Motorcycle Adventures: Heaven to Hell Ride---August, 2012

Heaven to Hell 1000 Ride ----Completed

August 22-23, 2012

Top of Pikes Peak  via 
 Independence Pass and Ely, NV to Bad Water in Death Valley - lowest point in 
 North America in 24 Hours

This ride was first finished in 2010 by Mike Kneebone, the founder and president of the modern-day Iron Butt Association, and his son, Kevin Masa. Some IBA riders may look down their noses at Saddle sore 1000 mile rides, thinking that ONLY 1,000 miles in a day in too easy. Well, although the timing of this ride was not a problem, the roads and road conditions certainly were a challenge.

When the ride was first conceived, the final portion of the Pikes Peak Highway was unpaved hard packed dirt. It is now paved. But that small difference made little impact on the difficulty of this ride.

The ride starts at the Visitor Center at the top of Pikes Peak, travels down the 20 mile Pikes Peak Highway, through the high plains towards Buena Vista, then over Independence Pass and into Äspen. From there the we go to Glenwood Springs, and pick up Interstate 70 to Salina, CO, where we join US 50, known as the loneliest road in the world, since most of it is through the high desert.

At Ely, NV, we head south to Beatty, NV, and then down down down to Badwater, CA, the lowest point in the US.

There were two reasons for me to take this ride, along with Tim Masterson and Joe Green. First and foremost, it sounds like a neat ride. Second, I wanted to collect National Park Service Passport Stamps from Colorado, Nevada and California. (We couldn’t get a stamp in Utah because of the timing and route of this trip.) One serious negative about the route is that you could end up riding through the desert on US 50 at night. There would be no protection from coyotes and other animals crossing the roadway in the pitch-black darkness. And hitting one of those critters would really ruin the day.

So we decided to start our trek from Pike’s Peak at 3 PM. That time would take us through Independence Pass and to Glenwood Springs during daylight, and put us on the Interstate just at darkness. We would then ride the Interstate until it ended in US 50, spend 5 hours in a motel, and begin riding again at daybreak.

The downside of this route and timing is that it would put us at our destination around 2 PM—the hottest part of the day in one of the hottest places on the continent. Oh well, we chose safety over comfort and decided to go with the 3 PM departure time.

Joe
Green, Howard Entman, Tim Masterson

We arrived at the Visitors Center early, about 1:30 PM, parked our bikes, and got off. Wow! After just three steps I found myself breathing rapidly—the 14,110 foot altitude makes a difference.

So I decided not to run, just walk slowly to the water fountain for a nice drink.

I noticed a big sign indicating that this weekend was the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon, where runners run up the mountain from the base, a running distance of 13.3 miles on dirt trails, climbing about 8,000 feet while they do it. I like to participate in running events, but that one’s not on my bucket list!

At 2:56 pm I bought a donut, got my starting cash register receipt with the time and date, and walked, slowly, back to the bike for the start.

The ride down was slow. The road is twisty-turny, and has a double yellow line most of the 20 miles. Most cars drive slower than motorcycles, so even in low gear, I was riding the brake for a lot of the way. Some 40 minutes after the start, we arrived at the base and were able to pick up some speed.

Petrified redwood stumps

Thirty miles or so from the base, we took a quick detour to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument for a passport stamp. The traffic was very heavy coming towards us, but just moderate in our direction. The road is two lane, with long stretches of double yellow lines, so our speed was less than I had planned, but we all had large fuel tanks, so we didn’t have to stop often.

Narrow roads in the mountains

After getting to Highway 82 just north of Buena Vista, we began the ascent to Independence Pass. The two lane road has several switchbacks and many small sections of “narrow road.” The narrow portions, all running along the side of the mountain, are clearly not two lane roads. There is no centerline. It is just a wide single lane. That’s why vehicles are limited to thirty feet in length for this road. Fortunately, we didn’t have any oncoming traffic on these narrow portions.

As we descended from Independence Pass, we entered the town of Aspen. It was around 7 PM, and the smell of garlic from the many restaurants in town perfumed the air (and made me hungry). But we were about 30 minutes behind schedule, so stopping for a nice bistro dinner was out of the question. Besides, Iron Butt riders rarely stop for a restaurant dinner when on the road.

From Aspen to Glenwood Springs the road became four lane, faster, but not as pretty. We fueled up at Glenwood and got on the interstate just as it was getting dark.

The three hour, 250 mile ride on the interstate to Salina was uneventful. Even on the interstate, you must maintain awareness of what’s on the road ahead. There were no animals, but there were three truck tire carcasses in the middle of the road on this stretch. Running over one of those could damage the bike and the rider.

We had made reservations in Delta, UT, for the night. That was a one hour ride from Salina—again, a two lane road, reasonably flat, but with no fencing on the sides to keep the animals away. Even with my bright high intensity headlights, I felt like I couldn’t see far enough down the road or to the sides. On this stretch I saw one deer along the side of the road and a larger brown animal, maybe a moose, in a field about 100 feet from the road.

We checked in to the hotel, fell immediately to sleep, awoke 4 hours later without the benefit of an alarm, and ate a quick motel breakfast. Then we were off, riding down US 50 in the early morning sun.

Highway 50

The stretch to Ely is about 100 miles, and there were only a few little towns along the way. Otherwise, there was nothing but desert. No cell phone coverage, few if any cars going the other way, and a speed limit of 70 mph. Tim led this leg and our speed was right at the speed limit.

Just after we passed the sign "Ëly City Limit,” there was a large gas station, but Tim passed it and continued into and through town; he also passed the intersection with Highway 93 where we needed to turn left.

Several blocks farther, Tim did turn left and we stopped at a smaller gas station, where we fueled. He had put this gas station in his GPS some time ago when we talked about spending the night in Ely. In any event, it took 15 minutes or so to find our way back to the highway—we had a grand tour of Ely as our GPS kept trying to take us onto unpaved hilly streets in town. At this point, I pulled into the lead and picked up the pace just a little.

The road to Beatty was much like the road to Ely—barren desert with a town every 50 miles or so. The rawness of the landscape was beautiful!

The temperature in Ely was pleasant, but the closer we got to Beatty, the warmer -- no hotter-- it got.

Three miles before Beatty there was road construction narrowing the road to one lane with a sign that said “Expect long delays—possibly 30 minutes.” This is NOT what any rider on a timed run wants to see. Fortunately, our side of the road was moving slowly when we arrived—we didn’t have to wait at all. The single lane stretch was about 5 miles long and took 15 minutes to cover. Had we arrived 5 minutes later, we might have been stuck there while the cars from the other direction made their way.

Sitting on your bike in full riding gear, in the sun, in the desert, would not make for a fun experience!

At this point, we knew that we would meet our time objective at Badwater, which was some 45 minutes away. Tim and I took off our shirts and soaked them in the sink at the gas station. This would keep us cooler for the ride into Death Valley. Joe decided not to do this. And off we went.

Highway 190 in Death Valley

Note the air temp

The paved roads in Death Valley are excellent. The speed limit in the park is 45 mph, but everybody travels a little faster. On the way, we stopped at the park’s visitor center in Furnace Creek for our stamp. We didn’t stay here long, because the temperature was 113 degrees!