I'm off to Death Valley on Thursday. And would like to ride from Trona -> Escape Route -> Goler Wash -> Mengel Pass ->Death Valley. I've found gps tracks for Goler Wash -> Mengel Pass and one of an Escape Route loop. Any pointers? Kalle
You might check here: http://www.gpsxchange.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=5013&sid=f99e7529889b1c5a01b507a1082034f9 daryl
I also found this post http://advrider.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2222036&postcount=2 Which has a bunch of DV gps tracks http://advrider.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=66125&d=1137381064. But doesn't include the Escape Route.
I have tracks for every open road in and around Death Valley on GPSXchange.com Better yet I will download tracks to your GPS if you come on one of the Death Valley rides on DualSportWest.com
Thanks Jerry. I guess I suck. Didn't see a route that included Trona -> Goler. But just checked out http://DualSportWest.com. Maybe I'll see you at the Death Valley 350. Kalle
So where exactly does this Escape Route go to and from. It sounds interesting. We had a few guys looking for one when we got to the downhill side of the ledge in Goler Wash a couple of years ago. I will check Jerry's tracks for something by that name.
The escape route was used in the winter of 1849-1850 by to men, Manly & Rodgers. As in Manly Pass and Rodgers Dry Lake now Edwards AFB. Lots of information at visitors center in Death Valley. To find out more, read Manly's book Escape From Death Valley or one by Johnson & Johnson. There is another small book titled Julia. Turns out Julia was born just after they escaped and was being carried by her mother thru all this. The route goes from Bennet's long camp up to Stripped Butte Valley and probably down Redlands canyon then across Panamint Valley then up Fish Cyn (see marker for where Fish's body was found) over Manly pass, and down Isham Cyn where Isham's body was found. Then across China Lake NAS to Indian Wells (now micro brewery) then down thru Red Rock Cyn to Desert Spring just east of Jawbone Station then to Solodad Canyon to Santa Clarita. Many years ago the Death Valley 49ers marked several miles with short re-bar posts with "ET" on top. There are a couple on the road in Panamint Valley and some at Manly Pass. Manly & Rodgers did it alone on foot, then returned to rescue the families and guided them to LA. When the party went over the Panamints, Manly was said to have llked back and said "Good by Death Valley" or " Good by Valley of Death" and the name stuck.
Kalle, Everything you ask is in "Death Valley Tracks" file. You are looking in Private Libraries? Jerry
Jerry, I think your DeathValley.gdb file in GPSXchange is corrupt. I have tried downloading it 3 times on 2 different computers. Both Mapsource and BaseCamp say it is not a valid gpd file. You might want to take a look at it when you get a chance.
Crazy problem, several people have said that but I can download it fine. I re-load the gdb and also added gpx. I thought the gpx was too large but it went. Please test both and let me know.
I was able to load the gpx but not the gdb. I got the same error about it not being a valid Mapsource file. Must be some strange gremlin in there. I tried saving the gpx as a gdb and I was able to read back the gdb I created. Thanks for looking into this so quick and posting a good workaround.
Very strange why I can open it. What version of MapSource? I am sure you have at least 3.13 Anyway can you see motorized routes along "Escape Trail"?
I have Mapsource 6.16.1 on one computer and I think one rev newer on my Notebook. I went back and looked at your description of the route. I had to do some searching. I found a place called Bennet's Well and I found Redland's Canyon. My National Parks 24k topos show a road most of the way thru Redlands Canyon but only to a spring and not on out to Panamint. I only have Topos West for outside the Park, but I will look for some of your other key points later.
6.16 may be problem. Many of us never went past 6.13 because of problems. Escape route was walked, it is not open to vehicles except in very few places. There are roads to kind of basically follow it. Warm springs cyn, Mengle Pass, Gohler cyn, around south end of Panamint damp lake, up Fish or single track to Manly pass. There is jeep road down Ishm but it has big water falls that are not fun on bike, P190 jeep road to south is what to take. I have been down on bike but not possible up. No one knows exactly where they crossed are Argus range to Indian Wells but it is now China Lake Navel Weapons Station and closed anyway. Redlands had big dry ter fall that only a one eyed mule got up and down. Horses they brought back could not get up it and were dead when they retured. They plushed oxen over it and none broke legs. children were carried in saddle bags on the oxen. Now the Briggs mine has taken all of Redlands cyn.
Resurrecting an old thread here to see whether there is in fact a route that goes from Goler Wash over to 178 (without going all the way north to Ballarat) so that we can get gas in Trona / Valley Wells. The Harrison map shows P168 and P170 but I can't see either with Google satellite maps.
I have all legal routes posted on GpsXchange.com. Yes P170 & P168 are the short (rocky) way plus the Horse race trail which I only use West to East.
Thanks Jerry! I will have a look at GpsXchange.com I"m hoping to find a reasonably easy route traveling both east and west for some good "C" riders. Single track is fine so long as it isn't too gnarly. Doable???
NO Single Track is A or B Enduro rider trail. I wouldn't send a real C rider on P168 but P 170 is real fun.
I'm not sure of the nomenclature, but my first post in this ride report has some pictures of one of the single tracks I believe that is in question. Would I do it again on the 950 solo? Maybe, but certainly west-to-east only. The Panamint Valley side of this "shortcut" is kind of confusing, there are various tracks on the ground that differ from gps tracks. No signage. http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/through-the-valley-of-death-solo.679908/
Thank you Sir! Looks pretty tasty in the pics from your report.... .... but i know how nasty some of those sections of sand and babyheads can be..... clearly W>E is the way to go. Doesn't look like we'll do that crossing this time, but good info for a future trip.
