Death Valley Gravel Trip

When Mid-South was cancelled and I already had the chunk of time off, I immediately started planning an alternative adventure and floated the idea of a spring bikepacking trip to my Velocio // Exploro teammates. Rachel and Cynthia jumped on board and for months we had been planning a 3-day route through the Anza-Borrego desert from San Diego. As the date approached however the weather forecast not only became very ‘non-desert-like’ but up to 15” of snow was forecasted across the higher portions of our route. If there is one thing 2020 brought us it is the ability to be flexible! In the 72 hours before the trip we tossed around a couple of ideas and ultimately headed for Death Valley, CA—one of the hottest, driest places in the country. (Spoiler alert: we still got snow). 

Waiting to roll!

I’m not going to lie, Death Valley is one of the last places I ever considered riding. Previously, I pictured only 120+ degree full sun and full disclosure: I HATE heat. But middle of a massive winter storm across the Western US? Perfect! We were also fortunate to glean a few ideas on potential routes from The Impossible Route that had been done just a week before by Jeremiah Bishop and Tyler Pearce.

Day 1 we woke up to partly cloudy skies but still cold temps and headed out to do a loop to Cerro Gordo, a ghost town east of Lone Pine. Cerro Gordo is at about 8800’ and as we rode the sky in front of us became progressively more ominous. Soon enough we were only at 6000’ and riding through 2” of snow. We realized the rest of the route was a no-go and turned around to enjoy a nice hot lunch in the van.

So sunny!

For now...

The ladies!!! Photo by Cynthia Frazier

After our snowy ride, we decided that the lower the better for Day 2, we headed down to the valley for the night to hit Badwater Basin the next day.

Sunset rolling into Death Valley

Map showing our loop

The max elevation of our entire ride was a whopping 4’ above sea level. Probably a freezing day in Death Valley the temperatures hung in the upper 60s with still some clouds hanging around and a few sprinkles later in the day. We rode the West Side Road out which is a 37-mile dirt road which although it has some nicely grated sections, was quite washboard much of the way. We hit pavement on the far end and turned directly into a stout headwind for 40 miles back to the car. One of us worked hard going to get the van to rescue the others only to find out some skilled hitchhiking had taken place… ;) 

   
 

   
  

   

The weather finally cleared entirely Saturday and we headed for Titus Canyon which was one of our most anticipated routes of the trip. I started at the base and met Rachel and Cynthia at the start of Titus Canyon Road so I could shuttle them back up after. After 1500’ more of climbing, evading Jeeps and trucks we topped out at Red Pass where some lovely folks offered us water refills which we took happily even though we felt like we had enough—always better to not turn down water in the desert! From there, down we went….for miles. Titus Canyon was absolutely incredible and the highlight of the trip. As we descended we passed a ghost town and petroglyphs as the canyon slowly narrowed to the width of a car before opening up back into the valley. We got lots of cheers from the 4WD trucks who had passed us going up as we ripped past them on the descent!

 

 

Views heading up the Titus Canyon Road climb

 

 

  

 

The last day we woke up, all wanting to get one last ride in before our respective drives home. All at different levels of tired after a few days of riding, we split up. Cynthia and Rachel did a short ride up to Darwin Falls, while I did a loop up the highway, out to the town of Darwin and back down a long gravel descent to the car. I was slightly relieved to see from up high that the peaks around Cerro Gordo were clearly still snow covered which made me feel even better about our day 1 decision. The descent out of Darwin was also amazing. I missed one turn (pretty good since I didn’t have a GPS track) and fortunately only went about a mile past it before the road dead ended and I realized my mistake. I found the right turn and a quick climb into the next drainage and I was descending again past an old mine and enjoying views into Panamint Valley. 

 

The eventual route down from above

I love the Eastern Sierras!

 

Darwin...Population 50 "or so"

    

After rides, it was back into the car for the long drive back to our respective home bases but hearts happy and filled with countless memories from an epic ladies trip! 

Bike Choice:

The gravel here is tough and is not good for a road bike. (For comparison, I happily ride quite a bit of singletrack in the Bay Area on my road bike with 28c slicks.) There are many areas of washboard, sand, and some chunkier sections. I personally was very happy on my 3T Exploro RaceMax, especially for the pavement sections, but as a strong mountain biker I am also comfortable on technical terrain. Some may prefer a hardtail depending on your descending comfort.

My 3T Exploro RaceMax Build:

SRAM 1x mullet build. Force eTap AXS and Eagle mix. 42 in the front, 10-50 in the back. 

Fizik Cyrano R1 Bull handlebar, with Fizik bar gel kit.

Fizik Cyrano R1 stem.

Fizik Luce Regular saddle.

HUNT 4 Season Gravel Disc wheelset.

Schwalbe G-One Allround 700x38c.

Stages Dash M50 gps bike computer.

Ride Links:

Day 1-- Cerro Gordo

• Goal Route
• Actual Route

Day 2-- Badwater Basin Loop

Day 3-- Titus Canyon

Day 4-- Darwin Loop

• My ride with minor missed turn