TO RETURN TO THIS PAGE,  CLICK “BADWATER OR BUST” WORDS ABOVE

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ONLY THOSE WHO RISK GOING TOO FAR

WILL DISCOVER HOW FAR THEY CAN GO

This weblog exists to follow the progress of author, adventurer, and naturalist Steve Greene on his Death Valley Tricycle Expedition, as he begins by tricycling into a mysterious hidden world 282 feet below sea level. This is Steve’s first cross-country journey in a human-powered vehicle. Read about his preparatory phase HERE.

The majority of posts appearing below have been entered by enthusiastic supporters of this expedition. Steve contacted these people when telephone service was available en route, provided them the latest progress, and the information was then placed on the weblog. This third-party arrangement was established so that Steve did not have to carry a laptop in his already-heavy gear. Posts from Steve appear subsequent to the conclusion of the travel to and through Death Valley.

Postings appear in reverse chronological order, with the newer posts on top of each page. Ten posts appear per page. Earlier posts are accessible by the “Older Posts” link at the bottom of each page. Click any of the tabs above to view expedition photographs, which are best understood by first reading the corresponding posts.

Start date: October 01, 2009. Vehicle: ICE Q narrow-track tricycle, with trailer. Objectives: Travel from the Pacific Ocean on the central Oregon coast to Death Valley’s Badwater Basin, tour selected portions of Death Valley National Park, attend Old West Days in Shoshone, speak at Death Valley 49ers Author’s Breakfast at Stovepipe Wells, and share with others the adventures of traveling through the natural world by trike. End date: November 06, 2009. Duration: 37 days. Human-Powered Distance Traveled: 1,030 kilometers / 640 miles. Weather: Rain, snow, ice, 100-degree temps, 70 MPH winds, dirt storms. Elevations: Highest: 5,925 / Lowest -282.

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“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Steve at Zabriskie Point, with Red Cathedral, Manly Beacon, and Death Valley in background. Wednesday, October 28, 2009

(photograph by Paul Gareau, Pan American cyclist)

This particular journey to Badwater from Oregon is now history. I continue to return to this weblog, and persist in posting new entries, in my attempt to keep it alive, for the experience was one of intense satisfaction, and leaving it behind seems inappropriate. I do not wish to abandon what has been so meticulously crafted within these pages, words and photos prepared by a small crew of expedition enthusiasts who made sure that my progress was regularly reported to you.

The good news is that this Badwater or Bust blog will always be here for you and me to access at any time. That is the nice thing about internet sites. And if I analyze these feelings of closure, I realize that I am not walking away from this journey, but merely building upon it the next exploratory adventure that calls to my spirit. This was a door in my universe that I walked through, not knowing what was to be encountered on the other side. By walking through this mysterious portal, I now realize that other opportunities beckon, passages that prior to the ’09 Badwater trek I would not have understood.

Making the decision to embark upon this expedition back in May was both exciting and intimidating, as never before had I done anything quite like it. Solo overland journeys of many days or weeks tests a person’s mettle, even before they begin. Quite simply put, you have to really want it to do it. Two-thousand-nine was my year to finally break out of the box and put my toes into the icy river of living on the edge. Like the river, life flows along quickly, and I had decided that I was no longer content to just accept things because everyone else does them that way. It was time for me to make my own way.

Sure, the Death Valley Tricycle Expedition was relatively mild by comparison to what intrepid folks like Alex Grove, Paul Gareau, or Mark Beaumont have done, where the mileages are recorded in thousands, and the times are recorded in months. Yet, we all must start somewhere, I suppose. This was a grand ride of adventure that was just right for my first time out on a trike. With the annoying Achilles issue, my cycling mileage was cut short, and I opted for auto transport part of the way to Death Valley National Park so that I could spend more time riding free on the trike in my old stompin’ grounds before the tendons gave out for good. Death Valley was my focus, and I am happy to have made the rounds while there.

This expedition forms my entry into future life explorations through the natural world, journeys that I will continue to make because I have learned that I feel at home while on them. Most of us search for who we are, seeking a purpose behind our fleeting time in this life. I believe I have found my path, one that my tricycle helps me travel. I do not fit into traditional cultural norms, so neither does my newly acquired means of transport. By embarking upon challenging physical voyages in the backcountry, my mind is also becoming stronger, and I can look at myself and feel strong in my convictions. And with the rugged explorers I met on this journey, who were also living on the edge and pushing their limits, I found a powerful connection that was instantly sensed, a tie that bonds through unspoken thoughts – this was one of my finest unexpected joys.

Traveling on the ICE Q through three western states opened my eyes to another world. The stable and reliable recumbent trike allows for swift and comfortable travel that is not restricted by the specter of long distances. Leaving no toxins in the wake, my silent passage along the little known byways of the west permitted me to pitch undetected stealth camps in the wilds. It was a feeling of total freedom, not under the control of any petroleum delivery systems … a freedom powered by the trike pilot himself. Hiking and backpacking are also modes of travel I find enjoyable, and will continue to weave into the fabric of my human-powered existence. Get a trike … give a holler … let’s take a trip into a world known by few. I’m always open to new adventures!

I wish to take this time to thank you all for continuing to visit this Badwater weblog during my journey, and even coming back now, after the trek is long over. I hope your readings here have contributed in some small way to a happier life for you. I probably do not know who most of you are, yet it was your visits that contributed to keeping my morale high throughout the expedition. Thank you!

People from my hometown may be visiting here to read about a guy who is their neighbor. People who click through from the ICE site may be visiting to see just how good their tricycles really are. People who have an existing friendship with me may be visiting to see what their crazy buddy is up to now. People who seek health and long life may be visiting to learn about one way I achieve it. People who are physically challenged may be visiting to experience a vicarious adventure through these words. People who have grown weary of the status quo and seek direction for living outside the box may be visiting to find it. Whatever your reason for visiting this weblog, thank you for your support and enthusiasm!

With that, I now lay this blog to rest. Of course, being a writer of sorts, it may be impossible for me to quit typing into this laptop, so I have created yet another threshold through which I may express further thoughts to anyone who finds my musings amusing or meaningful. It will be for those who wish to live on the edge, for folks who are not opposed to alternative thinking. One of my core convictions is expressed in the saying: If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space. This is true for me on several levels of meaning, physical and ideological. The trike is one way to live on the edge … on the new blog, I will be presenting additional outlooks. The link appears to the right.

Take care my friends! Hope to see you on a trike someday …

Peace,

Steve

PS: Badwater it was!

Badwater Basin, Steve Greene, and the dependable ICE Q October 30th, 2009

I forgot to mention that my dentist appointment and errands yesterday found me back on the trike yet again. Seems like I can’t keep myself off it now that I have experienced the thrill of getting from point A to point B in a manner that is much faster than my usual walking. To cover the ground I did yesterday on foot, would have taken hours, but on the tricycle, the time was cut down to just minutes.

You see, it’s all a matter of perspective. If you drive a car, a trike seems like a snail’s pace, but if you walk, a trike seems like a lightning fast bird of prey. It gets in your blood, as they say. On a cold winter’s eve, if it seems chilly in the house, just go stand outside for ten minutes and come back in … won’t be cold any more, right? Yep, it’s all about how you perceive things, how you compare. It’s all in the comparisons. I grew up in cars, so it has taken me years to retool my brain to accept alternative ideas, but success has been achieved at long last. After every ride, I feel exhilarated, refreshed, and vibrantly full of life.

Another great consequence of riding a trike everywhere, and still walking too, is that these activities cause the body to develop quite an appetite. I like to eat, and by burning off so many calories in transporting myself around my world, I can happily eat more and still remain fit. So, you see, I have fun burning calories, get my errands accomplished quickly (compared to walking), and my reward is then a tasty meal. What’s there not to like?

Oh, here are a few pictures you may not have seen yet. And by the way, a few new shots of Paul Gareau appear under the “Zabriskie” tab above. There is also a link there (and HERE) to see him in a video on You Tube, riding his bicycle across the Mojave Desert after he left my camp at Furnace Creek.

By walking a steep trail on the south side of the Dante's View parking area, this overlook is accessed. In later afternoon, striking views of southern Death Valley can be seen here. This is looking towards the Butte Valley and Wingate Wash areas of the southern Panamints.

This view is from Aguereberry Point, on the other side of the valley from Dante's View, looking again into southern Death Valley. This viewpoint is much higher than Dante's, but requires 7 miles of dirt road to access, so fewer folks ever get to it.

Here is the building where I spent quite a bit of time while at Furnace Creek, especially when those 65 to 70 mile per hour winds hammered the valley floor for several days. Unlike the folks with motorhomes, a guy on a trike has fewer cozy places to retreat in the face of flying dirt. Sitting in a small tent gets old after a while!

Okay, what’s that all about? Well, here’s the story, such as it is:

Back in late August, during my training for the trip, I began feeling random nerve sensations while eating and drinking. In other words, one of my teeth had a cold sensitivity … the number-two tooth to be precise, which is the upper molar on the right side of the mouth, just in front of the number-one wisdom tooth (I had all my wisdom teeth removed back when I was in junior high school. Perhaps that why I end up doing treks like this one).

In any event, so as not to ramble too much for such a trivial post, my dentist discovered that an old silver filling that I had from about age 12 finally was beginning to break up (breaking up is hard to do). He indicated that the sensitivity would likely disappear, but I should have the filling replaced to avoid decay invading the innards of tooth two. The date to do this was set for late September, just prior to my departure for Death Valley. Glad to get it out of the way!

Well, it dawned on this overworked mind of mine prior to leaving on the trike that just maybe that wasn’t the wisest thing to do. Once, about 5 years ago, I had a crown done on number 15 (left side upper molar), which resulted in nerve damage that sent me into unbelievably intense pain about two weeks later. So, I thought, what if I had been out in the boonies when it happened? What if something similar happened this time? Would I give up my remote primitive journey just to run home to the dentist?

No way!

Therefore, I postponed the 40 minute procedure until my return from the Death Valley Tricycle Expedition. Yesterday, December 08, at 10 AM, I went in to Brian’s office and had him perform some oral magic the tooth docs refer to as a mesial occlusal lingual distal composite bonded filling (or something like that … my apologies to any dentists reading this). After a shot to deaden my talkative mouth, his high speed drill removed the 46 year old toxic silver filling, and in its place he put some of that new white filling material that looks just like the tooth around it. So now, after a lifetime of ugly silver when I smile, #2 looks as pristine as it did when I was a kid.

Taking into account several crowns (one of which is gold … oh yeah) that have necessarily gotten rid of silver fillings over the years, I now only have two molars with old dark silver still remaining (numbers   3 & 4). Hopefully, by the time I hit the grave, I will once again have a mouth full of gleaming white teeth.

See what we all look like when we smile into the x-ray machine? If you're a dentist, I bet you can find the #2. By the way, this is not my mouth pictured here, as I don't have those two gaps down below ... wondered what happened to that person? It's interesting how skull x-rays always appear to be smiling. Guess we just must be a bunch of happy people! Of course, if you ride a trike, your skull adapts accordingly, and your smile gets even more pronounced because riding a trike is so darn much fun!

The good news was that I was totally asymptomatic during the entire expedition … no cold sensitivity whatsoever. I was able to eat my Grape-Nuts every morning after the water had softened them a bit. The dried plums, raisins, and Clif Bars did not pull any more silver filling material out while I was in the wilds. Apparently, according to Brian, a tiny smidgen of decay had wiggled its way into the crevasse, but it was easily removed by him once the silver was gone.

Now you know more than you wanted to know, what Paul Harvey always referred to as “the rest of the story.”

Burley flatbed trailer, 20 inch wheels, with Rubbermaid 35 gallon Action-Packer cargo trunk. Excellent condition on both items – only used for one cross-country journey of 37 days. Trunk is completely waterproof, dustproof, and can be padlocked. Rig works perfectly with bicycles or tricycles. Retail price for Burley trailer: $300. Retail price for Action-Packer trunk: $70. Total retail new: $370. Selling for $95 less than new retail, at $275.

Howdy folks … Steve here. Well, it’s Monday morning, the seventh of December. The sky is clear, the air crispy cold, and the thick green forest outside my window is as beautiful as ever. The sound of the surf is now serenading me to sleep again at night in a heated home. I miss my tent’s raw adventurous feel, the smell of the creosotes, and the sounds of the coyote. Death Valley is again a memory to savor, a wild land of mystery and legend that has left another unforgettable imprint in my mind. All my visits over the years have been extraordinary, but this recent 2009 autumn odyssey will be the most treasured.

Jack Freer caught this awesome moonrise over the Funeral Mountains, not far north of Furnace Creek, on the way back from Red Pass and Titus Canyon.

The trusty Q is down in the garage, once again clean. The dust and grime has been erased from its shiny exterior, and no one would be any the wiser about where it just journeyed. I have a new respect for this trike, and now realize that it has the power to get me anywhere I have the determination to travel. At the onset of this expedition, some folks wondered if this would be a passing fancy, just a another expensive toy to experience then discard, such as the custom of our society from childhood.

It may work that way for others, yet as I write this post, my zeal for three wheels is only increasing. I couldn’t keep myself off it during the stay at mom’s, a time when I was supposed to be letting the Achilles completely rest for a change. I was rocketing around her subdivision like a little kid, the huge smile on my face only minimally interrupted when I really poured the power to the pedals for that ultimate high of doing 25 miles per hour in a 25 MPH zone, keeping pace with a car or two here and there.

The wild triker is once again at peace on his Q. No trailer, no excess weight, no uphills = top speed ahead!

My commitment to making my carbon footprint as minuscule as I can is strong, and the ICE Q allows me to contribute a sizeable gift to the air you and I breathe everyday … an endowment that is defined by what it is not, rather than by what it is. As I silently pass along the roadways, whether it be en route to a local store, or on my next cross-country adventure, I am content knowing that no toxic poisons are being distributed in my wake. After 43 years of cars, I choose to behold life from a new vantage point. I like what I see.

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This month, I will be starting a new book, one that I originally envisioned would focus on this expedition to Death Valley. I had it all planned out in my mind how it would come together. Then, I walked over to Terry Butler’s home Friday night to say hello after my extended absence, and some promising seeds of change began to take root. Terry is a scholarly man of wisdom and conviction, who has been most helpful to me during the months before my trek to Badwater. He opened my eyes to how success was to be defined in my quest, and has proven ever supportive. As a former university professor, he offered guidance in structuring and writing the book.

Professor Butler remains cool under his Tilley hat while on a cycling adventure with Steve this past September.

Part of the manuscript was going to include the stories of five inspirational people I met during my time pedaling and camping in the wilds of western America, folks who had taken their own daunting journeys of body and mind. He and I agreed that their tales would appear subsequent to my own, perhaps in an appendix. After a couple of hours of passionate and detailed discussion on such things as writing style and audience identification, I walked home in the night air to feed my hungry stomach. Can’t let any more brain cells die for lack of nutrition, after all.

Hours later, in the dreamy depths of darkness that precedes the new sunrise, I slowly came out of a period of REM sleep and began contemplating our discussion and the new book. Sometimes my best thoughts flow during these lightless early morning interludes, a time when it seems the unburdened mind is open to the purest and most productive thoughts. An epiphany struck Saturday morning before first light. Why not shift the focus away from me? How about if I transfer the spotlight onto a concept that would be beneficial to a larger audience? Terry and I had talked about how to benefit others through my writings, but now I wanted to expand on that idea even further.

I have already written two books about Death Valley specifically, and was intent on making this the third, but my desire morphed away from this foundational aspect, and my enthusiasm for the fresh direction has me excited. You likely know from reading this journal that I am bent on doing my part for this planet, however misguided the masses may consider that to be, and if I could get a book out there that would serve my goals in this regard, then so much the better. This cause is immeasurably more important to me than simply tooting my own horn in the pages shipped out from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

So folks, it’s being announced here first:

The new work will showcase the journeys of those who have risked going too far in their personal pursuits of roaming the planet, folks who have made decisions to travel by foot or pedal, intrepid Terrans who discovered how far they could truly go. It will highlight their challenging travels, why they did it, what they learned, and how they are impacting not only their own futures, but those of anyone who finds inspiration in their odysseys. I have found these people a personal encouragement to me, and I believe others will too. In addition to the five I currently plan on including, I will seek others I do not yet know. Of course, the Death Valley Tricycle Expedition will be part of the mix. My story will be told, but rather than an entire book detailing every last event, it will be an abbreviated version in keeping with the flavor of the new brew.

Paul Gareau, on a 15,000 mile bike trip from Alaska to Argentina, poses with Steve in front of Death Valley's Red Cathedral. Paul hit the 5,000 mile mark of his journey at Badwater.

Soon, I will be placing a brief notice on hiking and cycling forums, an offer for people who have personally traversed the countryside using human power to propel them over the miles, who have done what most would consider either impossible or foolhardy, who have come away changed for the better as a result of their travels. If they have an inspiring story to tell, one that will benefit like-minded explorers or would-be adventurers, a story of encouragement during these times of discouragement, it will be considered for potential inclusion in the publication. Anyway, that’s the plan today, so we’ll see how it develops.

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Regarding my gear and lessons learned, as foretold by friend Matt Jensen, I carried too many supplies on my journey, and found the resulting slow progress over the mountain ranges a hindrance. Only by doing a trip like this does one really learn what is needed and what could have been left behind. Modifications to my mindset and equipment paradigm are currently underway, and will begin with the liquidation of the Burley flatbed trailer and the Rubbermaid Action-Packer cargo trunk. It’s a $300 trailer and a $70 trunk, both with only 37 days of actual use on the road. I will happily part with the setup for the measly sum of 250 George Washingtons. Both are in excellent condition, despite the weather extremes they endured. Oh, and by the way, the trunk is indeed water and dust tight.

The flat space atop the trailer trunk will definitely be missed, of course, because it allowed me a place to use as a table. I could set my bowl of cereal there, or whatever else needed to leave my hands at the moment. That’s the big plus for a trailer, because when primitive camping, handy flat spots are not often anywhere to be found. But on the other hand, the trailer itself (including the two wheels and tires) adds weight to my rig, poundage that I had to haul up every incline and over each seemingly endless mountain pass. Even though it rolled with virtually no noticeable friction along the flat, it is still nice to not have an appendage behind the trike. Not only that, but the trailer has two tires, two more pieces of rubber that must be taken into account when avoiding obstacles, and two more treads that can fill up with thorns (as I learned the hard way).

Burley aluminum flatbed trailer with Rubbermaid 35 gallon Action-Packer trunk

The trike will be adapted to take up the slack that the trailer leaves with its passing. I already sold the Otivia cargo trunk that sat behind my head, not due to any defect or shortcoming, but because it did not meet a couple of my eccentric needs. First, I didn’t like having to use a key to access its contents. What if I lost the key? I kept a spare, just in case, but still, it’s one more step to get to your stuff. The trunk’s aerodynamic hard-plastic design also made it difficult to attach my Arkel panniers each morning because the front of it stuck out enough to cover the mounting rack, thereby making access problematic. And last but not least, I couldn’t set much on top of it while fixing breakfast or accessing the trailer trunk, due to its sloped design.

My mind is still mulling over the possibilities. Whatever I mount on the trike to replace what I am losing, will be a soft and flexible material, such as Cordura nylon. This I learned when I decided to put all my gear into a small car for transport home. Had I not had the hard-plastic Rubbermaid 35-gallon trunk and the Burley trailer, I could have rented an even less expensive Toyota Prius, and done more of my share of keeping toxins out of the air on the trip north in California’s San Joaquin valley. Soft bags compress as necessary to fill weird little spaces. Fixed size trunks do not. The ICE Q trike will fit in the rear of a Mercedes Smart car if broken down far enough. While I don’t plan on transporting the trike again by car (didn’t plan on it this time either), it’s nice to know that it will fit in any trunk if required out on the road.

I may also go ahead and have my welder fabricate a sun cover as I wanted to do prior to this trip. It would be made of lightweight aluminum tubing, and would attach to the two aluminum tubes of the recumbent seat, similar to where I put the tube that currently holds my tail light, head light, and flagpole. This would have a flat aluminum top, which could double as a small table to set food, or a convenient location to place my bathroom bag while brushing my teeth out in the wilds. This “table” would also keep the sun’s rays from relentlessly bombarding my head during the eight hours on the road each day, or at least when the rays are the strongest while the sun is overhead midday.

A sun shade would attach to the seat similar to this light and flag pole, which inserts 5 inches down into the seat tube. The Otivia cargo cache that appears here has been sold, to make room for a flexible container instead.

Without the trailer, my gross vehicular weight would decline, which is a good thing for long and steep uphills (of which the world is duly covered). One other negative aspect of the trailer is that the tires are slightly offset to the left-hand side (lane side) in order to maximize the turning design. This effectively makes my rig wider by a few inches, so any advantage gained with the Q’s narrow track design of only 27.5 inches is lost. With the trailer, I’m nearly as wide as a Greenspeed tricycle. This will stop me from easily riding through really tight spaces. Essentially, I will be much more maneuverable with just three wheels and the trike, which is about six feet long, instead of trike and trailer with their five wheels combined, which is about ten feet long. I am willing to lose the advantages of the trailer to gain the advantages of just the trike.

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Oh, I almost forgot to mention a very important improvement! You may recall that I had a mid-back spinal vertebra rub the skin a little raw during this expedition, which was due to how an anomalous ridge in the mesh seat just happened to be against the spine. I was not able to completely adjust this out of the picture during my weeks on the road, but a new product addition to the trike will take care of the problem:

Ventisit Recumbent Seat Cover, shown here on a bicycle, adds unparalled comfort to any cycle seat for the long haul.

Will Baird, the table-tennis player I met in Apple Valley, had a fantastic little cover on his hardshell trike seat that I knew I would have to get. It is made by a company called Ventisit, and is a recumbent seat pad that is nothing short of phenomenal. It is approximately an inch thick, and sits atop your regular seat, while providing plenty of soft material into which the spine is completely protected from abrasive wear. The company is located overseas in a country they call Nederland, so I plan on calling Dana Lieberman of Bent-Up Cycles in Van Nuys, California to order one state-side (he is a dealer). I will also be able to get his opinion of it prior to purchase. I believe it costs in the neighborhood of $100. Will Baird told me it was very comfortable.

Dana Lieberman has also triked through Death Valley, although he had a group of his triking friends along for the ride. Here Dana (second from right) poses with his pals at Death Valley's Badwater Basin, nearly 282 feet below sea level.

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On a humorous note, I have even thought about auctioning off my custom-adapted head dish towel to any souvenir-seeking enthusiast out there. Obviously, this item will be increasingly sought after, and will eventually be considered priceless. Not priceless because of the large monetary sum that could be commanded by it, but priceless in the context of worthless. Hey, it might even make a great product that any cyclist on overland trips could use. The specially sewn Velcro tabs I so craftily affixed worked flawlessly to keep it in place during strong head winds.

I could call my new product the “Death Valley Dish Towel” for unique user-appeal. One thing I know for certain, it kept me from frying my skin from the neck up day in and day out, under the unfiltered rays of the star that sits 93 million miles off the starboard side. So, any entrepreneurial manufacturers out there who think I’m onto something big (or not so big, as the case may be), don’t hesitate for a moment in assisting me in getting the new DVDT into the cycling market!

Notice how Steve has cleverly adapted an ordinary dish towel to serve as his on-the-cheap sunshade. Once word is out, this will be one hotly sought after item (or so we can dream anyway).

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All right folks, lunchtime is nearing, and I still haven’t worked out today, so I best wrap up this little eclectic post now. I may well sneak back to it later and include some more of my musings, but then again, I may not, as my work is cut out for me in the foreseeable future. You never know though, so check back often to find out (gotta’ keep that stats counter ticking, right?). See you on the road … pedaling or walking of course, as my newly acquired power model doesn’t allow me to have eye contact with automobile drivers (ha ha). Okay, later!

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Editor’s Note: To contact Steve about potentially including a story in the book, or to inquire about purchasing the trailer, please email him: wildernessrogue (at) gmail (dot) com. He’ll hopefully get back to you once he is done eating.

Here is the final map that shows Steve Greene’s route. It includes miles traveled by trike on his ICE Q, and by conventional motor vehicle. To view the enlarged version, please click the link that appears below the map:

The 2009 Death Valley Tricycle Expedition

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/greeneblog/badwater_tricycle-tour/images/map_steveprogress.jpg

On Wednesday, December 2nd, mom and I headed over to Hertz car rentals, about two miles from her abode. This was the same place where she rented the Ford F-150 pickup truck that she and my sister used for their Death Valley trek to Stovepipe Wells Village. I needed a vehicle to transport the Q and me back to the Pacific Northwest, and the Hertz Corporation was the chosen entity to get my business, for two reasons:

1) There was no comparison between the Hertz rental prices and that of U-Haul for their smallest vehicle.

2) The three fellows at Hertz who assisted me were really nice guys, who took an interest in my expedition.

So, over at Hertz, between discussions about which vehicle would best suit my needs, Danny Barton, Mike Hines, and Daniel Jackson were checking out this Badwater weblog and asking many questions about what I did, how I did it, and why I did it. Good thing they weren’t swamped that afternoon!

I was originally going to rent a minivan from them for the one-way trip to Oregon, something like a Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, or Kia Sedona. But then, these fine folks directed my attention to a smaller vehicle, one that would not cost as much, got better gas mileage, and might still hold my gear. It was a Kia Rondo, which, at first glance, looked rather tiny. Yet, after opening it up and putting down the seats, it was apparent that it actually had more usable room than the minivans, due to the design of how the seats folded. Great news.

The Kia Rondo, in mom's driveway, is now ready to load.

That evening, after loading all the gear into the Kia, I hit the sack at 6 PM, as I was going to arise at 2 AM to get an early start on the final roads home. Best to leave prior to morning rush hour in the Victorville area, as traffic becomes quite heavy and intense there. By 2:48 AM, I was pulling out of mom’s driveway after our hugs, and I was northbound on Highway 395 fifteen minutes later. Eleven hours and forty-five minutes after leaving, I crossed the Oregon border, and by 6 PM, the Kia’s tires rolled onto my driveway.

The drive was pleasant and uneventful, good things for such a long haul (roughly 1,000 miles in 15 hours). The Kia performed very well, and only required $75 worth of petroleum fuel during my two gasoline stops, one in Merced, California and the other in Mount Shasta, California. I pre-purchased the first tank at Hertz, as they get fleet fuel prices; this meant that I did not have to turn it in full of fuel at the end of my drive. In fact, it was left at the Hertz office of the North Bend airport with just fumes filling the tank.

My thanks go out to Hertz for making the return home an easy experience … and for suggesting that I consider the Kia Rondo, which meant less profit for them! Thanks guys! It was a pleasure doing business with you, although next time I plan on riding the trike back.

More KIA photos appear under the “Home” tab.

New tabs have cropped up lately, the most recent of which is the “Media” page. There, you will find two newspaper articles about the expedition. Other recent tabs with text and photographs include “1947″, “ICE Q” and “Home”.

Most of what was intended to be said and shown on this blog is already here. More may come, but things on this end are pretty much winding down now. Over the course of two months, Jack, David, and yours truly (Desert Dune) have assisted Steve with documenting his Death Valley Tricycle Expedition so that anyone interested might follow along and live the adventure with him as it was happening. None of us knew what to expect back then, either what was going to happen to Steve, or how well this blog was going to develop. It seems like things have moved along well, and now this blog is somewhat akin to a history journal, with the essence of the odyssey documented.

We would like to offer one more photograph today, the image that started it all. Seen below is a guy named Steve, on a trike named Q, heading out of his driveway in the Pacific Northwest, on his way to the distant and foreboding salt playa named Badwater.

Steve pedals from his home garage on the central Oregon coast, and is seen here only about thirty feet into his journey to Death Valley's Badwater Basin. This photograph was taken at 7:00 AM on Thursday, October 1st, 2009, by Winston Ross, a reporter for the Eugene Register Guard newspaper. Eugene is the second largest city in Oregon. Everything that occurred on the Death Valley Tricycle Expedition, and is documented on this blog, was totally unknown to Steve at the moment of this departure. These first yards leaving home really test a person's determination to carry through with an adventurous overland trek.

What this photograph does not offer you however is the sound that Steve heard as he departed … the crashing of the breakers upon the shore. It was a chilly autumn morning at first light, the sun yet to send its warming rays onto the sandy coastal expanse. It was a daunting adventure about to unfold for a man who had only been riding a trike for sixteen weeks. It was a magic time for an explorer who wanted to experience a new dimension in his travels, while melding with nature in a unique way.

Thanks to you all who have been visiting and wishing good thoughts for Steve as he encountered the many ups and downs that such a trek necessarily entails. We are sure his tricycle expedition has made him a stronger man, both physically and mentally, and know that it must have been an emotionally exhilarating ride! Only time will tell where this wild explorer will go next, how he will get there, and what he will do along the way.

To transport yourself back to Day One, where it all started, click HERE, and you will be on the blog post page with the first entries. Remember that on any given post page, the oldest post is at the bottom – it’s all in reverse chronological order. At the bottom of each post page, you’ll find a navigation button that allows access to either older or newer posts. Have a nice journey.