We left Fremont quite late on Saturday at around 4:00 PM. Our ride was not going to be as long as the prior ones since we planned to go only as far as Bakersfield. It was a hot day and riding didn’t make things better because the air was burning hot so it was like putting your face inside an oven with a medieval torture device strapped around your head. We just took lots of breaks and guzzled water like it was going out of production.
Rest Stop in Westley
Sunset in Kettleman City
Rolling Hills in Kettleman City
We did have another bike-related mishap; however, one might say it was self-inflicted. After a quick dinner at a McDonald’s in the middle of nowhere, we passed by what looked like a giant pit with sand and gravel paths. Phil thought it would be a good idea to do a bit of off-road practice with me and the loaded bike.
Because I like to encourage human flourishing, I went along with it. Things were going well while we were on mostly solid ground; however, once the bike went into several inches of soft sand, we went sideways. The bike fell in slow-motion so no injuries and no damages to the bike. The silver lining was that we discovered that the two of us can lift the bike with all the load and in sand.
The next day, we started with a stop at Cycle Gear shortly after they opened. Phil wanted me to stop trying to summon the Grim Reaper and discovered, by chance, that they have a store in Bakersfield. We both got mesh jackets and cooling vests, which were a godsent because the day kept getting hotter and hotter as we headed towards Pahrump. The town is located close to Death Valley and we were headed there because Phil wanted to get some off-road training (again) from Jimmy Lewis.
The temperature peaked at 48 °C and, unfortunately, so did my tolerance for heat. I’m the type of person who loves cold weather to a point that, every year, I start counting down to Fall from the first day of Summer. So it’s no surprise that no matter how much water I drank, I got overheated.
We stopped at a rest stop in Baker and ended up staying there for 2.5 hours with Phil constantly pouring water on me and making me drink in an effort to cool me down. Some kind strangers also took pity on me and offered me Gatorade and Coke.
I love me some cooling vests
This ordeal lead us to decide not to go all the way to Pahrump because the temperature had not dropped by much so we stopped in Primm for the night. We also dropped Death Valley and New Orleans from our itinerary because I decided that dying from hypothermia is better than dying from a heat stroke.
