Death Valley to Las Vegas - December 29, 2003 Winter Desert

We paid careful attention to the weather forecast in the days leading up to our run. We had conned, er, convinced Don's friend Blair to crew for us. We wanted to do some kind of run for the New Year. Don had the idea of combining it with a trip to Las Vegas. And since we like Death Valley so much, why not run from there to Vegas? We looked at some maps and figured it was about 120 miles. Then we got my Topo software working and found it was 116 miles. The high points weren't that high, mainly an initial climb to about 3,000 feet, and then at about 90 miles the highest point would be about 5,500 feet. The climbs were very gradual. So we figured the distance and the hard surface of the road would be our two main challenges. Boy were we in for a surprise. Our plan was to run straight through. If we needed a break around Pahrump, which was about the mid-way point, we might take a short nap. We planned on starting from Furnace Creek and finishing on the Strip in Vegas, at the intersection with Tropicana Blvd. The estimated time was about 36 hours, I guessed, unless we were suddenly speedy and could do it faster. You never know what will happen out there. The drive down to Death Valley passed quickly. There was some traffic, a lot of it campers. We went through Ridgecrest, and then when we had just passed Trona (a depressed town of one business--chemical mining), Don realized we were running low on gas. Very low. We knew the road ahead was flat except for Towne's Pass. Although my car displays an estimate of miles left, this varies with speed and hills. We weren't sure we could make it. We also knew that after Towne's Pass, it was downhill all the way to Stovepipe Wells, where there was a gas station. Don's plan was to coast once we topped the pass. I guess I didn't worry too much. The worst that could happen would be that we'd have to hike into Stovepipe. We cruised down, even passing a camper, then came upon a group of slow traffic. We still made it into the gas station. I thought the tank was 15.5 gallons, but 16 went in that time. Empty! We went across the road to the hotel and saloon, where we had a beer. It was strange for us to be in Death Valley and be cold. The weather was just like any other cold place in December. People were running around wearing their cold weather clothes. It was just too normal. We left and headed to Furnace Creek, where we were staying for the night. I expected it to be busy there, since I'd been told by the reservations lady that it was high season. The camping lot was full of RVs and the rooms were all booked up. When we went to dinner, there were long lines at both the coffee shop-type diner and the steakhouse restaurant. We shared Buffalo wings, Don had a burger, and I had lasagna. Then we went to the store for some last minute items and an ice cream. Blair and Cynthia, our crew, turned up at about 9:30 as we were about ready for bed. Blair had no problem going straight to bed, so we weren't kept up any later. We were getting up at 5:00 am to prepare for our run, but we wouldn't need any crew help for 4-5 hours. So Blair and Cynthia could sleep in. Oh yeah, on our way into the hotel we spilled a can of Succeed! Amino sports drink powder in the hallway. It looked bad so Don called right away for a cleanup of "some weird powder." In the morning we got dressed and gathered up our gear as quietly as we could, and headed out into the cold. It didn't seem as bad as we expected. We went out onto the familiar road, and then passed the Badwater turnoff. Then it was new territory. The road was almost always slightly upwards. It made it hard to get going and keep going at a trot. We are ultrarunners; we are taught to walk the hills. But what if your run is just one big hill? As the sun rose, the Valley changed colors and we saw some impressive views. Still, it wasn't quite the same as seeing it all in mid-July. There were some touristy spots with people milling about. The traffic was occasional, so it didn't get too annoying. Most drivers were very courteous, swinging wide around us into the other side of the road. We were running facing traffic, of course. Some were not so smart about it though, determined to stay in their own lane not budging an inch even if it meant side-swiping us.

We were feeling good. There wasn't much sign of rain, and we kept eating and drinking and peeing. Before we set off, Don had a chocolate milk and I had a chocolate Slimfast. As we ran we had ham and cheese sandwiches, cheetos, and peanut butter crackers. Don had a camelback full of water, plus two bottles and I had three bottles, one bottle with CLIP in it. Our pace was very easy and Don kept taking pictures. I felt like we would never get going at that rate. Then Don started timing our miles, and even with photo or potty breaks, we were doing under 15 minutes per mile. A continuous pace of 4 miles per hour would have us finishing in under 30 hours. But things don't stay continuous through the night. I knew that. Suddenly, two cars we recognized flew by and parked just up ahead of us. Blair was driving Don's car and Cynthia was driving mine. Our first aid stop! I think it was around 10:30 am. We picked up some more food items and topped up the water. That was all we needed for the moment. After they left, Don realized we hadn't checked our map and weren't exactly sure which way to go at Death Valley Junction. We knew we went left or right for only a little bit and then turned off again. It turned out to be an obvious choice which way to go. We could see the junction from miles off, with buildings around it. It never seemed to get any closer--even after hours of running. It looked like a little town in the distance, but turned out to be just buildings. At the junction, we crossed Highway 127 to continue on State Line Road. The rain was still holding off, so we felt lucky. But, there was some wind, and at times it was bitterly cold. When Blair and Cynthia met us again, we knew we needed to prepare for darkness falling and the temperature dropping. We added some warmer gloves and hats, and got our flashlights and reflective vests. I was getting annoyed about the unresponsive traffic passing us. Here we were, two runners out in the middle of nowhere running along a small highway, and people just passed by as if we were normal. I wanted to see kids pointing out the windows and expressions of shock and puzzlement. They were not to be found. I noticed maybe two people that had those expressions. We almost made a friend out there. A guy on a bicycle on the other side of the road gradually passed us. He was focused on the road ahead and didn't really say anything. But then, he stopped to fix a tire, so we came past him. I asked "How's it going," and Don asked "Where are you heading?" His answer was "Vegas." Of course. Us too. He said, "On foot? God bless you." He said something odd though, that I didn't quite catch, like that he was number 82 in the race. I wondered if maybe he was insane. Well...

As it started to get dark we paused to readjust our gear. A pickup truck passed us turned around and stopped by to see if we needed a ride. It was nice that they were concerned. We smiled and said everything was fine. We thought it was cute at the time. Although, it did start to get pretty cold. Blair had said something about seeing Pahrump and it looking farther away than it was. Of course, that was in a car in daytime. Now it was dark and we were looking for the lights of the town. We saw some far away lights and then a roadside billboard welcoming us to Pahrump, "the center of the new old west" or something like that. We still had miles to go to get to the middle of town where there would be food places. Blair and Cynthia met us again, just as we were coming into civilization. Cynthia gave us chicken broth. Blair said there were fast food places when we got to Highway 160. We wanted to know for sure that there was a Taco Bell. Their soft tacos had worked well on another long run of ours. We cut through the middle of town. It seemed that Pahrump was made up of mobile homes and pre-fab houses. Each had a fairly large lot, some Christmas decorations, and more often than not, some dogs. The well-trained dogs only barked when we were in front of their property and would quiet immediately after we passed by. We finally reached the main strip and saw that Taco Bell was closed. Sigh. So we trotted over to McDonalds. It was a couple minutes after 11:00 pm and we were out of luck. A local police officer kept crossing our path in his car and met up with us at McDonalds, with a, "Say, are you folks hungry? The Nugget's your best bet around here." So that's where we went--a casino coffee shop for hot sandwiches. I felt and looked like crap. A woman at the table next to us was giving me pitiful looks. I felt sorry for her--she had 4 kids with her. Don and I didn't say too much, but neither of us was looking forward to going back out in the cold, knowing that it was only getting colder and that we would be heading out of town and up, which would make it even colder than cold. Blair was going to meet us at 4:00 am, our expected hour of most need. So, we went out there again. As we moved farther away from the lights and the town, it got more windy. Yes, it was cold. The temperature was about 30 degrees and falling when we left Pahrump, and the wind was blowing in our faces. We had handwarmer packets in our gloves. We were going slightly uphill, heading eventually toward our 5,500 foot pass. And then the weather really turned on us. It started to rain. We were wearing rain jackets and a lot of layers, but the rain was constant and blowing in our faces. And it was cold. Handwarmers stop working when they are wet. We were going along on the side of a 4-lane highway that had a ditch dividing the two directions. We were on the side facing traffic and the shoulder was rough. I didn't want to carry a flashlight because my fingers were going numb, but it was hard to see where to step into the shoulder when cars came. The shoulder looked like a river to me. The rain got colder and kind of slushy. It made a different sound as it hit my jacket and landed on the ground. "Don, it's snowing." That's what I said. This was starting to look bad. We thought maybe there would have been a casino or something along the way by now, since there were signs on the way out of town, but there was nothing and less than nothing. The signs were all gone. There were only occasional cars speeding by. It was about 2:30 am. All we could do was wait for Blair, but we had to keep moving. So we kept going up that hill. We would have called him but Don's cell phone stopped working in the cold. I guess the battery froze. At close to 4:00, we talked a little about how Blair would pick us up. The highway was divided and we were on the side facing traffic. We would want to be on the other side for him to get us. Also, there seemed to be nowhere to turn around. This bothered me a lot. Finally we saw a place to do a U-turn that said No Turns. It was after 4:00. We decided to sort of walk up and down around this area so that Blair wouldn't miss us, and he could get us and be able to turn around. We were not going to continue in the increasing snow. We needed a warm hotel room.

It was 4:15 and still no sign of Blair. I started to wonder if we might die out there. Don suggested hitchhiking. But we'd need to go back to the other side of the road. And actually, the traffic going in the direction Pahrump had pretty much ended. Dying out there would be a bad thing. I hated the cold. Every set of headlights we saw gave us hope and then disappointment. We had almost stopped moving when Blair did show up, close to 4:30. I don't know if he was surprised or not when we piled our stuff and ourselves into the car and told him to hang a U-turn and get us to the room. I was just glad we were saved. The room had a huge space on the floor and the heat worked well, so Blair threw all the blankets down for us and two pillows and we quickly fell asleep after throwing our wet clothes in a pile. I was actually being careful to separate the clothes that were too wet to use and the ones I would use when we started running again. This could be just a nap. Couldn't it? We woke up around 8:00 am. Most of me hurt. My lungs felt bad. I was coughing. I don't know exactly when we decided we weren't going back out there, but I certainly knew then. It was still very cold out. We had been out there for 22 hours. After showering and grabbing those Taco Bell soft tacos, we drove out to Vegas on the route we would have run. It turned out we had made it 12 miles out of town--farther than we had thought. The car outside temperature was reading in the low 30's and this was late morning. As we continued up the road to the pass, the temperature dropped more and snow was all around us. It was completely white at the top. There was no shoulder left to the highway--it was covered in snow. We realized I was right about being near death. Had we continued, we would not have made it. We were lucky. As we came down the other side of the pass into Vegas, everything was still covered in snow. There was snow in Vegas! There was even snow on the Luxor. We had just so happened to attempt our run during one of the coldest storms ever in that area. How funny that we had both run Badwater that July in the hottest days of summer ever. The difference in temperatures we experienced in summer vs. winter was about 110 degrees. Our total run was 72 miles. We called it good training and a good excuse to have fun in Vegas for the New Year!