Tuesday April 8, 0mi/0km

Death Valley CA to Amboy CA (driving)

I drove all day, covering about 400 miles on paved roads and another 20 miles of dirt roads, burying 4 caches in the sand. I started the day in Death Valley, and decided to play tourist for a few minutes, visiting the water fountain at Furnace Creek, and seeing how warm it was at the lowest place in the US.

I left the park and drove uphill 4,000 vertical feet and did some reconnaissance in the little town of Shoshone. I’m not planning on making it this far on my short section of trail this year, but I know we will be here next year.

Then I went a few minutes down the road to the little hamlet of Tecopa Hot Springs, which is basically just 3 different hot springs businesses competing on the same road. The first one had a spiritual vibe with a bunch of wiccans, the second one had a creepy feel with the owner slipping the word Jesus into every single sentence, and the third one felt just normal. Plus the town had a post office, a surprisingly great cafe, and a brand new microbrewery.

I drove 30 minutes down the highway and attempted my first cache, but the dirt road had a few deep-ish ruts and I didn’t want to get high-centered. The next spot I had better luck at Halloran summit off the I-15 freeway. Step 1 dig the hole:

Step 2 fill the hole with water and delicious snacks:

Step 3 return the dirt and hide everything:

The whole process only took about 30 minutes, and after taking a bunch of photos and saving the location on my GPS, I was on my way to the next spot. I got to drive across the beautiful Mojave Preserve on semi-famous Kelbaker Road.

I drove by the Kelso Depot visitor Center which is still closed for construction but at least the bathrooms and water fountains are open. I buried two more water caches in the preserve, and then the fourth one down on old route 66 near Amboy. When I was digging the last hole it was starting to get dark and somebody drove by and asked me what I was doing. After explaining I was caching water, she offered to help but also said that it looked creepy digging a deep hole in the encroaching darkness. Good point.

I picked a random spot in the desert to camp in my van tonight, and tomorrow I have four more water caches to bury, and then I will put my car in storage and begin hiking a 300-mile section the Desert Trail!