Home / Mojave Preserve and Desert bikepacking trips / 2000: Mojave National Preserve Bicycle Camping Trip #2 / Day 9: Goffs, California, Mojave National Preserve, to Providence Mountains State Recreation Area (Mitchell Caverns) 7
After a hearty scrambled-eggs breakfast at the Goffs General Store lunch counter, and a great chat with the owner, I decide to ride to Providence Mountains (Mitchell Caverns), backtracking most of yesterday's ride. I usually avoid backtracking, so I must be enjoying the area.
I rode by the Mitchell Caverns area yesterday and told myself I should visit there some day, but I wasn't anticipating "some day" to be the very next day.
40.7 miles, 4:02 hours, 21 mph max speed, 10.1 avg speed. 2400 feet to 4300 feet at Mitchell Caverns, with a low point of about 1800 feet at Essex, California.

- After the 10-mile ride on Route 66 from Goffs to Fenner, I take note of a dirt road leading to the Providence Mountains
- I'm back at Essex, California again, after riding 16.5 miles down historic Route 66 from Goffs, California
- Looking southeast from the Essex post office, down Sunflower Springs Road, a dirt road that rises up over the mountains
- Crossing over I-40 again on the Essex Road bridge
- Back at the junction of Essex Road and Black Canyon Road, I ride straight through toward Mitchell Caverns
- The final five-mile stretch of Essex Road to Mitchell Caverns (Providence Mountains State Recreation Area)
- The last mile or two before Providence Mountains State Recreation Area gets steeper