Tuesday. October 21st, 2014
Total Miles: 262

It was in the mid 80’s when we packed up the bike.  Too hot for coffee and we wanted to get on the road before it warmed up.  We made it 20 miles down the road in Stovepipe Wells we saw a fellow adventure rider working on his bike.  We stopped and met Nate Waybrant who was headed to Argentina.  He was riding a BMW Dakar 650.  His fuel line was deteriorating.  We could smell the gas when we pulled up.  He was in the process of cutting the end of the hose and reconnecting an area with less cracks.  Super cool guy originally from Michigan he had already been to Alaska on this trip.  He seemed like he had it covered and we headed on.  You can follow his travels on his Delmore page.

We cut down through Emigrant Canyon on Wildrose Road.  I was shocked that the temperature had dropped almost 15 degrees as we gained elevation.  We went through the road closed signs and made it no problem.

We headed north and decided to stop for lunch at Panamint Springs Resort.  Amazing beer selection.  Best beer selection we have seen so far on the trip.  We spilt a blu cheese bacon burger and a beer.  We meet the General Manager and his little sister and they were very personable.

We loaded up and headed out.

Turns out there is a brewery just 15 miles off our planned route.  Only a 15 minute detour we decided to head to Indian Springs Brewery.  Turns out they bottle more soda than beer. Not worth the detour but we did meet a young guy who had just moved to the area from Michigan.  He suggested we check out Kern River Brewing Company.  Turns out that Brewery was just 15 miles south of our route later in the day.  We finished our beer and doubled back to 9 Mile Canyon Road.  We were in for a fun afternoon of a twisty blacktop road.

We pulled into Troy Meadows campground.  I used the bathroom and we filled up our water bottles.  We chatted with a few hunters.  This would have been a great spot to set up camp for the night but it was only 3:30pm and a little early to call it a day.  We kept going and ended up following the Kern River and ended up in Kernville and the  Kern River Brewery Company.  We had a couple of beers, dinner and watched game 1 of the World Series where we watched the Royals lose.  We ended up getting a room next door at the Kern Lodge.  The room was fine but the walls were very thin.  The folks in the room next door were crazy loud when they arrived home in the early hours of the morning.  That being said I was grateful to have a shower after such a hot night in Death Valley.  Our room was $94.