Home / Mojave Preserve and Desert bikepacking trips / 2008: Mojave National Preserve Mountain-Bike Camping and Hike / Day 8: Butcher Knife Canyon to Nipton via Death Valley Mine, Cima and Morning Star Mine Road, Mojave National Preserve 51
Last night's wind storm was quite an event and it kept me up late, so I've slept in late again. I'm looking forward to the facilities at Nipton and my first shower in a week. 33.1 mostly downhill bicycle miles from 4600 feet to 3000 feet.
- I heat up a boil-in-bag Indian-style breakfast, happy that my tent survived last night's wind storm
The strong wind this morning persists in its attempt to extinguish the flame of my propane burner, so it's taking longer than usual to boil water. At least it's no longer rip-the-tent-apart windy like it was last night. - After two cups of good strong coffee, my Tasty Bite spinach dal and rice breakfast is ready; mmmm
This Tasty Bite spinach dal and rice meal is quite a bit heavier than my dehydrated backpacking meals, but I like to bring one along anyway on longer trips because of the home-cooked flavour. The portion size (in the white plastic bowl) is a bit small to serve as a complete meal after a strenuous day, but it's just right for breakfast. I imagine myself being "Popeye the sailor man" after this delicious breakfast and smoke a late-morning pipe accordingly. My "other dessert" is a Ritter Sport dark chocolate bar that has become increasingly deformed each day. For a change, it's solid enough to eat this morning because the temperatures dropped a little overnight. Most mornings, this poor chocolate bar has been melted by mid-morning and just barely held together by its wrapper. - Puncture vine, I hate you: here's one of the many nondescript goathead (puncture vine) plants that cover this meadow
I'm still amazed that I haven't had a flat tire yet from the sharp thorn balls everywhere here. The thorn balls are those white gravel-like pebbles on the ground that are practically unnoticeable. - One other unavoidable item around the Butcher Knife corral is small droppings
They seem to be big enough to be rabbit droppings, or something like that. I've been hoping that they're too big to be hantavirus-carrying rodent droppings. - I begin dismantling the tent by removing the large rocks that I placed inside at the corners
Staking down the tent here didn't work (and often doesn't in the desert), due to sand and gravel on the surface and hard-as-rock earth beneath that layer. - Almost everything is packed up now, so it's time to take the tent down and make departure from Butcher Knife Canyon official
I find that one of my tent poles is quite bent, a victim of last night's wind storm, but it doesn't appear to have affected the tent's performance. Kudos to this low-end REI tent! - I assemble the 10-ton bike just beyond the goathead-infested meadow at the Butcher Knife corral
I've been lucky so far to not get a flat tire, so I carry my belongings piece-by-piece to the edge of the meadow a few hundred feet away, beyond which there is only native vegetation and no goathead thorns. - I ride down the Butcher Knife Canyon road, satisfied that I've managed to leave my campsite by 13h
With my heavy load, I find myself walking and scootering the bike along some stretches of the road, but it doesn't feel too strenuous yet. My confidence level is high because of the extra water I'm carrying, thanks to the springs I visited yesterday. - The last mile or so before Death Valley Mine in the sand trap is tough again, so I drag the bike through parts of it
But it's so scenic that I'm enjoying the "down time" here nonetheless. - After 4.5 miles, I stop for a short break at the old Death Valley Mine site at 4400 feet elevation
I wanted to stop here on the way to Butcher Knife Canyon, but had no time because it was about to get dark. - I walk up the road to the old house at the Death Valley Mine site
It looks like a large old Craftsman-style house from around 1920. - The front of the old house at Death Valley Mine has a row of joshua trees planted in front of it
What could be more appropriate than native desert landscaping that looks great? - At the base of the joshua-tree grove are rocks and a few other native plants
Orange desert mallow and cacti were planted here as well. The residents here apparently understood native plants. - Approaching the front door of the old house at Death Valley Mine
An old mailbox is still attached to the post. One thing that makes this house quite different from others of its Craftsman style that one might see in Detroit, Cincinnati or San José is the tin roof. - Front porch of the Craftsman house at Death Valley Mine, Mojave National Preserve
The floor boards are very weathered and probably weren't painted too many times. - The house is very warped, and a glance inside one of the "basement windows" explains why
The support beams of this old house rest mostly on the ground and don't appear to have much of a foundation beneath them. - Behind the house at Death Valley Mine is a tank presumably for stove and furnace oil, and an exterior bathtub room
Note the "Shell Oil" engraving on the tank. Oil drums like these were once common on the east coast in towns where old stoves for heating, cooking and hot water burned oil. - Vandals have removed the boards off the back door, so I walk in and see old stairs to the basement
My first concern is that perhaps the vandals are living here, but they aren't. I've already seen that this house doesn't have a basement, so I'm guessing that these stairs lead to a cold-storage room. I don't descend to learn more. - Old knob-and-tube wiring once provided power to the light fixture outside the rear porch door
Modern wiring on the left shows that this house has received some modern electrical updates during more recent decades. - Inside the old Death Valley Mine Craftsman house
Plaster in the house has all been removed, suggesting that the National Parks Service may restore this building. As is typical for a Craftsman-style house of this era, built-in shelves and posts separate the dining room from the living room. - Behind the main house at Death Valley Mine are an old corral and a big shed
The corral looks empty, but what's in that shed? - Pickles! In addition to some old paint cans and wood trim pieces, some old bottles of home-made pickles are in the shed...
The colors of the vegetables, except for one bottle, are rather faded: how old are these?!?! - The back side of the main house at Death Valley Mine viewed from the corral
Two old bathtubs sit on the edge of the corral. - A big raven's nest sits in the eaves of the main house at Death Valley Mine
I might not have noticed the nest if a big startled raven hadn't flown out of it as I walked by. A lot of chicken wire surrounds the house, serving as a trellis for the drought-tolerant vine that uses it for support. - Just beyond the main house at Death Valley Mine is a second, smaller house
It was built more like a cabin, with none of the Craftsman stylishness of the main house. - Death Valley Mine house #2 also has drought-tolerant vines growing in front of it
This house hasn't aged as well as the main house. Some of the outer walls appear damaged by weather and vandals. - The decaying front porch of Death Valley Mine house #2
The boards covering the windows and doors on both of these houses are recent additions, probably mounted by the National Parks Service. An original board-and-batten exterior seems to exist under the outer wall covering of the house. - Rear of Death Valley Mine house #2
Vandals haven't removed the boards off the doors of this house yet, so I don't get to take a peek at the interior. - The walls around the corral out back send a prominent "keep out" message
The joshua tree forest provides an old-west backdrop. - I return to the 10-ton bike in the sand trap on the old Cima Road
It has been fun walking around the residential corner of the Death Valley Mine property and I wish I had time to explore the old mining area next door. However, I want to make it to the Nipton General Store some 30 miles away before it closes at 18h. - I ride down the old 2.5-mile-long road toward Cima, my next stop
Once I get beyond the big sand trap by Death Valley Mine, the rolling dirt road through joshua tree forest is mostly ridable in my slightly downhill direction (elevation drop of about 200 feet), despite some surface sand here and there. Cima is the small light patch at the centre-left in the photo. - I reach the junction of the paved Kelso-Cima Road and stop in at the Cima Store
It looks deserted, but I'll take a closer look anyway. The store is the double doors to the right, while the post office occupies the left end of the building. - Indeed, the Cima Store is closed
Store hours here are known to be erratic, so a bicycle camper needs to treat this as a spring that may or may not have water. I still have adequate drinking water from yesterday's hike to Cottonwood Spring and Butcher Knife Spring. - The post office is closed, but the lobby is still open
I step inside the well-weathered old building. - Postal boxes inside the old post office at Cima, California, Mojave National Preserve
Above the postal boxes is a yellowed map of the region served by the Cima post office. - Mounted on the map is a roster of the postmasters of the Cima post office here since 1905, printed by typewriter
The most recent entry lists Irene Aussus, who runs the Cima store and has been the Cima postmaster for 45 years now (since 1963). - I end my 15-minute break at Cima and get the 10-ton bike and I back on pavement at Cima Junction
Not much remains at Cima besides the post office, the store and a few old houses that are returning to nature like the one in the background here. - At the start of the long ride down Morning Star Mine Road, I stop to look up toward Butcher Knife Canyon
Butcher Knife Canyon, where I camped the last two nights, should be that spot at the right where the hills dip down a bit lower. The location where I have pulled off the main road is an intersecting power-line road that cuts across the desert, a few parts of which I have previously travelled. - After the big curve coming up, the fun hill down Morning Star Mine Road will begin
It's not extremely busy, but this is one of the busiest roads in Mojave National Preserve. Traffic is fast-moving and the road does not sport a paved shoulder. - Wheeeeee, Morning Star Mine Road descends into the Ivanpah Valley and the haze of the day
The road drops from 4300 feet to 2750 feet over about 11 miles. It's not especially steep, but the downhill is long, sustained, and is great fun to ride down. It seems to go on forever. - I stop briefly at the old corral on the way down Morning Star Mine Road
I hate to break an enjoyable descent, but... On a hot day climbing this hill during my 2006 Mojave Preserve trip, I chatted with a pipe-smoking man and his wife camping here who gave me a Camelbak filled with ice water. Alas, he's not here today. I wouldn't mind having the opportunity to thank him again. - Back on pavement, the 10-ton bike and I fly gracefully down Morning Star Mine Road
After the corral, 8.5 miles remain before the bottom of the road. The weather is perfect (high 70s), I sometimes have a bit of a breeze pushing me from behind, and I reach 32 miles per hour on the way down. - Darn: "stop ahead," complete with skid marks on the pavement
My big descent for the day down Morning Star Mine Road necessarily comes to a flying halt. I turn left at the bottom onto Ivanpah Road and begin the final 10 miles to Nipton across the Ivanpah Valley. - For three miles, I skirt the western edge of Ivanpah Valley on the paved Ivanpah Road
Ivanpah Road rises behind me into the east end of the New York Mountains; I hope to ride up that way before the end of the trip. - Ivanpah Road ends
I turn right on Nipton Road. - The final seven miles to Nipton crosses the dusty bottom of Ivanpah Valley
Nipton is the blotch of buildings in the distance at the left. - The scrub at the bottom of Ivanpah Valley is different from most areas in Mojave National Preserve
Presumably this is due to high alkaline soils (Ivanpah Dry Lake is not too far north of the road here). - I reach Nipton around 17h15 and check in at the general store for a tent-camping site
The last three miles to Nipton are always a bit of a tease because pedalling gets slower due to the slight slope rising out of the Ivanpah Valley. Nipton is as charming and semi-crusty today as on my previous trips here. The tent sites are overpriced, but the facilities compensate under the circumstances. I can't wait to have a shower, my first in seven days. A late-night soak in the outdoor hot tub should be nice later. - The small campground at Nipton, with New York Mountains in the background, is almost empty tonight, which suits me just fine
Nipton offers a few canvas-walled "tent cabins," seen here in the background, in addition to their restored bed-and-breakfast house and a handful of tent and RV sites. - After setting up camp, I sit down with a couple of cold beers from the store, enjoy the sunset and listen to the passing trains
The cold (mmmm, cold) beer is incredibly refreshing after a long day in the sun and a decent amount of calorie-burning. It's a very pleasant end-of-the-day with a cool breeze setting in. The café is open for a couple of evening hours, so I walk over and order one of Bill's juicy hamburgers with a side of his crispy French fries, instead of eating another backpacker meal. Yum. Convenience. Faaat. The only other customers at the café tonight are Pat and Pam, a vivacious couple visiting from the UK, who are staying in Nipton's bed and breakfast. We chat a lot, drink more beer and hang out at the café for a couple of hours. After the café closes, Pat and Pam invite me inside the bed and breakfast to help them finish off a bottle of wine. The evening evaporated, I walk back to my tent in a pleasantly drunk condition. I fall asleep almost instantly and don't even hear the late-night trains passing a few hundred feet away. - Mojave National Preserve map, Day 8: Butcher Knife Canyon corral to Nipton