarded Bud Light beer can at roadside is a sign that I've re-entered "civilization"
- Even the message telling the visitor that this heater is no longer in use appears to be many years old
- Quiet moment at the end of a pristine dry lake
- Arriving Essex, California, Route 66, by bicycle
- Cow shit everywhere here in the upper Woods Wash Valley; 4WD required, I only have two (but I do have two feet in addition)
- Buckwheat, Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest
- Cattle pond near Wagon Road
- Desert mallow and granite
- I see a bit of greenery over there; that must be Cave Spring
- Burro trails
- My Amtrak bus out of San José leaves me at Stockton, where I transfer to an Amtrak train to Bakersfield
- Rosy buckwheat flowers overlook a smoky canyon in the highlands of Death Valley National Park
- A tarantula hawk hugs a bouquet of buckwheat blossoms
- Enough chatting; it's time to get on with the day's business of riding up out of Kelso Valley to Baker
- Overview of my room at the Royal Hawaiian Motel
- Fluorescent bulbs above the beds (and almost everywhere else) create a retro 1970s fashion
- Riding Nipton Road, just a few more miles until I reach Nipton village over there
- Afternoon stroll under changing skies
- I spent last night at Whiskey Pete's Casino Hotel in Primm, NV and I'm more than ready to get going this morning
- Sunscreen on, and the 10-ton bike packed up, I pull away from the hotel at Primm
- End of day
- Tree of vultures, Center Flats Road
- Dusk, Wagon Road
- Finally, I've reached the flatter, upper part of Ivanpah Road, still with blurry shadows due to the eclipse
- Swirling hillside
- Human skull, Mojave National Preserve, 2014
- Rattlesnake tip
- Winters Peak, Death Valley National Park
- Joshua tree and buckwheat
- A good day of backcountry camping usually begins with a roll of toilet paper and a 'sanitation trowel'
- Human skull, Mojave National Preserve, 2014
- Piute Canyon opens up a little
- I pack a day bag and start today's hike by walking 1/4 mile up to Indian Springs to filter the day's drinking water
- Last season's prince's plumes blossoms discuss the day's snowfall
- I stash the bicycle behind some Catclaw bushes with fragrant flowers and begin the hike up Borrego Canyon.
- As I approach the old settlement of Barnwell, I'm compelled to stop and look at the old private automobile graveyard there
- The stained ceiling in the bathroom tells a story of a shower in the room above that leaked
- Crossing
- I'm back on pavement for a couple of miles and ride past the former Ivanpah store on Ivanpah Road
- A glance across the Nevada border from the Last Chance Range
- Cactus buddies
- Evening stroll, Death Valley National Park
- I hike the 1.5-mile-long stretch of the old Ivanpah railway grade northbound to the Bathtub Spring area
- White drapery
- Wild Horse Canyon Road is all scenic, but I especially enjoy riding down this part with the Providence Mountains in the distance
- After about 3.5 miles, the pavement goes away; Black Canyon Road turns to dirt on the way back to Mid Hills Campground
- Phlox, Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest
- Desert mushroom on a hot day
- Well, the Cima store might be closed right now, but it's an interesting place to take a break nonetheless
- Skull and desert buckwheats
- Waiting for sunset
- Hopsage bush and snow
- Dripping cliff
- Desert beach
- After about 25 miles so far today, I get excited as I start riding the almost 9 miles down Fenner Hills Road toward Fenner
- Creeping shadows
- Human skull, Mojave National Preserve, 2014
- Climbing up the sometimes-rough pavement of Kelbaker Road; those who have ridden it know it
- I spend 4.5 hours on the Amtrak San Joaquin train, occasionally staring at the tray-table instructions in front of me
- Human skull, Mojave National Preserve, 2014
- Eureka Dunes
- 20 minutes later, I stop for another break further out on Broadwell Dry Lake
- Looking across the Darwin Plateau
- Slab dune
- Cloudy day
- The 10-ton bike waits outside the doors to the Kelso Depot visitor centre
- As I reach a saddle between Twin Buttes North and Table Mountain, it looks like Table Mountain isn't that far away
- It's time to make some coffee using a toilet-paper filter and get started
- Those darker hills, with their simple lines and angles, Death Valley National Park
- This wavy-leaved plant reminds me of the "soap root" plant that grows in the Bay Area
- Gravity, Death Valley National Park
- The Joshua tree orator welcomed me with open arms that day, happy to greet a human for the first time in a long time, and assured that miles walked up this nameless and unassuming Death Valley canyon would be worth the effort
- Parts of Hart Mine Road have a tendency to get a bit washed out
- Early sunrise, Eureka Dunes
- Jagged shadow, Death Valley National Park
- Moonscape
- The first stop on today's hike is nearby Mail Spring; a pair of deer stare at me as I approach
- Late-morning coffee and breakfast (brunch, really). It was cold last night and I didn't sleep so well, and then I slept in late
- The huge 2007 Henry Coe Park fire starts small and innocently on my way out of the park after a week-long bikepacking trip
- In the smoky sunlight of the California fires, a tree charred in a previous fire slowly returns to the earth
- Outpost
- Snake #2
- On the road to Coyote Springs at the base of the Granite Mountains
- Rock assortment
- The 2007 Henry Coe Park fire grew significantly in the hours since I left the park
- Bigelow's monkeyflowers and pine cones
- Scratches on the earth
- Unidentified alyssum-like plant
- Slow-moving coyote in the smoky afterglow of the California fires finds residual water in a hose at a decommissioned cistern
- Sunshine warms a chilly Death Valley canyon
- These plants look like a cross between a daisy and a milkweed
- Dry waters
- I come across another cattle pond, this time a really big one
- The 10-ton bike and I are ready to leave downtown San José and head to Mojave National Preserve again!
- It looks like the Rings Trail is going to lead me into that slot in the rocks
- National Parks Service did an excellent job restoring Kelso Depot
- Abandoned fire ring
- March to the gateway
- While sipping my coffee, I notice that the water bottles which I left outside last night have quite a bit of ice in them
- The further I descend this hill toward Kelso Depot, the stronger the headwind
- Bladderpod (Isomeris arborea) flowering and fruiting on the hillside behind my tent near Indian Springs
- Desert rock garden
- On-stage
- Gentle downhill, Death Valley National Park.
- In the backcountry
- As if breathing, sand-drifts stick to the hillside, collapse under their own weight and slide down, over and over again
- Smoke over the Diablo Range near Calaveras Reservoir, August 2020
- Ice in my water bottles this morning at Indian Springs!
- Morning sun busts through the smoky haze of the California fires
- I spot a larger cave in the Cady Mountains next to the smaller one I saw earlier, on my way up the saddle
- A, but not B
- The impending sunset illuminates the distant power lines
- Distant puff of smoke
- Before packing up, I head back up to Indian Springs 1/2 mile up the road to refill my drinking-water supply
- I ride away from the campsite up Kelso Dunes Road toward the Providence Mountains
- 100 degrees F in the smoky haze
- Thanksgiving 2019 snowfall melts away
- I take a short walk to warm up and get used to today's surroundings (it was dark when I got here last night)
- Elderly sagebrush survivors