The Next Valley of Death

I was so haunted by Death Valley that we had to go back. Putzing around at a one year olds pace was fun, but.... since the longest run that first weekend in Death Valley was 2.something, done with my six year old, I needed a little more burn. I have to admit that those two miles were some of the best I've ever done but what good is a run if you can't feel the muscle pain 3 days later?

Lacking a holiday weekend this trip would have to be fast. That meant arriving late.

I (this is Keith, by the way) had lots of great ideas of how to mix some family fun with a long run. Andrea was not too crazy about most of them. We finally agreed on a plan. We would leave after I finished work at 5:00 PM and drive to the start of the Titus canyon road. Andrea would drop me off in the desert for some illegal camping while she took the kids back into Beatty Nevada to what one of her friends described as the dumpiest hotel the friend ever hopes to stay in. Andrea and the kiddo trifecta could sleep in, go to Denny's for baseball pancakes and come pick me up after I finished running around in the desert.

We arrived at 11:00 PM on a dark moonless night in a raging windstorm at the start of the Titus canyon road. We located an obvious bend in the road that Andrea could recognize the next morning. I told her to walk for 60 seconds directly towards a radio/cell antenna visible on a peak off to the North. I would there cache my camping gear early the next morning when I started to run. She would retrieve the gear then drive into Death Valley where I hoped to arrive some time "around noon" the next day. Some of our biggest family strife recently has involved rendezvous times and locations after long runs such as this so I was more than a little apprehensive about pulling this whole thing off.

They say stolen waters are sweet, but illegal camping is less so when you are fairly close to a well traveled road. Between the buffeting wind and cars on the highway I did not enjoy any sweet sleep. Fortunately I had the alarm set for 3 AM so I did not have to toss and turn for long. I procrastinated getting out of the tent as long as I dared as I only had enough clothing to stay warm while running. I froze as I put away the tent and tried to eat and hydrate. The gear was cached behind some grease wood and I hoped Andrea and the kids could easily find it yet remain hidden from anyone else.

I started running due west at 4:00 AM. It was dark, really dark. I try to run with a headlamp on as little as possible because the big world gets narrowed down to that small beam of weirdly blue LED light. On this morning, Mars was directly in front of me on an arrow straight road and I chased him towards the horizon before he beat me soundly while silently slipping behind a craggy limestone ridge just before sunrise. With my light on I could only see a small colorless area of gravel road twenty feet in front of me but nothing else. If I switched it off I could see the stars and the faint glow of stars above the jagged mountain horizon. I could not see any detail of the rough road I was traveling without the headlight...but those stars!! A sprained ankle would be worse than bad all alone on a cold night when I was dependent upon running to stay warm. I have heard it said that cops think everyone is a criminal but my job makes me think that injuring a foot or ankle is an everyday occurrence. I uneasily decided to trust dumb luck and run lightless while trying to sense the big ankle busting rocks so to enjoy the full beauty of a deep dark winter night. I allowed Mars to guide me while the Milky Way and not infrequent asteroids made enough light to at least stay on the road, oh and totally blow my mind! A cold clear desert winter sky with no light pollution was not to be missed!

I pushed the worries of covering the distance in the appropriate time, Andrea finding my camping gear, sprained ankles, having enough water, finding the correct route, and mountain lions out of my mind and just focused on moving.

The first portion of this run is straight up an alluvial fan for several miles before entering a canyon that crosses the Funeral Mountains over a pass into Titus Canyon that descends to Death Valley proper. I was finally into the canyon when the sun decided to join me on my journey. Inserting yourself into a rugged unknown landscape and then letting the sun reveal the detail of the place is worth the 3 AM start. Better than surprise presents! I was not disappointed! The multicolored strata was amazing in the early morning glow. A geologists dream. A bad runners dream. I could easily keep my mind off the pain of running as I oogled the geological display that only the desert can give with none of that pesky greenery to hide the dirt and rocks. Truth be told, I'm really not much of a runner. Put me on a treadmill and about 0.91 miles is all I can do before I have to stop from exertion. I can manage 3 or 4 miles on a paved road before my body gives up. Here I had been running 10 miles all uphill and hit the top of the first pass feeling really good. If I get out in the woods or on a trail with good scenery it gets all transcendental and weird and I can run for hours. Its not that I really enjoy the running but more that I enjoy moving through the landscape.  I'm something like a hiker with ADD. I don't even have to think about the running part. My mind and body are doing totally separate things. I was so wrapped up in the panorama that I hardly noticed the long, steady uphill section.

I was carrying a gallon of water (Death Valley is supposed to be hot you know) and enough food for all day. Too bad I was freezing.

And.....this is where Keith got bored and stopped the blog entry.  So, I'll finish it up with a few pics of his journey.

 Other highlights of the trip included:

• A sweet hotel room in Beatty, NV
• The ever exciting baseball pancakes from Denny's
• Finding Keith's gear without a hitch
• Poking around a mining ghost town while we waited for Keith
• Finding Keith at our appointed time sitting on the side of the road, enjoying the slim shade of a road sign
• Enjoying the beauty of Dante's View where you are perched high above Badwater (the lowest point in the US) and can see the tips of the Sierra's--including Mt. Whitney (the highest peak in the continental US)
• Losing the kids in the sand dunes and finding them at dusk--thanks to a scout troop that happened upon two dirty little kids and brought them back our way.  (whew!)
• The most ridiculous Park Ranger that, when we arrived to our campsite after dark with a three hungry and tired little kids, made us take down our tent and move it 5 feet.  I have so many four letter words that could pepper this story....

Good times, I tell ya.  Good times.  This is a LONG overdue blog post.  Now that I finally have this out of the way, I can blog about some of our more recent adventures.  It's practically a party a minute for the Card Family! (as Keith sits next to me after yet another late night of work and an hours-long session of catching up on charts.  In case you wondered, that's what our real lives are all about.)