On day two we trailered from Furnace Creek to the south end of the West Side Highway We offloaded the bikes and headed west on Butte Valley Rd. through Warm Springs Canyon. The road starts out as a wide freshly graded gravel boulevard, but soon turn into an unimproved dual-track. There are a lot of old mines in the area, and at one point we saw a sign that said, "Mine hazard area". Being within a few miles of the China Lake Navel Weapons Center this made perfect sense. I quickly realized that the sign was referring to "mining" as in digging resources out of the ground. Our first stop was at this old talc mine. There is a steel barricade over the entrance to keep explorers out. It's would not have been necessary to keep me out. The mine looks fragile/dangerous; This shot was taken from between the bars: The next stop was at Warm Spring Camp. This place is very un-DV like with lots of green, several fairly new (1960s looking) structures, and even a swimming pool. Pics of the pool are everywhere, and it's pretty ugly right now, so here's a shot of some of the foliage: This is just entering the Butte Valley from the north. In the distance you can see the road continuing to the south where it connects to Coyote Valley Rd. More of this in part 4.
All that green stuff looks a little like an oasis ;0 ) ... I would not go into that old tunnel either ...
I like the bag on the rear of your bike. Can you tell me who made it and where you got it please. Cheers.
I bought it at Cycle Gear. It's their in-house BILT brand. The cool thing is that it holds six MSR bottles with hand towels to pad the bottles perfectly. With the recommended 30 Oz. max in each bottle I get an extra 1.5 gallons of fuel. It fits the billet rack perfectly. I also have a Tupperware box that fits inside perfectly for those times when I have to make an emergency trip to the grocery store for my wife. Pop out the bottles and in with the box. Keeps food clean in an not so clean any more bag. This is it: http://www.cyclegear.com/CycleGear/Accessories/Luggage/Tail-Bags/brand/BILT/Tail-Bag/p/36656_60116
