​When we went to bed last night, both arrival at camp and laying down for sleep occurred well into the dark.  I had a hard time visualizing where we were or what the area would look like.  Waking up after such nights is always a moment of curiosity for me.  I popped outside and looked around.  We were camped on a little basin between an adjoining peak and the stunning snow-capped Virgin Mountains.  A spill of juniper trees intermixed with Joshua trees.  Janna and I sat in the sun eating breakfast while letting the sun crest over the landscape bringing its warmth.  We knew the climb ahead was the crux, so we got going quickly.  

​The night was calm, dark, and we slept hard.  We awoke to one of those worlds where the desert sun angles its shine between muffles of cloud.  Because we had arrived and biked after dark, I was curious to see what Gold Butte and its townsite looked like in the day.  In the distance, far reaches of mountains many miles away stood incrusted in sheens of snow and ice over valleys of desert.  We set up breakfast, feeling happy to be out here, followed by packing up our bikes.  Then the two of us walked over to the actual Gold Butte Townsite.  The area was littered with old mining equipment from a heyday of when a post office, lodging, saloon, brothel, and a city 2000 people living out of tents were found here in the 1800s during the height of a gold boom at Gold Butte.  I found an old fenced mine shaft amid metal machinery.  There was an old, but well-kept, cemetery for two men who had lived and died here in the middle of the 20th century.  

In early November, Kate and Dan let us know that they were going to be down in Arizona for Late-December/Early-January.  They wanted to head out on a bikepacking trip with us over MLK, Jr. Day Weekend.  Kate suggested Gold Butte National Monument based on its desert-enviros plus her experience rock climbing the Lime Kiln Canyon area there.  Her impressions were super-positive of the place and she wanted to go back and see more.  I had followed the events of Gold Butte National Monument for about a decade, ever since the Bundys had an armed standoff with BLM employees over illegal grazing in the area.  That, and my friend Lara from college now worked in the place with her husband for the BLM, and I had impressions from them that corroborated Kate's thoughts.  I started digging into research on bikepacking routes in Gold Butte.  Beyond a few day gravel rides, it seemed no established route was in the area.  I reached out to cyclists who had spent some time in Gold Butte, and they reported the lack of water as a driving reason for the lack of a serious overnight option.