I pre-ran Alamo road yesterday (March 16) - sorry for folks who may have wanted to come, I was concerned about getting too many people if I posted it, and pre-runs are better when small.
There's no two ways about it. The section of road between Corn Creek and the lakebed is tediously long, bumpy, and dull. So, I'm cutting that part out entirely. Here is the new, final plan:
Meet at the Sinclair Gas Station in Alamo at 8:30 AM. It's the first gas station as you come into town. It's on the left, at a grocery store. We will be leaving at 9:00. We'll go right into the dirt from there, and head into Badger Valley, which is very scenic (thanks to Jack for showing me this road). We'll do a bit of a hill climb to a repeater station, with a spectacular view of the Pahranagat Valley. You can see all the way from Hiko to the Pahranagat Lakes.
The road meanders through pinyon, sage, Joshua trees, and odd boulders of decomposing granite, eventually descending to Alamo Road. We'll head to the lakebed for lunch, then retrace the route for a ways, but instead of going back through Badger Valley, we'll stay on Alamo Road, and end up at Pahranagat, after going though some impressive volcanic scenery of lava and ash flows.
This is still a very easy run. Maybe a 1.5, just due to some bumpiness, and a few steep spots. Tires with good traction will help - I wouldn't do this with regular street tires.
Sadly, there is the long highway drive up to Alamo at first, then the long drive back from Paharanagat at the end, but believe me, the highway drive at the end beats the 2+ hours of bashing around on Alamo Road to get to Corn Creek. Plus, there are places to stay in Alamo. I might go up the night before.
Hope to see you there!
Last edited by Dawn Nelson on Thu Mar 17, 2016 11:12 am, edited 3 times in total.
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