Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

buck a night , but Ma J ones will keep an eye on you r veh icle a nd gear so it 's well worth it. After setting up camp take a sho rt shaked own ride up Pleasant Canyon , . It 's easy a nd will give you a sm all taste of the roa d conditions. At the main intersection in beautiful downtown Bal lara t, head northea st towa rd the mo un tain . At the fir st fork go righ t and continue up the ca nyon . On the way you 'll p ass th e Gold Bug m ine on the.righ t side. There is a stream in the ca nyon that may give som e riders a sma ll p rob lem. Afte r 6.1 mil es a gat e will bar your way. Ahead, the bu ildings you see are the remains of t he famous Ra dcliff Mine. On m any m aps it is called Cla ir Camp. It ha s been in the Clair fam ily since 191 2 and you need their writt en persmission to go through. Don 't ha ssle th e ca re ta ker - he's j ust doing his job . Years back it was possible to continue up th e canyon to the crest turn south and exit ou t Sou th Pa rk Canyon. Several years ago Sou th Pa rk was washed out and is n ow impassa b le. On our ride it started to ra in at the four-mile mark and by th e time we hit the gate it had turned to snow. One of the owners was on th e property arid we cou ld hav e continued with his permission but the amount of snow changed our minds . Maybe next tim e. After returning to ca m p we made our bikes ready for the next day. At th is time the wind really kicked up and keeping the sa nd out of my Vodka Gimlet was a chore. The next morning dawned bright and clear and we took off to Goler W-ash and a peek into Death ' Vall ey. Head south and proceed 15.3 m iles to die turnoff to the wash. Goler is one of the few vehicle ways across the Pana mints except by foot. At this junction turn left and head ea st up the rocky road. Right after entering the wash the canyon walls close in . In places the walls are 10 feet apart and rise 50 to 100 feet above you. Near the mouth the usually dry, solid rock wa terfall that gave me a ton of trouble last year is now gone. It has been worked over and now looks like a ramp. The next mile was like quicksand except it .was golf ball sized rocks with no bottom. Traction and steering were almost nonexistent. This area has been packed down by trucks and is now a piece of cake to ride. Too bad. Last year I was rewarded for all my effort. I spotted a large big horn sheep, standing on an ou tcropp ing of rock not more than 150 feet away. It was a handsome beast. By the time I had gotten the bike stopped , the camera out of my pack, it had tired of me and disappeared over a ridge. I was very surprised I had gotten that close. They are usually very secretive and do not like company or noise. Maybe it didn't know what a scooter looked like and was just curious. On the way up the wash you pass several old mines and will be able to see the remanents of a couple of tramways. ~heir locations are somewhat impressive, .At 19.8 miles the Keystone Mine appears on the right up a side canyon. On 1950 USGS Topo maps it's listed as the Lotus Mine. The mine is in operation and is the reason for the condition of the road and the ruination of the waterfall. Continue up the wash and at 21.0 miles you come to Sou rdough Spring. The road fork s here and to the right you'll find the, Myers Ranch after a mile. The Manson clan used it years ago. It is now fenced off with large Keep Out signs. The road used to continue down , to Wingate Wash but the upper end was closed by the BLM . The Navy has also closed th e lowe r end as it crossed their test area . Back at the fork go left and after a few bad spots and at 24 .4 miles you '" .......'.. . ~. • • • ' . ' .. ~ ... . . 'l'''' f • •••• com e to the gra ve 01 Carl Mengel. Carl was an old area miner a nd started d igging here in 1905 a nd kept goin g for 39 years. Mengel died in 1944 a t the age of 76 . T he pass here is n amed for him a nd his ca b in is nea r Great er View Springs just up th e road . At Mengel Pass and looking north, 7196-foo t Manly Peak will be on your left and to the right is 5805' Needle Peak. Fifty feet pas t the grav e is the Deat h Vall ey Na tiona l Mon ument boundry . Note: If you cross into Deat h Va lley, you r bik e must be street legal and you' ll need a Class 4 DMV certifi ca tion on you r d river's license. You may not see a nyone for a week up here but it's still th e law . Please ob ey. From the pa ss we continu ed north to Anvil Spring (26.5 m iles) a nd its sto ne ca bi n . I was very happy to find the ca bin has not been vand al ized . At this point th e view of Striped Bu tt e is fa nt astic. If time a nd fuel pe rmit you ca n go fur the r in to th e vall ey by using the road going down ' Wa rm Springs bottom almost all · the way wit h a stream criss-crossing many times . Several times the str eam bed a nd th e ro ad are th e sa me. T raction goes to he ll when th is ha ppens. I've been in the canyon fou r tim es and only onc e cou ld a conventional pick-u p make it to the top . Since the m assive flood of 1968 the road has been in va rious stages of disrep air. Usu a lly it's ju st pla in lou sy. T he 11. 2 m iles to Pan a m in t City is a real kid ney shaker. Las t year one of ou r group , d rivin g a four by fou r Bronco , blew two new hea vy d u ty shock s com ing down. A silver lode was fou nd here in 1873 and the cit y soon beg an . First it was ju st ca ves or rough log hu ts. By 1874 a semblence of a real town em erged . It soon beco m e one of the m ost no torious m in ing camps in the west . Thieves , co n -men , p ai nt ed ladies fr om t he Ba rbary Coast and fast guns filled the streets and back alleys. If you figure the percent ages it was tougher than Bod ie , a nd Bodie was the end of the . , _m\:> 0. '. CHRIS ... SENTINEL WIC HT CAMP " . • SOUT H PAR K ' PEAK 9S36 ..... AAOCLll'F M INE cv,. ......../ ..........' ~» • N ..... .... NEEDl£ ............~ . .. . . Mon ument Boundry _ . Locked Gates •.. ", LOTUS Canyon. Near Anvil Spring we found the remains of a small stamp mill. See if you can find it like we did. After a welcome rest at the spring we retraced our route back to Ballarat. During the afternoon we motored north 1. 6 miles to the ruins of an old stage stop. It's on the lake side of the road and if you look sharp you 'll find it. If you are interested in onyx , take a ride over to the onyx mine in the Argus Mountains. The mine is to the west across the valley . A 14 mile run will put you there and you can make it on dirt if you are a good map reader. We elected to use the highway a nd a paved side road. Onyx doo-dads and sem iprecious jewelry is for sale and a tour of the mine can be done. A rid e to the in fa m ous 'a nd interest ing Panamint City is a must. This was to be our last ride of the tri p . Some 2.1 m iles north of Ba llarat a roa d heads up the large alluvial fan of Sunrise Canyon. Turn at the large white rock on th e right side of th e road. From the mouth the road is in the ca nyon ..... .: l _ . ... .. ' .. ' : - '. ~. trail for many, In 1875 , 2000 souls called this high and rocky canyon home. There were a multitude of silver mines and a couple of large mills. The biggest mill was the Jones and Stewart built in 1875. It had 20 stamps and processed 40 tons of ore a day. So much silver bullion was taken down the narrow and twisty canyon the robbers and highwaymen were having a field day. To stop the thefts the mill and smelter operators cast the silver into balls 500 to 700 pounds apiece. The robberies promptly stop ped and was so effective the bad guys moved on and the guards had to find other work. The m ines soon turned fickle , the price of silver dropped and the spectulators ha d bled the market dry, so the mills finally fell silent . T he J and S . closed its doors in May of 1877 . The mill was a very impressive structure, but all that remains today is the brick smokestack and a stone wall . The stack is over 100 feet high and I believe • •' .' 'II 11' . built by Flemish bricklayers. The nogood-niks are shooting at the stack and have damaged it badly. Tricks like this get us shut out of many good places to ride. In July of 1876 a clou db urst sent tons of water cascading off Sentinel Peak, down Frenchman Canyon and on through Surprise Canyon. It took a good portion of the clapboard town, which was laid out along one mile of 00 (j) ca nyon bottom, and washed it down .-4 the mountain into th e ' dry lake in Panamint Valley. A few hardy people hung on and eeked out a bare living. The post office finally closed in 1895 . A minor strike in the 20s resulted in most of the buildings that now stand. Six -point-one miles from Ballarat you 'pass the site of Chris Wicht's home. It is all gone now, having been partiy washed away and then burned by vand als. in its place is an old trailer belonging to a miner running a one man tungsten operatin. His mine is just up the road. On some maps the place is marked as Chris Wicks Camp. . At this point the good road ends illld its pretty tough from here on up. Just to make it more difficult the weather took a dramatic and dastardly change. As we .neared the seven -mile mark it sta rted to snow and the next four m iles caused us a peck of trouble. The rocky road became slick, the temperature felt like zero , my son had to discard his iced up goggles and I could barely see th rough my riding glasses . We had to get within 200 yards of the massive smokestack before we could see it. Just as we stopped the snow let up a tad allowing us to get some photos, admire the scenery briefly and get ready for a hasty retreat. A few hundred feet past the smokestack there is a locked gate. No vehicles but a walk up canyon is OK. When I was first here in 1967, "Shotgun Mary" still lived here, guarding a mine. The myth was that she shot at anyone who passed the gate. Fact: No shooting but her language would have made a Iongshoreman blush. Going down we stopped at Lime Kiln Spring for another photo or two and discovered a hole in the camera clicker's engine case. The oil was departing rapidly. Chewing gum and duct tape couldn't help us so we limped the bike back to camp, very carefully. T he bike is now in intensive care at the scooter shop. For rides in the area I'd no w recommend the biggest and longest skid plate you can get . The stoc k plate on the 360 didn't cut it , at least this time. This three day trip was super . and the two of us will remember it for years to come. On the Goler Wash ride we saw no one on the entire route. On the other two rides the number of people seen would fit into a six passenger station wagon. There are a couple of things to re o member. There is nothing to buy in . Ballarat. Food, gasoline, liquid refreshments, etc., can only be obtained in nearby Trona, about 25 miles away. Also please take your own wood. Don't use anything burnable from the town. It is a State H isto rical Site. Take only pictures and leave only tire tracks. Several maps that can be very useful are: the Auto Club map of Death Valley, the BLM maps of Panamint and Argus , and the following USGS topo maps: Telescope Peak, CA , Manly Peak, CA, and Wingate Wash , CA . Ap ril, ' Ma y a nd J une for the spring tim e and October and November for th e fall are th e best tim es for a ride. I'v e done both a nd I prefer the fall. In mid -summer it will h it 100 degrees plus even in th e h igh canyons . .Gas up the van or truck, gas up the old scooter an d go for it. You won 't regret it. • o 11 ' . • ~. { . .. .... ' f ' ..

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