Twenty Mule Team of Death Valley: Tales of White Gold, Parched Desert, and Iron Men

الوصف

About the Author Steve Greene first ventured into the rugged Death Valley territory in 1955, at the age of four, with his parents Bob and Joan, and his little sister Willow, who was two. Prior to Steve’s birth, his father and mother first visited Death Valley in 1947 on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, staying the first night in Death Valley Junction, where they were issued a candle at the motel due to an electrical outage in the tiny community. A lasting attraction for this strangely alluring land grew in Steve through many fun years of continued family visits, where camping outdoors at hot Furnace Creek was common. Steve has repeatedly returned throughout his life, to a landscape that forever sings to his spirit. When in elementary school, Steve did reports about the mining and geology of the area, and built a plastic scale model of the twenty mule team. In high school, his parents bought him a large framed painting of the twenty mule team for his bedroom wall. Steve is noted for his countless backcountry expeditions into the remote hinterlands of Death Valley National Monument and Park, beginning on his own back in 1975 when he purchased a CJ-5 Jeep and would lead friends into the wild country. His groups would probe the most secret corners, always seeking out the areas rarely visited by the big crowds, and hiking when the roads stopped. In more recent times, Steve has been found on Death Valley’s dirt backroads in a couple of other SUVs, roaming solo through the land that has become an inseparable part of his spirit. He always takes to foot travel whenever the opportunity presents itself, being a devoted long-distance hiker since his earliest years. Ever continuing to define his environmental sustainability paradigm, Steve maintains a commitment to lessen his carbon footprint on the planet he loves to explore. A naturalist at heart, his current vehicle ownership is of a human-powered recumbent tricycle, built to tackle the same dirt roads he formerly drove in his Jeep. He has not owned a petroleum-powered vehicle since 2008, but still explores the wild backcountry on his trike. Steve does what he can to preserve the natural world. In October 2015, Steve set out to pedal the north to south length of the Mojave Desert on his tricycle, but deadly flooding on the first day aborted the mission that was to be a recumbent cycling first. It was an example of weather destruction, considered a 1,000-year flooding event. Learn the full story here: mojavetraverse.wordpress.com Read more