Death Valley 2016 Run Report

This is the second year that I organized a cabin camping run near Death Valley. This year we went to a different cabin that in the opinion, and of those that have cabin camped in the Death Valley area is hands down the best out there. It is Briggs Cabin in South Park Canyon Tim Ragan, Dwayne Wilson and myself met Thursday (November 3rd) 07:00 at the Starbucks on Cochran in Simi Valley. We greeted one another, topped of the coffee tanks, climbed aboard our steeds and headed for our first stop at Mojave for a quick 10-100 and gas. A quick sprint to Trona for our next gas up before heading into the wilderness. We arrived at the trail head of South Park Canyon about 12:45. We aired down and away we went. While airing down a husband/wife team in a Cherokee passed us going up South Park. Luckily they were not going to occupy a cabin. Our destination was Briggs Cabin. It is nestled in a small scenic valley about 2/3’s of the way up South Park Canyon. The climb up South Park to the cabin is about 45 minutes of winding trail and shelf road up the Panamint Mountains. You can stop about half way up the road at an overlook for a spectacular view of the Panamint valley, check out our pictures it was stunning! We arrived at Briggs Cabin and luck was on our side, no one was occupying it. The public use etiquette is to raise the American flag that is usually supplied with each cabin to signify occupancy. Thant was our first task on arrival along with the OTR flag raised just below the stars and stripes, it was officially ours for the weekend!. The reason I started this trip on early Thursday was to ensure that we were able to get Briggs cabin for the entire weekend. Later in the day on Thursday another group arrived and surely would have occupied Briggs cabin had we not arrived when we did. Always get there early! A quick description of this cabin, First it is one of two adjacent cabins, the other being the Stone Cabin that is just below Briggs. Briggs is my favorite for several reasons. It is just plain cool. It is extremely well cared for by the Friends of Briggs Cabin with every amenity that a wilderness camper could ever want and more. Here are a few the notable features. Indoor bunk sleeping for 8, a wood stove, full kitchen with the following. 4 burner propane stove, a propane refrigerator, small propane oven, hot water heater and shower, propane gas lamps (I brought a large bbq propane cylinder to power all the systems), solar system that powers LED lighting, a radio exhaust fans and a device charging station. Running water from a hillside spring that is said to be safe to drink and flows at 50 gallons per hour. A 2 meter radio antenna on the roof, ample outdoor seating, bbq grills, work shop area, covered shooting range, horseshoe pit and a really nice privy with a well-stocked magazine rack. What else could one want in a remote cabin? We unpacked our gear and settled in. Just below the cabin is a road that leads to the Suitcase mine. I thought it would make a nice afternoon hike. I thought the road was unpassable. It turns out that after hiking the road to the top that we could have driven up to the mine. We walked the entire trip that had to be nearly a thousand feet of vertical. The reward was another epic view of the valley. Turns out that it’s almost as hard going down as it was going up. But we all survived and worked up a nice appetite. We returned to our cabin and we broke out the appetizers in OTR fashion, ate our dinners and watched the sun set in the west while the fire crackled in the fire pit. The weather on our first day was as good as it gets here. Clear blue skies, day time high of about 84 degrees and the night time low of only 55-60. The rest of the weekend weather was just a carbon copy of the first day. Friday; Friday it was myself, Tim and Dwayne, and our plan was to explore the upper reaches of South park Canyon, traverse the ridge looking down into the western edge of Death Valley and then drop into Pleasant canyon to Balarat then back to South park Canyon and up to the cabin. We hit the trail a bit after 0900 and began the switch back climb up South Park. You don’t get too far before you come to a few really interesting obstacles, one being a wooden bridge that spans a collapsed portion of the shelf road. The story goes that an old miner didn’t want any claim jumper to access his mine so he blasted the shelf road to block anyone from getting to his claim. The other is just after the bridge and is called Chicken Rock. I will back up just a bit just a few hundred yards. Just before the bridge the road narrows significantly as you round a bend. From the drivers perspective there very little room for your rig and there is a several hundred foot drop off a very steep wall to your left and as you round the bend you only have a few feet of road to spare. From the driver’s seat it looks as you are about to plunge off the shelf to a certain death. Actually there is plenty of room, it looks worse than it is. You then approach the bridge that it made of wooden logs and as you start your crossing, you climb onto the logs and your front end lifts and the view of the bridge disappears for a few second, YIKES!. Not too bad. Then comes Chicken rock. It is one of those obstacles that are not too technical; it just has that holy crap, suck up the seat cover view as you go around a right turn that tilts you to the left so that you are looking down the ravine and into the abyss of death kind of look. As you edge around the corner you tip more and more to the left as your right tire climbs Chicken rock. And just when you are about to scream like a school girl you level out and it’s over. Easy! We spotted each other thru the scary spots and then continued up to explore Thorndike Mine and a shell of a cabin in the upper Sough Park canyon meadow. As we passed thru the upper meadow there was a large herd of wild burros, very cool. We arrived at the top of the canyon and to an amazing overlook down into the Butte Valley, where the striped Butte and Russel Camp cabin form last year are. The visibility had to be nearly 75 miles. Stunning! We found the trail that eluded me last year that traversed the ridge to the north. This trail has some fun steep climbs up and over several peaks along the ridge. Everyone did great and we had no issues. At the end of the ridge trail and the top of Pleasant Canyon was a sign that signified a spot called Rogers Pass. This was part of the 1849 escape route for the Manly-Bennett-Arcane party that had separated from a larger group that was going from Salt Lake to the San Joaquin Valley. They inadvertently became trapped in Death Valley by the Panamint Mountains. Manly and Rogers left to group and found a route thought the mountains and returned with supplies and led the remaining survivors to safety via this pass. We descended Pleasant Canyon with a lunch stop at a trail intersection and cabin site in Mormon Gulch. After lunch we made our way to the very large mine called the World Beater Mine. This is a very cool site to explore and stand in awe as to how the miners of an era gone by accomplished the amazing tasks of building and operating a mine this large in such a harsh environment. My hats off to them, true men! We left the World Beater and descended Pleasant Canyon to Balarat. A quick stop at Balarat then back up South Park to the cabin for dinner and another sunset. Friday evening we were joined by Paul Rourman and Kevin Hay. We are now at 5 vehicles. Saturday; Saturday We decided that today we would go to the Defense Mine and Lookout City. The plan also included Jail Canyon if time allowed. We awoke with the sun and Dwayne made a great big batch of bacon and scrambled eggs for everyone. It was amazing. We hit the trail about 0900 again and went down South Park to Balarat, to the main road(178 Trona Wildrose Road) heading north. As we exited the paved road I got a call on the radio from Tim that my right rear shock was broken. I pulled off and found that the upper bolt had actually fallen out. I was able to install a new bolt in a few minutes and we continued on our way. We hit the trail again and made our way up the canyon toward the base of Lookout Mountain. We ascended Lookout mtn. to the old ghost town. It is again that we are reminded of what it must have been like in the 1850-1900 timeframe up here. From the story on the wall of the remaining foundation of the general store it was a very rough and tumble town. We explored the area for a bit then we backtracked over to the Defense Mine. If you have never been to Defense Mine it’s a very cool mine to visit. You can still enter the mine and explore as far in as you dare. It appears to be very stable, more so than most we saw so this weekend. We had lunch in the shade of a canyon wall, right at the base of the ore chute. After lunch we climbed the hill and entered the mine. Dwayne and I went in for quite a way, exploring many of the tunnels. If you are really brave you can ascend some ladders and explore other levels. We were amazed how preserved all the timbers and chutes were in this mine. It is like time has stood still here. We finished with defense mine and started down the canyon. We got the difficult section of the trail; a section I think is the second waterfall. Dwayne and I decided to backtrack and do this loop for a bit of fun, after all we are OTR. The others wanted to wait behind. It actually wasn’t very hard this year. Maybe we need a few good rain storms to wash it out and amp up the difficulty factor. We rejoined the group and headed out. We bypassed the V notch this time. But there is always next time. Paul decided that he had been off the grid a bit too much in the recent weeks and he decided it might be better for his marriage that he cut his weekend short and head home. Thanks for coming Paul, it was great to wheel with you and we totally get it. Some of the group needed some gas and weren’t too far from Panamint Springs so we made a quick detour there for gas. We bought some expensive gas and I got an expensive milkshake. It was really good. The day so far was great, but taking a bit longer that we had thought. We decided that the side trip to Jail Canyon would have to wait for another trip. We saddled up and worked our way back to home base, Briggs cabin. We arrived before dark and found we had neighbors at the Stone cabin as well as a momma and baby burro on the trail near our cabin. We settled in for another perfect night at the cabin. Friends, food, fire and beer. Perfect!!!! The sun set below the mountains, the fire crackled, and the food was delicious. I forgot to tell you we had the best rock station all weekend on the cabin radio (speakers on the patio) , KSSI 102.1 out of China Lake. So the music was rocking. We talked, laughed and had a fantastic last evening at the cabin. Sunday. We had one last group breakfast, loaded our rigs. Cleaned the cabin and drained the water system according to the instructions. Brought the flags down and started out trek home. Everyone made it home safely and it was another great trip with my OTR brothers. Thanks everyone for coming, this cabin is a gem that you must experience before it is gone forever. I hope to take another group here next year. Bob Boltner