Sunday, November 14, 1993 found us awakened by the busy camp life, as folks started preparations to break camp and leave.  Of course, we had to stop at Chef Andy's for breakfast, as the cold, canned food just didn't seem all that great anymore.  After breakfast, Karen said farewell, as she had to be at work the next day.  So, I was left, once again, to my own devices.  

I decided to fool around awhile in the Panamint Valley area, since I'd traveled over 400 miles to come to the event, Panamint Valley Days 1993.  So, from base camp, I headed east up Surprise Canyon, with the destination of Chris Wicht's Camp.  

Nice drive.  You head up the alluvial fan from base camp, enter the canyon, and just drive.  It's all a Class 1 road until just before Chris Wicht's Camp when the trail and the creek become one.  At that point, it's Class 2.  Near some decaying buildings, there is an excellent place to park and enjoy the scenery.

Chris Wicht was a bartender at Ballarat and a part-time miner, and a full-time drinker. In the course of his employment as a bartender at Ballarat, he was shot, stabbed, but it was the booze that finally killed him in the 1930's.  He had attempted to establish Chris Wicht's Camp as a resort, since there was ample water and it was higher and out of a good deal of the Panamint Valley heat.  However, the camp really never amounted to a lot.

Left:  Leaving Chris Wicht's Camp, the creek is the trail!  Really!  Right:  Looking east, into Chris Wicht's Camp.

Sure, it was November, but I hadn't had a bath in four days, so the creek was a welcome diversion.  After a bath, it was time to head down the canyon, past the rapidly departing base camp, and on to Jail Canyon.

Actually, I wanted only to start on the Jail Canyon trail, and turn off on a trail to Tuber Canyon.  

So I started on the Jail Canyon trail, and headed up the alluvial fan.  Just as the fan started to get steep, there was a trail that turned off to the north, or, from my point of view, to the left.  I turned off on this and immediately, went down a steep grade into a wash.  Then, I drove down the wash for a few hundred meters, until it was time to climb out of it, up an equally steep grade.  

This "road" (really a Class 3 trail,) is signed by the B.L.M. as "P-63" and basically heads north along the base of the Panamints.   On the way to Tuber canyon, you pass the ruins of the O.B. Joyfull mine. There is a off-shoot trail into Tuber Canyon, which is explored.  In Tuber Canyon, there are a lot of areas where the rock walls narrow down to just a few meters, and rise up vertically on either side of you.  Quite interesting.

Left:  I took a break to photograph the Bronco on Road P63, in Tuber Wash; you can see Panamint Valley and the Argus Range in the background.  Right:  Looking west into Panamint Valley and the Argus Range, from the junction of Roads P63 and P64.

Update:  The California Desert Protection Act, passed by Congress in July, 1994, elevated Death Valley to the status of a National Park.  As a result of this act, Tuber Canyon and road "P-63" were closed to vehicular traffic. You can walk, or ride a horse up the canyon, but you can't drive the trails anymore.  If fact, if you don't know where to look, you'd never see the trail.

However, as much fun as I was having, it was getting time to think about starting to head home.  I explored "P-63" and Tuber Canyon, and then joined the Pavement at the Trona/Wildrose road.

I made my camp for the night at the south end of Panamint Valley, off the Nedeau Road.  Of course I had a nice, cheery campfire, had a few beers and smoked a cigar or two.  For dinner, it was canned corn beef hash and green beans.  Cold, out of the can, or course!

Left:  I'm all smiles as a friendly B.L.M. ranger, Frank, snapped my photo just before my departure.  Right: Somehow Frank managed to snap a rather poetic photic phoo of me looking to the west.

Monday, November 15, 1993- Gee, had to get up, break camp and get going, as work was calling me at 0730 on Tuesday.  I just threw everything in the Bronco and drove.  I stopped in Ridgecrest for a delicious breakfast at McDonald's.  Then, it was west on Hwy 58 through Tehachapi, and Bakersfield, and then Hwy 99 north to Merced. I got home around 1600, happy, but exhausted.  Then, it was a matter of cleaning the Bronco, and putting stuff away.  After a take-out Chinese dinner and a couple of MJDs, it was time for bed, and the routine of up-and-at--it-for-work-the-next-morning.

Epilog:  The brake job, as a result of the ride down South Park Canyon, resulted in a bill of over $600.00. Quite an expensive ride!