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 could shave a few miles off today's ride by taking this road, but it would be much slower than the longer ride on pavement via Essex due to its soft texture. So I continue on Route 66 after a snack stop at the Fenner gas station. - I'm back at Essex, California again, after riding 16.5 miles down historic Route 66 from Goffs, California
I'm standing near the Essex post office looking northwest up Essex Road. It's amazing how the freeway traffic on I-40, which I crossed a while ago at Fenner, is so visible from here at Essex, even though it's 6.5 miles away. The Providence Mountains, my destination today, fill in the background. - Looking southeast from the Essex post office, down Sunflower Springs Road, a dirt road that rises up over the mountains
There's a lot of remote territory to explore back there, including several Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wilderness Areas. - Crossing over I-40 again on the Essex Road bridge
That "tube of civilization" that I photographed yesterday is below me, and Mitchell Caverns is up in the Providence Mountains is behind me. - Back at the junction of Essex Road and Black Canyon Road, I ride straight through toward Mitchell Caverns
No need to ride back up toward Hole-in-the-Wall or Mid Hills Campgrounds today. - The final five-mile stretch of Essex Road to Mitchell Caverns (Providence Mountains State Recreation Area)
There's no traffic and I can't see yet where the State Park sits at the end of the road in the shadow of the mountains. The road rises from just under 3000 feet to 4300 feet elevation. Providence Mountains State Recreation Area is a small State Park that's entirely surrounded by the federally-operated Mojave National Preserve. - The last mile or two before Providence Mountains State Recreation Area gets steeper
I'm in the shadow of the mountains now. The road steepens. and pedaling gets slower and slower. The last mile really gets me. I'm just keeping up 3.5 miles per hour. I finally arrive, check in at the Park office, and buy a box of wood for a campfire later on, a luxury I wasn't expecting. It's almost dark when I get around to setting up the tent. High winds up here make setting up the tent a real challenge and it takes me almost half an hour. It normally takes me just a few minutes to assemble. I tightly hold on to my freestanding tent (or is it a kite?) while I amass a collection of large rocks to put inside the tent on the north-facing side. All small, lightweight objects get packed back into my saddlebags, just in case the tent rips open and things start blowing away. After my campfire, trying to fall sleep inside the forever flapping tent proves to be the next challenge. I haven't camped in such high winds before and am hoping my inexpensive little Peak1 Aries tent will survive (and me with it). Preoccupied with the wind, I forget to notice that it's a rather chilly evening, but I'm getting used to that by now. Fortunately, desert weather can change rapidly. The high winds calm down significantly by midnight and I eventually fall asleep without too much difficulty after all. My tent has survived!