Death Valley, Day 2
This morning I headed out around 8:30 AM. I wanted to visit Ubehebe Crater, but by the time I got to Stovepipe Wells (about halfway) it was too hot for both me and the Atom. The Atom oil temperature hit 226 on some of the uphill pulls.
So I turned around at Stovepipe Wells and headed back to the Panamint Springs Resort where I’m staying. My room is a “comfortable” 97 degrees.
I’ll head out around 5 in the morning when the outside temperature should be down to the mid-90’s.
According to the National Weather Service, we’re having a heat wave:
Excessive Heat Warning
Statement as of 4:45 AM MDT on July 17, 2010
… Excessive heat warning remains in effect until 9 PM PDT /9 PM
MST/ Sunday…
The excessive heat warning covers elevations below 4000 feet for
Clark and southern Nye counties in southern Nevada… southern
Mohave County in Arizona… the deserts of San Bernardino County as
well as Death Valley National Park in eastern California.
* Expected temperature: 108 to 115 degrees in the Las Vegas
Valley… around 112 degrees at Pahrump and Barstow… 115 to 118
degrees from Mesquite south down the Colorado River valley to
Lake Havasu City… 122 to 125 degrees at furnace creek in Death
Valley National Park and 104 to 106 degrees at Kingman. In
addition… unusually high humidity will make it feel several
degrees hotter than it did Thursday with similar temperatures.
* Greatest impact areas: the hottest temperatures will occur
within the Colorado River valley and Death Valley National
Park. Plan any outdoor activities in the early morning or in
the evening after sunset.
Update: There were still temporary signs saying “Caution – runners on road”, as the Badwater Ultramarathon just wrapped up a couple of days ago. Out of 80 entrants, only 7 did not complete the 135-mile course. That is amazing!
Update 2: Here’s one picture from a run down the valley I did at sunset:
Update 3: After Panamint closed for the night, I gave the guy that was running the general store a ride down the valley and back after dark. He thought the Atom was a blast! There’s a very funny story about this ride – I asked the guy if he had a helmet, and he said “of course”. So, after he closed the general store he went back to his trailer to get it. After quite a while, he comes back and says “I couldn’t find it, but a friend gave me this thing as a gag gift. I’ll use that.” The “thing” in question was an old-style gas mask, with the accordion hose and canaster that hangs down like an elephant’s trunk. It is a good thing it was dark and the road was deserted – anyone seeing us would have died of laughter! The bright spot near the top left in the first video is the moon.
Now that a nice long time has passed, I’m making the following 2 videos public (they had been marked private before).
Rollbar camera video:
Nose camera video:
(The above videos are the full 480i versions. Click the 
icon on the top right to go fullscreen.)
