September 22

~10 miles, 500’ gain

After a hearty breakfast and final preparations at the Pless home, we all loaded into a van, along with Matt’s wife Indy, who would drive the van back to Las Vegas, for a 3 hour drive to Badwater Basin in Death Valley. We made one last stop in civilization at the Crowbar in the little “town” of Shoshone for a lunch and some pre-trip interviews for the documentary. Once we arrived at Badwater the temperature was around 113F, and both John and Matt wanted to wait for it to drop a bit before setting out, so we killed some time with a short detour to Devil’s Golf Course. Once back at Badwater the temp was 110F and we set off an hour or so before sundown across the salt basin.

A good summer monsoon season (2+ inches) meant we had a fairly smooth route across the salt basin, as the moisture helps even out the terrain. We actually sunk through the crust in a few places on the western side of the basin due to subterranean moisture from an underground river. Most of the crossing was done under moonlight which added to the otherworldly feel to the crossing. Once across, we headed north, then westward on dirt tracks toward Trail Canyon. Quite late at night we made camp on the alluvial fan above the valley. I needed no sleeping bag and slept under stars on my sleeping pad; the first of a few nights where the pad actually got firmer over the night from sitting on the hot ground!