Cycling in the Desert is Easy!

We left Ron's in Quartz Hill early with a considerable tailwind and headed East into a desert landscape with the San Gabriel mountains to our right.  We planned to get as far as we could before wild camping somewhere between Helendale and Barstow which would have been about 70 miles or so with the route we'd chosen to take via Blackbird Airpark to look at some of the planes they have there as part of the Airforce Test Flight Museum.  But with the wind at our backs we hurtled along at about 15mph and had made it past Helendale by mid-afternoon and were happy to keep pedalling along Historic Route 66.

The houses we passed by and the towns we passed through were pretty ramshackle and we wondered who would choose to live out here.  Many of the houses we passed had angry dogs barking at us through big chain-link fences and large gates.  We actually got chased a couple of times and had to peddle hard to escape the rabid beasts.  All this made for inhospitable looking possible wild camping spots as we neared the city of Barstow.  We skirted around the edge of the town and found our way to Yermo Road which ran alongside I-15.  We saw the sign for a KOA campground and decided that even though we had a couple of hours of sunlight left we were tired and had covered over 95 miles and were happy to pay for the privilege of a definite safe place to sleep, showers and drinking water. Having checked the route on Google maps I now think we actually cycled about 105 miles!!!  My first ever century ride and the furthest we'd ridden on our loaded bikes ever.

The wind was really howling and we had a bit of a fight to get the tent up.  We had some dinner and ended up chatting with three motorbikers who were also camping there who were impressed with our progress and encouraging about our trip.  We had showers and an early night so we could get going at first light.  We managed to get on the road by 7am and got back onto Yermo Road.  We'd spent quite a bit of time checking this road out on Google maps and knew that we needed to get off it and onto the interstate at Harvard Road as after that the road looked like it was somewhat impassable as it looked like there was a collapsed bridge.  However when we got to Harvard Road the sign at the entrance to the freeway said 'Pedestrians, Bicycles, Motor-driven Cycles Prohibited'.  We were in a bit of a quandary as there was also a sign on Yermo Road saying 'Road Closed Ahead'.  After a little debate we decided it was better to stay on Yermo Road and hope it was easy enough to get past the bridge even if we had to portage our bikes.  It was a bit worrying as if we had to back-track the same lovely tailwind we were benefiting from would suddenly be our sworn enemy.  Luckily we could get past the road blocks and the bridge wasn't collapsed so we definitely made the right decision since a completely empty road, albeit of pretty atrocious quality in parts versus a busy freeway is generally preferable on a bike.

We did have to join the freeway shortly after the dodgy bridge, but we were making short work of the miles until about 12 miles from Baker when Tom got the first puncture of our trip.  He very cleverly timed this for when we were near a gas station so we were able to fix it in the forecourt rather than on the shoulder.  We made it to Baker by about noon and headed to Denny's for a meal and some shelter from the sun.  We spent a couple of hours taking advantage of the free wifi and free refills and felt confident about how far we could make it before dark.

Fools.  Now heading East onto Kelbaker Road we entered into the Mojave National Preserve and were faced with a long old slog up about 2700ft in hot, desert sunshine and no helpful wind at our back.  We knew we could camp anywhere in the National Preserve, but we needed more water and needed to get it from Kelso Depot about 35 miles from Baker.  I thought the visitor centre was open until 6pm so we were watching the clock as we made slow progress up the unexpected climb.  Eventually we reached the summit and were rewarded with about 10 miles of downhill; whooping and cheering we raced towards our little oasis.

As we pulled into the carpark we were surprised to see two other cycle tourers.  They had run out of alcohol for their stove and so we offered the use of our gas stove and decided we would camp together so we could benefit from their wild camping knowledge and they could use our stove.  Although we both felt ready to stop for the day Dan & Mary wanted to get a few more miles under their belt so we pressed on.  I think we ended up cycling more than 90 miles in total.

Meeting these guys was yet another amazingly lucky, serendipitous turn of events.  We got on well and they offered for us to stay with them in Henderson which is where we were heading, on the outskirts of Vegas.  We shared the delicious lentil soup Mary made and Dan pointed out lots of constellations in the starry sky.  After our first night wild camping we had an early start as they wanted to make it all the way to Henderson, about 80 miles away.  It was really nice cycling with company and while Tom and Mary blitzed up the hills Dan and I would pootle along behind.  They had cycled this way before so knew what hills to expect and could point out different plants of the region and other interesting stuff.  We made it to Prim just over the state line where desperate Californians come to get their casino fix if they can't be bothered to go all the way to Vegas and after a quick break got on the old frontage road.  It was good to be off the interstate again and as we got closer to Henderson Dan and Mary got faster and faster and we struggled to keep up.  We made a quick stop for some essentials (beer, wine and snacks) and made it to Mary's Mum's house as darkness fell.  Boy were we pleased to have arrived and we looked forward to a couple of days off and the bright lights of Vegas baby!