Home / Mojave Preserve and Desert bikepacking trips / 2007: Death Valley National Park bikepacking / Day 3: Gold Valley Road camp site to Furnace Creek Campground, Death Valley National Park 11
I enjoy the cool, cloudy morning around my camp site in the mountains on Gold Valley Road at about 4700 feet.
I ride back down the dirt of Gold Valley Road some eight miles to rejoin the gravel Greenwater Valley Road that I left yesterday at about 3000 feet.
After a slow ten-mile climb on Greenwater Valley Road's gravel to reach 4000 feet, the final 29 miles of the day are mostly paved and downhill toward Death Valley's Furnace Creek Campground (280 feet below sea level).
My digital camera breaks down on the way down Gold Valley Road, so there aren't many photos today. 47.5 bicycle miles.
- It's a bit cloudy this morning up on Gold Valley Road
The nice thing about this is that I didn't wake up baking in my tent from hot morning sun, like I do on so many desert-camping mornings. The breeze up here in the mountains is cool and there's an occasional gust of wind. that I occasionally have to put on my sweater, but whenever the sun peers brightly through gaps in the clouds, I begin to overheat and have to take it off. I slept really well last night in the cool air and silence. It was near total darkness with no moon in the sky. I neither saw nor heard any wildlife, except for a few lizards on the ground. There don't seem to be any birds around here. The only real noise was the wind. Sometimes I could hear gusts of it coming from miles away, which sometimes never arrived at my location. At other moments, those gusts did arrive, and the tent got blown around a bit making it quite noisy inside on occasion. - Nice view back down toward Greenwater Valley from the tent
I sit inside drinking coffee and eating granola and dried fruit. I also have a bowl of instant miso soup. - I go for a short walk up to the nearby summit of Gold Valley Road and look back down at the tent
I'm camped out so close to the top of Gold Valley Road that I can't resist going up to see what I missed yesterday. - A little higher up on Gold Valley Road
... my tent is now barely visible in the distance. - Gold Valley Road gets a bit steep as it rises to the top
I would have needed to dismount my bike and drag it up this part last night had I gotten this far. - The fork at the summit of Gold Valley Road
Here, I would have turned right last night to descend into Gold Valley to Willow Spring, if I had more time and confidence. OK, so it's technically not quite the summit. Each side of the fork begins with a little hill and has its own summit at the top. - After the right fork, Gold Valley Road winds across the plateau, then drops down into Gold Valley
I stare longingly at this scene on top of the mountains, really wanting to follow this dead-end road to its end five miles further, down in Gold Valley. I know that Willow Spring probably has water for me to drink. But what if it doesn't? I have plenty of water with me to make it through today and part of tomorrow. If I had made it to the spring last night and found it dry, it wouldn't have been a problem. I would just come back over the hill today, which I would eventually need to do anyway. But what if yesterday's bike problem recurs while I'm down there? I'm brooding too much about this, which means that the only sensible thing to do is resign myself to the most prudent choice. I'll ride toward Furnace Creek Campground today, in the tourist area of Death Valley. I'll save Gold Valley for a future trip... I walk back down to my tent. - Time to break camp on Gold Valley Road and begin the long ride down to Furnace Creek Campground
However, it appears that I'd rather just stand here and take in my surroundings than pack up. - Leaving my Gold Valley Road campsite
I start coasting down the gentle downhill back to Greenwater Valley Road, to continue on from where I left off yesterday afternoon. The ten-ton bike shakes and rattles on this bumpy road. I try not to gain too much speed to reduce stress on the possibly still-overloaded rear rack. - On the way back down Gold Valley Road, I pass through the burned area again
My camera makes a strange sound when I turn it off after taking this photo. The next time I turn on the power, it doesn't turn on. - Near the bottom of Gold Valley Road, looking north up Greenwater Valley
OK, I took this photo yesterday on the way up Gold Valley Road, but my camera doesn't work any more. Today's ride takes me to the other side of this valley, then drops down over 4000 feet between the mountains into Death Valley. On the way across Greenwater Valley on the washboarded gravel road, I see dark clouds move in over the mountains and it rains lightly a few times here in the valley. Each time, I put on my raincoat briefly, but, fortunately, it never ends up raining much. Only one vehicle, a pick-up truck, passes me on Greenwater Valley Road. The skies clear up as I begin the long, awesome descent to Furnace Creek and its campgrounds, general store, hotel, restaurant and tourist activity. I ride at over 30 miles per hour for a while. It's quite different down there from the solitude of Gold Valley Road. No more photos today!