Gaining a few extra feet beyond the Homewood Canyon roadend, it was off to Argus. With Bill breathing very strangely with his "power breathing" technique, we somehow found a pretty good route. It was then off to Nelson and we actually make it back to the car before it was completely dark for once. Driving out, from Lee Flat in the middle of nowhere, we did saw two guys in the darkness carrying carbines and walking down the road. Bill stopped and we discovered two young guys in cowboy boots out from Michigan who had decided to walk across Death Valley. Somehow they had hiked from Scotty's Castle across the Cottonwood Range and were happy to get in with us - even though we were going to Death Valley Junction to climb Eagle #2.

With 4 of us packed into the VW bug with all our gear (and I was crammed into the back with one of the cowboys), we reached Death Valley Junction were Bill realized we didn't have enough gas. The gas station was closed so Bill went into the bar and I was amazed when shortly thereafter a person was found who came over and unlocked the gas pump for us. Pulling off the road at the base of Eagle and into a wash, we sat for a minute while Bill revved up the VW rpms higher that I thought the engine could ever go. Bill explained that revving up the engine as high as it could go before shutting it off would help assure it would start the next day. With the two Michigan cowboys with us, we had an uneventful climb of Eagle and then headed for Manly Peak Sunday afternoon.

The Amargosa River was really flowing across the Butte Valley Road so the three of us watched Bill plow through some deep water, wondering if he would make it. On in to Butte Valley, we arrived just in time for sunset to highlight Stripped Butte. It was getting dark so we studied the AAA Desert map. There was a faint double dashed line going down Goler Wash. That looked like a shorter way back so off we went.

Making it over Mengel Pass, the road deterioration into nothing. In the dark, we took the VW across rock slides, down waterfalls, over boulders seemingly forever. Fortunately, the two cowboys were along since several times it took all three of us to lift and pull the car through rocks and off its front bumper as Bill keep driving down the canyon. The sides of the car were soon smashed in and the running boards bent up so that the doors wouldn't open - we went in and out through the door windows. Finally, we broke into Panamint Valley - with SteveBill and I and the 2 cowboys agreeing to head out the following weekend for Kofa for our 1st DPS scheduled trip, but that's another story.
Cartoon
 
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