Death Valley, Part Two

Furnace Creek Ranch

"Last Chance Mountain", "Dantes View", "The Devil's Golf Course", "Bad Water", those are just a few of the endearing names that have been given to parts of America's most desolate (yet strikingly beautiful) landscape. But here we were, 350 of us ready to get on our bicycles and pedal 105 miles across it to try and bring an end to Type 1 Diabetes.

As I had mentioned in my previous post, I had arrived at Furnace Creek Ranch, our base camp, in the middle of the night. Furnace Creek is this bizarre oasis, filled with actual date palms and a golf course (!), in the middle of Death Valley. But I didn't see any of it when I arrived because it was pitch black out.

Furnace Creek Oasis

Furnace Creek Ranch Date Palms

That's -190 feet, below sea level

And upon waking up the next morning, I had not expected the sheer bleakness of the area immediately surrounding Furnace Creek, or the massive mountain ranges off in the distance ringing the valley (some of which climb to 7000 feet). What really struck me was the variations in rock formations, what appeared to be a campground in the middles of dirt across the road, and the fancy Furnace Creek Inn that you could see about halfway up the canyon from where we were staying, where rooms go for $400/night supposedly.

Furnace Creek Campground

Furnace Creek Inn

To show my ignorance, I really had no idea that Death Valley was a National Park, and that it was a TOURIST attraction. You only read about how bad it is in grade school textbooks, not how beautiful it is.

Back to the ride! Order of business that first morning was breakfast at 7AM, a group debriefing about that day's schedule, and a practice/tune-up ride up to Zabriskie Point: a nice easy 5 mile 900 foot climb there and back. One continuing salient point that the national JDRF reps and the coaches kept making, was that it was a good idea to make sure you had a bottle of water on you at ALL TIMES, even when not riding. The West Michigan team gathered up after the morning meeting, and took its traditional group shot on the jungle gym before heading out. This group has grown to 45 riders this year, from a meager 7 riders back in 2005 (from what I hear).

West Michigan Ride Team getting ready to roll!

The ride up to Zabriskie Point was a good chance to stretch my legs. I had actually been feeling pretty uneasy in the days leading up to the ride, fighting off the beginnings of a cold and some sort of stomach virus (probably nerves). Plus, I hadn't been on my road bike in two weeks (!) due to the shipping requirements. But it turned out to be a great ride, I felt pumped, and it was a great chance to check out the scenery and ride with the group again.



The views at the top of Zabriskie Point were incredible. The view across the valley is slightly obstructed by this massive rock formation, worn down by thousands of years of wind and erosion; where you can actually see the layers of rock formed over millions of years right before your eyes, like traveling back in time. What was really funny were all the tourists there, many of them speaking Italian.

A link to a full panorama here

Me and my roommate for the weekend, Nick Murpy

JDRF riders intermingled with a busload of Italian tourists

The view of the parking lot from the top of Zabriskie Point

After the practice ride, we had the afternoon to do whatever we wanted. Several groups of us headed out for some sightseeing (the place is a National Park after all). We decided to travel North toward the upper end of the valley, which is 140 miles long btw, and hop East over a pass into the neighboring Amargosa Valley to check out some ghost towns. The drive there was so surreal, as each mile passed exposed new and vibrantly colored and textured rock formations, sand dunes, mountain peaks and caves.

Descending into Amargosa Valley

The ghost town we ended up in was called Rhyolite, a bustling mining town that reached a peak population of 10,000 in about 1908, and is now completely gone except for an old casino and the remnants of a couple of businesses and a school. Apparently the money to fund the mining operations dried up shortly after 1908.











It also had an outdoor museum, with some very interesting artwork by local artists. I called it the Rhyolite ArtPrize.




More pictures of Rhyolite and other rock formations here.

Got up to a nice comfy 107 degrees while we were out there. Ahhh.

From Rhyolite, we headed back to Furnace Creek to go on South of the ranch. The views going back were even more stunning, as the sun had shifted angles by then and gave the area a whole new look.

Descending back down in to Death Valley, salt flats in the distance

Mid afternoon, I decided to sit in on a class for Death Valley "newbies," including information on how to keep your fluid levels up, E-caps, goo bars, pacing your ride, rules of the road, and a host of other things I'd never been exposed to. They reiterated a couple of points: "You can't drink enough fluids; you're fighting an uphill battle trying to keep from getting dehydrated; you can't just drink water; you have to restore electrolytes; plan on drinking AT LEAST a liter an hour; make sure you dilineate your bottles between water and sports drinks so that you don't pour gatorade over your head (as you will be pouring water over your head to cool down constantly); now is not the time to be trying anything new"; and lastly, "don't put it all out there on the course tomorrow; you've raised the money, we've cashed your checks, just being here should make you proud; we don't want to have to IV fluids into you or chopper you out of the valley to the nearest hospital over 100 miles away."

Uhhh, whose idea was it to do this Death Valley Ride???!!

To be continued....