Carry on

The last training trip is out of the way...

And the race shoes are broken in (covered in mud)

Death Valley in the summer was pretty much how I remembered.  But no amount of riding through on a motorcycle years ago could prepare me for rucking in the Badwater Basin yesterday



This is one of the lowest places in the western hemisphere.  As I drove in I watched the car's outside temperature display tick up... 111, 112, 113F.

The basin is five and a half miles wide. It took me two and a half hours to make the westward walk towards Telescope Peak. The full trip to the top of the peak adds nine miles and 11,000 ft of vertical.  It's one of the toughest hikes in the U.S., and sounds like a good idea after this Gobi race.



Most of the basin is a salt pan, covered by brittle sheets of the stuff over an alkaline mud layer.  My shoes found that layer with just about every step.



I initially had 4.2 liters of amenshi (water) when I set out towards the blazing sun.  I had drunk 3 by the time I made it to the west side... whoops



Telescope laughed at me as I drug myself to the vegetation at its feet



I paid tribute to the mountains (by "watering" the vegetation)...



... and turned right around set off eastward, the parking lot not even coming into sight until the last two miles or so... I decided not to drink ANY water during the five and a half miles back across.  Needed to know what my body does during dehydration... so I can recognize the signs in China.  The answer: bloody nose and edema in the hands (probably also due to lack of salt... maybe I should have licked the basin a few times).

Over 50 years ago a group of men (and a lady) had to make an incredible escape from Siberia and ended up walking across the Gobi to be free.  A few of them didn't make it, and edema was the tall tale sign of impending death for each one of them.  Pretty rattling to see the same signs




This is a neat sight coming back.. Can you see the sea level indicator on the rocks?

Doesn't look like 5 miles staring back across, but all I have to imagine is doing this round trip 15 times, and that's the Gobi March.  I took a dip in Tecopa Springs on the way to Baker, where I scarfed down a celebratory gyro.  Then I drove home, ready for the last few days before flying out...