Parts four and five of five parts - Trona Pinnacles Trail, Slate Range Trail, Mengel Pass Trail, Harry Wade Escape Route and the Ibex Dunes Trail.
Part one:
http://www.sccxterra.com/smf/index.php/topic,464.0.htmlPart two:
http://www.sccxterra.com/smf/index.php/topic,466.0.htmlPart three:
http://www.sccxterra.com/smf/index.php/topic,467.0.html
Harry Wade Exit Route and Ibex Dunes
(only rough estimate of the trails taken)
The Harry Wade Exit RouteFlowing south out of Death Valley the Harry Wade Exit Route follows the Wade families 1849 escape route for 30.5 miles. The trail is an incredibly easy graded trail with only a few patches of deep sand. The Wades were the only ones to escape from the "lost wagon train". The other members of their group, the Jayhawkers and the Bennett-Arcane party either abandoned or burned their wagons. All the members experienced starvation and the extreme hardships of dealing with the impossible terrain and the extreme weather. The three groups broke up and the Wade family headed south initially following an old Indian trail. They remained with their wagons unlike others who burned theirs to cook and smoke ox meat.
The posted speed limit is 35 mph but the only thing to limit your speed is the air in your tires.
Harry Wade Exit Route and Ibex Dunes
Harry Wade Exit Route and Ibex Dunes
Harry Wade Exit Route and Ibex Dunes
And a bigger version:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/Death%20Valley%20Solo%20Nov%202009/Harry%20Wade%20and%20Ibex/DeathValleyHarryWadeExitRoutePanora.jpgIbex Dunes TrailThe trail is 7.8 miles long and was a bit tougher and a whole lot more interesting than the Wade Exit Route. The Ibex Dunes sits at the far south end of Death Valley in the small valley between the Saddle Peak Hills and the Ibex Hills. The trail runs about 2 miles away from the dunes with the distance between the trail and the dunes off-limits to vehicles of any kind. If it wasn't so late in a long day we might have made the hike out there.
There is a bit of deep sand that needed 4WD to get through and a few mild places near the top of pass but overall this trial is easy enough for any SUV.
Harry Wade Exit Route and Ibex Dunes
Harry Wade Exit Route and Ibex Dunes
Harry Wade Exit Route and Ibex Dunes
Harry Wade Exit Route and Ibex Dunes
The trail runs out of the Death Valley park and meets California 127 which runs south to the 15.
Harry Wade Exit Route and Ibex Dunes
Overall the trip took 453 miles round trip across three long/full days and two nights. Total off-road distance was about 115 miles. We filled up our fuel and water at Searles so we had plenty of both - I had brought 5 gallons of water and 10 gallons of extra fuel on the roof and 7.5 gallons of water inside the truck. No break downs of any kind and that's a good thing. There was no cell phone service out there and the trails were nearly completely empty - I ran into a pair of guys in a Jeep and some tourist around the Hot Springs cabins and along the West Death Valley road. If I were to run it again I would have attempted to camp at the Hot Springs campground area (NOT in the cabins), run the Barker Ranch side trip, and taken the Ibex Springs Trail off of the Ibex Dunes Trail. Come the end of three days of driving we were all pretty tired so I pointed the truck south and drove the 4 hours home on night three.
Gear comments: The
Zodi shower was great and was a nice way to start the morning off for the long day on the trail. The
Volcano II barbecue grill was very nice and we ran it in the propane mode to avoid having to worry about fire restrictions (which were lifted in all areas visited). I used a solar powered
BoGoLight SN2 flash light and it was a great light around the campground. The
Garmin 660 GPS failed ... well, technically I failed to the topo load maps for the area that far north but the GPS coordinates were still visible and worked. The paper topo maps did not fail. The
Engel freezer kept everything frozen and ran all night long off the axillary battery. The
Xterra was it's routine hard working beast - the climbs up and down the valleys and passes proved no trouble, most of the time I was in 2WD, a bit in 4WD high, and a couple of times climbing loose/wet rock I put it into low range, the tires were aired down to 18 psi.
