Floribama Riders

We get up the usual time for another fine breakfast, on our last day of riding. We said goodbye to the GeGe and the rest of the support crew of RawHyde, and head up through a pass into the mountains, called the Goler Wash.

The pass is unique, with towering rock walls on either side, and a steady small stream of water coming down the pass. It is incredibly beautiful, and I wish, again, for a high quality still camera that would attach to my helmet, and that would take a picture every time I say "WOW", "DAMN", or 'SH*T". We stop along the way to look at a recently abandoned gold mine that played a small part in a fairly famous American incident, to be explained later.

The next stop is the Barker Ranch. If you are older, have a good memory, or have a Jeopardy-level talent for trivia, you may recognize the name as the location where Charles Manson was captured. Police attention was drawn to the Barker Ranch after someone noticed an unusual amount of traffic from the gold mine to the ranch. Apparently Charlie was using some of his girls as prostitutes to finance his operations. The police came to bust a prostitution ring, and found Charlie hiding under the sink in the kitchen.

We stopped and explored the house and grounds. It is still furnished, and there are quite a few artifacts inside, some left by more recent admirers of Charlie. We took a few pictures, and Ron posed for some pictures hiding under the sink. For some reason, though, no one wanted to eat their lunch at Charlie's place. It does have a pretty creepy vibe.

http://www.totalescape.com/active/campstuff/NP/interest/barker.html

We rode on up the wash to another abandoned ranch, and ate our lunches. These abandoned places are inside the Death Valley National Park, and now owned by the Park Service. The Park Service keeps them up, and people are welcome to come stay in them, first come, first served. It is obvious that people do come and stay, and there seems to be a tradition to bring more than you need, and leave some supplies for the next traveller.

After lunch, we made another stop at an abandoned ranch with a hot spring. The presence of water makes a green oasis which stands out dramatically from the dry desert conditions all around. The guides warn us of a rocky section coming up. Since we have ridden over approximately 14 millions rocks in the last 3 days, you would think that they went out of their way to warn us would give up something to worry about. No one bats an eye, and no one has any difficulty with the rocks. Three days before, GT was struggling a bit, but now has found his off road legs, and made it through with no problems. We're all impressed by his progress, but don't tell him. By too many years of sag experience, I have learned that telling someone how much they have improved, during a ride, seems to tempt fate too much, and they frequently crash right afterwards.

Into the Valley of Death rode the, er, 9. At high noon, mid-April, in otherwise mild weather, the valley floor is 95 degrees. But it is a dry heat :-). We rode on to an area called the Devil's Golf Course. This is a big salt flat, but the picture is deceiving. It looks like dirt and sand, but it is extremely rugged. Very large crystals and formations of the salt make it nearly impossible to walk on without risking a twisted ankle. Tiger Woods will not be playing this course anytime soon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_Golf_Course#Devil.27s_Golf_Course

Some of the other scenic spots in the area are still closed because of damage from recent flooding in the area. We ride out to the Furnace Creek Ranch, where the ride, but not the adventure, ends.

GT will ride back to the starting point with the RawHyde folks to pick up his van for the drive home. Now that his riding is over for the long weekend, I tell him how much his off road skills have improved. I also explained why we didn't tell him during the ride, and he understood our superstitions.

Coming soon, the limo ride to Las Vegas!