Touring, touring. I've fallen in with bad company. After having resisted blandishments from Sean and Steve to outfit myself as a tourist--you know the drill: panniers, racks, trailers, gear to weight you down and prevent that feeling of regained youth and mobility a good road bike delivers.

After resisting such blandishments I find myself actually considering a tour in Death Valley of all places. Last year it was McCracken who kept getting me in trouble. This year it looks to be Doug. He's got his friend Scott and his fiance, Jen, as well as Steve all lined up to drive to Death Valley in the middle of February.

So I'm looking at trailers-Burley, BOB, Extraheel and studying weather and road maps for places as welcome sounding as Furnace Creek and Funeral Mountains. The ground temperature at Furnace Creek was 206 degrees once when the air was a cool 128 degrees. Okay so the forecast is for more than average rainfaill--over 2 inches when the average is 1.6 per year and February is the rainiest month of the year with an average of .35 hundreths of an inch.

But Funeral Mountains?

What am I thinking?