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Home / Mojave Preserve and Desert bikepacking trips / 2000: Mojave National Preserve Bicycle Camping Trip #2 / Day 6: Nipton to Keystone Canyon area via Walking Box Ranch Road /

At the bottom of the remote, cold and eerie Keystone Canyon Road, I look for a spot to pitch my tent

010_7-keystone-canyon-road-800px.jpg Approaching the base of the New York Mountains, I ride a mile on Ivanpah Road, looking for the road to Keystone CanyonThumbnailsApproaching the base of the New York Mountains, I ride a mile on Ivanpah Road, looking for the road to Keystone CanyonThumbnailsApproaching the base of the New York Mountains, I ride a mile on Ivanpah Road, looking for the road to Keystone CanyonThumbnailsApproaching the base of the New York Mountains, I ride a mile on Ivanpah Road, looking for the road to Keystone CanyonThumbnailsApproaching the base of the New York Mountains, I ride a mile on Ivanpah Road, looking for the road to Keystone CanyonThumbnails

Awesome landscape, but I don't want to ride any further into the cold clouds and snow flurries that I can see just up the road.

I follow a side road, which seems to be the road to the old Trio Mine, and set up camp here. I get a rear flat tire when I roll my bike over a big Joshua-tree sprout that is as tough as a dagger.

What's left of daylight disappears and after a few hours of darkness, I realize that it's damn cold here. It feels colder than it was up at Mid Hills Campground a few nights ago, and it was in the low 30s then, so I'm guessing it must be in the high 20s F.

The clouds that made the end of day so gloomy clear out suddenly after a few hours. The exposed moonlight tells me that a short walk out in the dark would be splendid, except that I'm really cold right now and didn't bring warm-enough clothes for this.

I'm not sure how well I'll sleep tonight.