Day 73 - Cold

Death Valley - The least deadly place on the planet.

Slow start this morning. Breakfast at Mel’s Diner (muy bien) and back to the motel to swap the scooter into the other trailer and load all the gear into the red truck. The U-Haul trailer didn’t have a ramp so one was created out of a milk crate and a couple of concrete blocks. If we had made a video of it we would have a million YouTube hits by now. But it made it and got tied down so all's well that ends well.

Titus Canyon was closed at the entry which was disappointing. However, the exit was open to hikers so we spent a couple of hours examining the geophysical features up close. Very different perspective from the last time when I rode a motorcycle through the canyon

There was a retired guy with a bicycle that he was quite proud of. He showed us all the custom features he had added to the bike. ALL of them. I finally remarked, as politely as possible, that we had to be in Cerro Gordo for sunset and needed to start hiking. He agreed after showing us only two more of his innovations.

After leaving the canyon I decided to try going past Tea Kettle Junction instead of the Cerro Gordo road. It also goes by the Ubehebe Crater and The Racetrack. The crater was pretty amazing. Big and deep. There was a trail to the bottom but it was cold and getting late. The road to the Racetrack was typical high desert with plenty of what I named “pineapple” cactus but I think they were really young Yucca trees. The road climbed into the hills and turned into some brutal washboard.

The Racetrack was underwhelming. Had it not been so late and so cold we might have looked at it more closely but we needed to find a place to camp unless we wanted to set up in the dark. The wind was howling and we barely got the tent erected before we had to tie it to the truck to keep it from blowing away. Dinner was a hurried affair of warmed up pulled pork and then we decided to take down the tent and sleep in the truck. All I can say is that I found a hundred positions that were all uncomfortable.

Temperatures in the 30s did not help although I had climbed into my sleeping bag with all my clothes on. I should have brought my winter bag to The Hottest Place on Earth!

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