Panamint Valley Roads

     After leaving Tehachappi, we rode through Trona, the town that, but for the mineral wealth of the Searles Dry Lake, would be a ghost town. Trona is the name of the town and the mineral that is mined there, Trona Na3H(CO3)2·H2O or trisodium hydrogendicarbonate dihydrate. I feel smarter just saying this stuff.

                                                                                                                                                   

After leaving Trona, we head over a pass at Pioneer Point and down into Panamint Valley, this is where the wild burros live after they escaped from mining trisodium whachmacallit over in Trona.

If you love long, straight roads that head to a vanishing point, I recomend the panamint valley it has the best. 

Looking South.....

Looking North.

Death Valley Trip

Winter is a great time to visit Death Valley.  Getting there is the challenge, it is cold most everywhere else in the state. Crossing the Sierra  Nevada  Mountains in winter is a real challenge on a motorcycle. The two all season passes, Donner and Carson, lead to Highway 395. 395 runs along the eastern side of the Sierras and at high elevations, so that's a really cold ride.


The only real route is down Highway 5, then east over Tehachapi Pass. The ride is about 365 miles from home to the town of Tehachapi. We left in the afternoon and got into Tehachapi around midnight, when we arrived at our motel the temperature was a chilly 27 degrees.

You can see, in addition to the heavy leathers, there are power cords dangling. Hell yeah, we got electrics!.