By: Dexter Ford

It seemed like a good idea at the time. “Death Valley 350”, the flyer read. “2-Day Adventure Bike Tour”, it went on, with some fine-print stuff about a “Dual Sport” route along the bottom. 

“Sounds like fun”, said I. In the same upbeat way people must have looked forward to that festive first voyage of the Titanic.

One of my riding buddies, Oliver Rathlein, had been talking up these dual sport rides for years. “What the hell?” I thought. “Normal people do it—how hard could it be?