Actually, Its not so bad :)
I got my picture taking done in Page Az and headed back for the coast to meet up with my friend Mike Z. He lives in the Bay area now, but he was the original owner of my motorbike. I bought it off him with just 15,000Km on the clock and in pristine condition. Its now got over 55,000Km on it and is in decidedly "rough" shape :)
On the way back to the coast I decided to go through Death Valley but to get there I had to go through Las Vegas. This was no big issue since the freeway cruises straight through without stopping (did I mention that's what freeways do!), but it was getting late and near dark, and I had to find somewhere to camp.
My standard procedure here in the USA is to find an unused side road that goes a little way off the highway (50m from the highway is about right) and has a little cover; and then just camp. So, I set about doing this.
I got about an hour out of Las Vegas and found what looked like a good option. I headed down the dirt track and it looked OK so I went a bit further - Then it started to get littered (unusual for the USA) - Then I noticed that the larger litter items were absolutely peppered with bullet holes! - Then I noticed that most of the brightly coloured litter on the ground was in fact discarded shotgun casings!! - Then I rounded a corner in the creek bed that I was following and there was an SUV parked and a couple of guys with shotguns were busy blasting away at some random object or other!!!
Hmmm..... Perhaps this is not actually a good place to camp... Its probably not as quiet and secluded as I had hoped! :)
So I turned around and rode back out to the highway and on down the way. I tried again after another half hour on another side track and got a much better result along with a good nights sleep :)
Next day, I rode through Death Valley as planed. It wasn't as bad as it could have been though my timing is just about "terrible"!
Records here are set in July and the record is 134 degF (in primitive USA temperature units). This translates to 57 degC... ouch!
It was only about 110 degF this day so no big problem, but I can tell you that at that temperature it just sucks the life out of you and it doesn't get better when you have your head in the fresh (and really hot and dry) air, as you always do on a motorbike.
It was a bit hotter coming through the town of Baker the other day when I had 112 degF (which is about 45degC ) - But now I know why they call the town "Baker" :)
