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The best Yotatech run for me yet. We went to Death Valley from 26-29 March 2005. Teresa and I stayed over in Ridgecrest on Friday night and went through to Stovepipe Wells(SPW) early Saturday morning to meet up with everybody. Most people camped in Death Valley Friday night. The following people went:
- Scottiac (Scott, Molly and Bonnie)
- Expat (Mark, Christine and kids)
- Bulldog (Myself, Teresa and Bliksem)
- BOB_98SR5 (Bob and “ Loverboy” Lance aka Good Times)
- RBLACAUSA (Pierre)
- Chiefiji (Henry)
- Hkollie (Kevin and father, unfortunately we only briefly met Sunday morning with them)
We met at the gas pump at SPW on Saturday. We tried contacting Kevin, but he was out of cellphone or CB range. We unfortunately never hooked up with him and his father apart from a brief meeting Sunday morning. It turned out he already did the Sunday run, so they did a separate run. We left around 10 am as it was along day planned. The pace was relatively rapid as we had a lot of ground to cover and I wanted to get back by sunlight for people looking for camping. We too the 190 to Saline Valley rd start were we aired down, then we took Saline Valley rd to Lippencott rd. Going up it to the Racetrack and then following Racetrack to Ubehebe Crater and then circle back to SPW. See GPS track below. Along the way we herded some cattle, inspected little caves, waited for incoming traffic and so forth. By the time we were done with lunch we were somewhat behind schedule and it was getting late. That and the fact that washboard roads are best driven at speed with slightly aired down tires, I decided to pick up the pace a bit. Mark was following closely and we were radioing the incoming traffic back. It seems this drive from Racetrack back to Ubehebe crater will now be known as the Death Valley 500, since Mark and I left the other guys behind in a trail of dust. We waited for quite some time at the crater junction for them to catch up. We took some group pics at the crater, aired up and then went on a frantic search for campsites for the guys who tried booking too late. Teresa and I split of at SPW to check in at the motel there. Good thing we booked well ahead of time, as it was all booked even the campsites were overflowing. This is what happens with the best rains ever in Death Valley and all the flowers, all the civilized areas were overflowing with lines at gas stations and stores. We all later met up at Scott’s Furnace Creek campsite for a group BBQ. See pics below. (unfortunately some pics just didn’t work out).
Saturday’s track and pictures:
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