Old knob-and-tube wiring once provided power to the light fixture outside the rear porch door

Modern wiring on the left shows that this house has received some modern electrical updates during more recent decades.

Inside the old Death Valley Mine Craftsman house

Plaster in the house has all been removed, suggesting that the National Parks Service may restore this building. As is typical for a Craftsman-style house of this era, built-in shelves and posts separate the dining room from the living room.

Behind the main house at Death Valley Mine are an old corral and a big shed

The corral looks empty, but what's in that shed?

Pickles! In addition to some old paint cans and wood trim pieces, some old bottles of home-made pickles are in the shed...

The colours of the vegetables, except for one bottle, are rather faded: how old are these?!?!

The back side of the main house at Death Valley Mine viewed from the corral

Two old bathtubs sit on the edge of the corral.

A big raven's nest sits in the eaves of the main house at Death Valley Mine

I might not have noticed the nest if a big startled raven hadn't flown out of it as I walked by. A lot of chicken wire surrounds the house, serving as a trellis for the drought-tolerant vine that uses it for support.

Just beyond the main house at Death Valley Mine is a second, smaller house

It was built more like a cabin, with none of the Craftsman stylishness of the main house.

Death Valley Mine house #2 also has drought-tolerant vines growing in front of it

This house hasn't aged as well as the main house. Some of the outer walls appear damaged by weather and vandals.

The decaying front porch of Death Valley Mine house #2

The boards covering the windows and doors on both of these houses are recent additions, probably mounted by the National Parks Service. An original board-and-batten exterior seems to exist under the outer wall covering of the house.

Rear of Death Valley Mine house #2

Vandals haven't removed the boards off the doors of this house yet, so I don't get to take a peek at the interior.

The walls around the corral out back send a prominent "keep out" message

The joshua tree forest provides an old-west backdrop.

I return to the 10-ton bike in the sand trap on the old Cima Road

It has been fun walking around the residential corner of the Death Valley Mine property and I wish I had time to explore the old mining area next door. However, I want to make it to the Nipton General Store some 30 miles away before it closes at 18h.

I ride down the old 2.5-mile-long road toward Cima, my next stop

Once I get beyond the big sand trap by Death Valley Mine, the rolling dirt road through joshua tree forest is mostly ridable in my slightly downhill direction (elevation drop of about 200 feet), despite some surface sand here and there.

I reach the junction of the paved Kelso-Cima Road and stop in at the Cima Store

It looks deserted, but I'll take a closer look anyway. The store is the double doors to the right, while the post office occupies the left end of the building.

Indeed, the Cima Store is closed

Store hours here are known to be erratic, so a bicycle camper needs to treat this as a spring that may or may not have water. I still have adequate drinking water from yesterday's hike to Cottonwood Spring and Butcher Knife Spring.

The post office is closed, but the lobby is still open

I step inside the well-weathered old building.

Postal boxes inside the old post office at Cima, California, Mojave National Preserve

Above the postal boxes is a yellowed map of the region served by the Cima post office.

Mounted on the map is a roster of the postmasters of the Cima post office here since 1905, printed by typewriter

The most recent entry lists Irene Aussus, who runs the Cima store and has been the Cima postmaster for 45 years now (since 1963).