February 18, 2025 - Death Valley-Vehicle on Life Support

 

Title: February 18, 2025 - Death Valley-Vehicle on Life Support
Hike Info : Description : Trail Lessons : Menu : Extra Photo's : Animals 

Hike Info:

Type: Camping

Description:

I slept pretty well. There was a short time where the wind came up, but did not do any damage to our camp. I got up at 7. Don had gotten up before I did and returned from his walk. I walked over to a ravine on the other side of a hill to the north of our camp. There I discovered a path, but did not follow it.

I got back in time for Sherri to start our French Toast breakfast. Very satisfying. It is about 10 when we are finally ready to start our travels. The first place will be Badwater, the lowest place in the United States.

But then we had an intervention to our plans. The car would not start. A fellow camper was passing by-Dave from San Jose. He jumped our car and it started up. It then ran for 4 minutes and stopped and would not start again. There was enough power to give a series of messages: Brake System Not Working, AWS Not Functioning and Charging System Malfunction.

 

 

Don runs down to the service station while I work through “what do these error messages mean” and “what does the owner’s manual say?” None of which are particularly helpful. Don comes back with the news that the mechanic at the station is off today, but he has a phone number for us to call. Which would be helpful if we had a cell connection. That is spotty at best.

Sherri and I decided we needed to go down and make arrangements. Our campground neighbors, Jim and Joe from Colorado offered to take Don someplace close. Don wanted to go to Golden Canyon, about 2-3 miles away. So that is what happened.

Sherri and I go to The Ranch at Furnace Creek, we were able to use the cell phone. I called Ted at Snapps and ran through the symptoms. He suspects the alternator, but cannot confirm this unless some voltages can be taken. We walk over to Farabee Jeep Rentals which is where the mechanic works through. There we found out that the mechanic has three days worth of work already lined up, but another person from Pahrump could be arranged to work on the car.

But he will not be coming until tomorrow. But if things work out, he will bring an alternator with him. In the meantime, I need to trot back up to camp and get the VIN number for the Highlander. Sherri will at least explore the Visitor Center while I run this errand.

That process takes about 45 minutes. It is a little over a mile in each direction. The VIN is on an old insurance card, so I just brought that. Tyler says that they will have an answer in a couple of hours. So I go and find Sherri at the Visitor Center. I am ready to sit down for a while and there is no place in the Center, but some benches in the shade outside provide what we need. We sat down for a while talking and musing-nothing profound. Next to us there seems to be some sort of testing going on. I have not seen this many LE’s in one place at a National Park before. Hope iot is not connected with the layoffs our President is inflicting on the Parks.

We start to get hungry, so we start going back to camp. We go past Farabee’s, but Tyler is on break and will not be back for another hour. At camp, Sherri and I have our lunch. About when we finish, Don comes in after enjoying Golden Canyon. He has his lunch and then goes off exploring some more. For me? I am tuckered out and take a nap, waking up at 3:20, a lot more refreshed. Time to go back and see if we have any word yet on the plans for tomorrow.

I find Tyler at the gas station, filling up a jeep. They found an alternator and it will be coming with the mechanic in the morning. We then talk about the name Farabee. Sherri had seen a book by Butch Farabee at the Visitor Center-National Park Ranger. I was wondering what the connection was. Tyler notes that the Butch side went more north in New England while his relatives headed south to Florida. Eventually making their way to Moab where his great-grandfather inadvertently started into the Jeep rental business. Now the only Jeep rental by the Farabee’s is in Death Valley.

When I got back, I talked with Dave a bit. There was a discussion about the various places we both had been. While he did not know about Jensen Canyon, but when I mentioned the Mummy there, he knew what it was and had learned it to be Mummy Canyon.

Sherri made us dinner-skillet chicken, pasta and vegetables from Birds Eye. Pretty tasty and filling. Don, Sherri, and I all talked about the possibilities of what tomorrow held and when the repair would happen. When it got dark, we lit the fire from wood Don brought from his property near Pine Flat. Sherri and I, well maybe particularly I, usually do not have a campfire, so this is a good treat out in the desert. We burnt all the wood. Around 9:30, we wandered off to bed. A bit more tired than our exertion warranted.

The places we did not go today, which was on our list:

Badwater

Devil's Golf Course

Artist Palette

Visitor Center

Borax Mine

Maybe Desolation Canyon-before Sherri gets up

Trail Lesson: Be prepared to change for the unexpected.

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
French Toast/Turkey Sausage/syrup/jam	PB&Nutella or jelly Sandwich	Skillet dinner	Clif Bar, GORP, Propel, CytoMax, Scratch, Coffee Candy, Jelly Belly

Extra Photo's

Animal