We decided to take some friends to Death Valley for a ride. They had not been there since they moved to California 8 years ago. We had all ridden together on several occasions so I knew he could make the trip easily. My biggest concern was the weather. It is spring time and even in California the weather can be a little nasty. Most of the problems occur getting there as opposed to in the valley.
We headed out on a Friday. My wife, who does not care for the long ride to get to Death Valley, but enjoys riding around the valley on the bike, decided to drive her car and meet us there. Her friend joined her for most of the way.
The weather was beautiful if not a little cool. Probably in the high 50's most of the way. It finally stayed above 60 as we were about half way between Baker and Death Valley. The rest of the day was comfortable and fortunately little wind.
On Sarueday morning we got up, had breakfast and headed for Dantes Point over looking the valley.the temperature was almost 60 when we left Furnace Creek at 9 am. My friend brought little more than a vent jacket to wear. I told him it would be cooler up at Dantes so he put a liner in the bikes storage. Well when we got to Dantes it was 39 degrees and fairly windy. Needless to say he was a bit under dressed. We did not stay long. We spent the rest of the day riding and hiking. It was all in all a good day. The weather was not suppose to be as good on Sunday so we decided to take the car out to Scotty's Castle and Ubehebe Crater. This turned out to be a good call. It was raining and the temps were in the low 40's. We could barely get out of the car at the crater as the wind was gusting at over 40 mph.
Our plan was to leave the next morning. Not too early as the weather had not been good between Death Valley and home. That morning it was beautiful.
We decided to leave at around 9:30 in order to hit the Cajon Pass, 4200 feet elevation, around noon. We thought that that would give the weather a chance to clear and warm up a bit. The girls left about an hour before us since they were in the car. We hit a little wind leaving the valley but all in all a good ride, until we hit Barstow. It started raining lightly leaving Barstow. As we headed up to the Cajon Pass, at about 3000 ft it started snowing. It got heavy enough to coat my windscreen with over a half inch of snow. My face shield on the helmet was also covered. That left me riding looking over the windscreen with my visor up. The snow was pelting my eyes making it very difficult to see. Fortunately the traffic was moving pretty slow. My bigger concern was ice. The temperature had dropped to 32 as we neared the top. We stayed close enough behind traffic where the road would hopefully stay warm enough not to freeze. As we started down the south side of the pass the snow turned to hail. Normally this would not be welcome but as it turned out it lasted just long enough to clear the snow off the bike and my helmet.
The rest of the ride back was a little cool and wet but thaws just fine compared to snow and hail. Looking forward to summer now.
