The night was calm, dark, and we slept hard. We awoke to one of those worlds where the desert sun angles its shine between muffles of cloud. Because we had arrived and biked after dark, I was curious to see what Gold Butte and its townsite looked like in the day. In the distance, far reaches of mountains many miles away stood incrusted in sheens of snow and ice over valleys of desert. We set up breakfast, feeling happy to be out here, followed by packing up our bikes. Then the two of us walked over to the actual Gold Butte Townsite. The area was littered with old mining equipment from a heyday of when a post office, lodging, saloon, brothel, and a city 2000 people living out of tents were found here in the 1800s during the height of a gold boom at Gold Butte. I found an old fenced mine shaft amid metal machinery. There was an old, but well-kept, cemetery for two men who had lived and died here in the middle of the 20th century...(Continue Reading)
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In early November, Kate and Dan let us know that they were going to be down in Arizona for Late-December/Early-January. They wanted to head out on a bikepacking trip with us over MLK, Jr. Day Weekend. Kate suggested Gold Butte National Monument based on its desert-enviros plus her experience rock climbing the Lime Kiln Canyon area there. Her impressions were super-positive of the place and she wanted to go back and see more. I had followed the events of Gold Butte National Monument for about a decade, ever since the Bundys had an armed standoff with BLM employees over illegal grazing in the area. That, and my friend Lara from college now worked in the place with her husband for the BLM, and I had impressions from them that corroborated Kate's thoughts. I started digging into research on bikepacking routes in Gold Butte. Beyond a few day gravel rides, it seemed no established route was in the area. I reached out to cyclists who had spent some time in Gold Butte, and they reported the lack of water as a driving reason for the lack of a serious overnight option...(Keep Reading)
Tres Rios Loop - Day 3 - Around the Arrastra Mountain Wilderness and Across the Bill Williams River2/2/2024 In the early hours of morning I hear Kate's alarm on her phone go off. I know it went off, but all I want to do in the morning cold/darkness of winter is curl up in my quilt and keep on sleeping. But, I know we need to move because today could involve some route-finding that might eat up some hours. So, it is time to move. Winter means dark mornings and today was no exception. I roll around in my quilt before I find the onus to get up and get moving in the dark. It certainly isn't as cold as yesterday morning. The desert morning brings soft, diffuse light that brightens pinkly on the craggy hillsides around us. Alamo Lake appears in the distance. All the bikes are packed and we pedal over to the side of the little general store to fill our waters from the outside hose spigot...(Keep Reading)
Last night was the cold call of winter desert. The wash, rich with atmospheric moisture along the Santa Maria River, saturated our shelters with condensation that iced a quarter thick both interiorly and exteriorly. I wake up to pee in the night and feel my the top of my head scrape crystals from the inner walls. With dawn's cusp, we stagger into the diffuse light. Janna and I's bikes are caked in a quarter inch layer of soup frost - probably the thickest I've ever seen outside the Sierra Nevada. The frost is copious. It's probably somewhere in the mid-teens temperature-wise so we're all moving around slowly trying to keep fingers warm while simultaneously performing camp tasks. No one is too excited for the prospect of morning water crossings down the wash in these conditions...(Keep Reading)
January is always the middle of winter here on the South Rim. And the craving for desert warmth and escape always hits true. When Janna and I were looking ahead to the MLK, Jr. holiday weekend, we decided to travel with Dan and Kate, who were scheduled for furlough and were going to be down in Arizona from Glacier NP at that time. The four of us wanted to catch up, and we felt a bikepacking trip through the desert deserved merit for an adventure all together. At first, we were looking at creating a route through Gold Butte NM, but we all felt a closer, warmer, and shorter route would be preferable since none of us had ridden much due to winter. At the beginning of December, Kurt Refsnider published his Tres Rios Loop...(Keep Reading)
Sierra Cascades - Day 11 - Out of the Mojave Desert and to the Start of the Southern Sierras1/15/2024 Today is predicted to be even hotter than yesterday. The extreme heat warnings and record breaking highs stretch across the entire zone we are biking. It makes last night's sleep in an A/C-filled room feel restorative and a form of recovery. The alarm for 2:30 starts too early. My body wants entirely to lay in the hotel bed. But we choose to move, need to move. The heat is too hard and too intense to excuse the night from moving our legs. This extreme heat warning keeps getting extended in time and expanded in region so that it seems to sit wide and full of fuming-brooding over the entirety of southern California. We also need to descend back down into the heart of Mojave Desert by going to 1300 feet today before climbing back up to 4300 ft. Janna and I aimed to be through that low section before any part of the midday heat was right on us...(Keep Reading)
The night is long yet short. The Motel 6 we found, the one with bars over the windows and people milling around, really came to life shortly after we turned off our lights. First began the yelling outside. It seems a crowd had congregated in this common spot known to all. People starting banging on our window. Multiple times the door handle jiggled and some strong pushing followed on the locked door. I absolutely did not sleep. This was coupled with the fact that the Motel 6 turned off A/C to all rooms beginning at 11 pm. With the air off, and the nighttime temperature outside still over 100 degrees, the room began to cook...
Today, we planned a big exodus out of the range of Bernadino Mountains and out towards the true Mojave Desert all low with scrub and Joshua trees. A significant and widespread newscast warning had been blanketed across southern California and all the way up the coast warning of an "Extreme Heat Warning" where temperatures were to spike well above 100 degrees and that outdoor activities should be curtailed. Our plan was to bike all the way to Palmdale today, stay in a hotel with AC, then get up tomorrow in the middle of the night to make our large Mojave Desert crossing. But that entailed us covering over 80 miles, 7,000+ feet of gain, and nearly 13,000 feet of loss today. This, we knew, would be a big day and push us physically. Although the heat warning really started tomorrow, we were already in 100+ degree F temperatures. I could feel it in the blood of my veins with thirst and balance of electrolytes constantly on my brain. Table Mountain provided a cool and perfect night's sleep on high to prepare us for a 4 am wake-up to bike almost the entire Angeles Crest...
Janna and I woke up to the heat of the desert as the Sun hit our tarp. Even in the early hour, it was blazing down hard and threatened a scorching day. Janna hadn't slept well, understandably, given the uncertainties about whether we'd be able to get a chain today with Don and Karen's help. They told us last night that they wouldn't be over until around 9:30 because they needed to pack up their RV, and we needed to make sure the bike shop in Hesperia was open. Thus, Janna and I leisurely, though anxiously, tore down camp until Don and Karen showed up. We didn't want to leave our gear unattended, so it was decided that Janna would ride down with them to Hesperia herself while I stayed behind to clean gear and be a watchdog over it...
Janna and I slept-in due to the bed and cabin situation. We felt comfortable leaving later in the morning because we were going to remain relatively high up in the San Bernadino Mountains. We ate breakfast leftovers before cleaning the cabin followed by packing up the bikes. That put us outside on the front driveway by 9 am. We locked the place and started off with sore butts towards the north shores of Big Bear Lake. We had spent all of the past two days getting groceries and riding along the south shore. The north shore was arguably less developed, had more National Forest abutting the lake, and way less vehicular traffic. The morning was easy cruising through small cabin hamlets along the lake coupled with frequent stops to gaze out on sage colliding with deep blue water. The west side of Big Bear Lake had lots of boats and beaches to swim and play. It looked inviting and gorgeous underneath the blazing summer sun. Cars were parked end-to-end along any pullouts as recreators made their ways to the waves...
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