Sleeping in our own little private wash was magical. If there was a lick of wind, it went right over our heads and at one of our lower elevations for the trip, it was reasonably warm as well. I think we'd gone to bed exhausted around 9:00pm, and when I woke up at 6:45am for sunrise, I was ready and raring for a new day! The view - a couple dozen short steps up the wash walls behind camp - was a nice motivator as well. We'd camped at the base of Bitter Ridge LWC. I'll need to go back…
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Stage 1 - Pahrump to Oatman Like many of the medium-sized towns along the NVBDR, Pahrump has - I assume - grown since the route was created. As such, some of the roads that were once dirt have been paved, and we found ourselves on pavement for longer than we expected as we made our way south out of town, passing cross streets and developments that weren't even on our map. Eventually though we reached dirt, and thus began one of the least enjoyable segments of the entire BDR. (How's that for a glowing endorsement for the area south of…
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The rain that had started just as we crawled into bed persisted throughout the night - a consistent patter on the tent, its rhythm never letting up. This was no surprise, really - near enough to town that we had cell service, we'd seen that several flash flood warnings were issued for the area, and we hoped that we'd be able to continue our adventure in the morning. In no rush to get up in the deluge, we lingered in bed an extra hour or so, hoping that the forecast - which was for rain the rest of the day…
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I'm pretty sure it didn't rain all night. It was amazing. You can imagine my surprise when I awoke just before sunrise and could see blue sky along the entire horizon, my open tent window (door really) facing east. But it was chilly, and rather than get up to take photos, I opted instead to stay warm and toasty under my comforter - definitely the right decision! And so I stayed for another hour or so until the sun started peaking over the horizon, warming the air, my tent, and ultimately me - to the point where I figured I…
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By midnight the wind had picked up significantly. 40-mph gusts buffeting our tents. Rain, blowing sideways. And then, at 2:12am - lightning, and a lot of it. I'd slept well through the rain, earplugs doing their job to mute the noise of the drops on the tent. But they did little to soften that first clap of thunder. It wasn't until the next flash of lightning that I could count the delay - about 8 seconds - not too bad. But then more lightning. And more. It was constant, as the wind continued to whip at the tent. And it…
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It was a breezy (but dry!) night on the edge of the canyon, the updrafts from the walls constantly buffeting the fabric of the tent. Little did we know that we were in for much, much worse! But, we're getting ahead of ourselves. The breeze did help to clear out the clouds a bit by early morning, and knowing that we could have a spectacular view, I'd set my alarm for "before sunrise" - to try and catch that orange glow that I love on the horizon. I'd also put the camera in the tent with me, so it was…
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It rained on and off throughout the night - not too bad, actually when it comes right down to it. The rain stopped by early morning, though a cloud cover remained, allowing me a second reprieve from an early-morning to capture sunrise. It was 8:00am by the time I pulled myself out of the tent, Mike @Digiratus also up, getting his coffee started. A bowl of Cheerios in my hand, I ventured to the edge of the canyon - it's reds and oranges now deeper from the overnight rain. The dramatic clouds causing a flat-if-not-a-bit-ominous light. We poked around for…
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The night was a bit windy, parked on the edge of the canyon wall. But warmish temps and a late night, combined with the fact that we were a few hundred feet from the top of the canyon - so there was no reason to get up early for the orange glow of sunrise on the horizon - meant that we slept well and I didn't even think about getting out of bed before 8:30am. Like the evening before, the sky was mostly cloudy - the resulting light being both muted and mysterious at the same time as I re-explored…
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I'd returned from The Re-Tour a mere three weeks before our departure date, but that didn't mean there were only a few short days to plan for our next epic adventure. In fact, quite the contrary - we'd been planning our trip south to Arizona and Utah for nearly a year - knowing that there was way more ground than we could cover in the two weeks we had allocated for the excursion. Our plan was simple, if long. Start in St. George, Utah, and work our way east - first along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, then…
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