I finally made it into the chicken strip with my little cessna 140, and my little wife, who was very brave. It was her first off-pavement landing, and my third...sure beats the six hours of bone-crushing washboard roads I endured five years ago to visit the hot springs!
Because we couldn't make it from Auburn to the Chicken Strip before the winds picked up, we flew to Stovepipe Wells and stayed the night there. FYI, the hotel/restaurant/bar at Stovepipe Wells, while very close to the runway, is of only moderate quality. Camping is definitely the way to go. There is a little general store where you can get water, food, etc., and it makes a good base for ferrying loads into the chicken strip if you're too heavy. Due to our lack of useful load and my inexperience in landing on primitive strips, we only carried survival gear and not camping gear, which meant we had to use the hotel. Yuk. Don't get to Stovepipe Wells too late...the airstrip is unlighted and exactly the same color and texture as the surrounding desert...you'll never find it in the dark.
The next morning it took us an hour to climb out of Stovepipe Wells and cross the Panamint Range before descending into the Saline Valley. I'm glad we got in when we did, as by about 1030 there was enough of an up-canyon wind that I wouldn't have tried to land on the chicken strip.
I really don't know jack-sierra about landing on primitive strips, but I would say that the chicken strip is in moderate condition. There are a lot of washboards, and some of them are rather large. I personally would be very hesitant to land a nose-wheel plane there, but again I am preaching from a vantage point of ignorance.
One thing I can say with absolute certainty is that it is wise to contact Joshua Approach Control prior to entering the MOA. I have always been rather casual about MOA's, figuring that the best pilots in the world flying the best airplanes in the world with the most sophisticated support infrastructure ever created probably already know where I am. And maybe they do, but now I'm not so sure.
After landing at the chicken strip and tying down, my wife and I started walking to the hot springs. My wife looked up and pointed to a diminutive jet in the sky. Because of how low it was, and how small it was, and how it was at an absolutely ridiculous bank-attitude, making no noise at all, I said "neat, someone has a model plane". About two seconds later a military jet flew directly over us, well below 700 feet agl, in at least a 70 degree bank, going what I would guess was in excess of 400 knots.
I couldn't hear the engines until it was past us. Had I seen it in a movie I would have thought it was a poorly researched special effect.
OK, I don't really know 400 knots from 300 knots, or really even 50 degrees of bank from 80 degrees of bank, but I sure as hell do know it was carving right through the little piece of airspace I had just recently occupied at a speed and bank which absolutely negates "see and avoid". I stand very firm by my "less than 700 feet agl" observation.
This was not a one time thing, either. Over the next hour there were about eight more similar passes, all extremely low, extremely fast, and at radical angels of bank. Several of them went directly over the hot springs (and the chicken strip), as it is probably a very good landmark for the pilots. All of them carved through airspace I had recently used while sizing up the landing strip.
From a free-airshow point of view this was outstanding. But I couldn't help but wonder if there was any provision for observing civilian aircraft in the area, or if it was simply lucky timing on my part that kept us from being a grease spot on the wing of a F-16. Even if I was visible to the fighter jets' onboard radar, it's hard for me to believe anyone flying that low and that fast can do anything but look outside and stay off the rocks. Without a third party advising the jet pilots of a civilian aircraft in their flight path (which they may or may not have had), I don't see how they could possibly know I was there.
My attempt to reach Joshua Approach from the ground when we took off was unsuccessful, and once I had enough altitude to talk to them I was out of the Saline MOA, so it was a moot point. But I can guarantee I'll never go into the chicken strip without talking to them first.
Oh ya, the springs are in wonderful shape. The upper springs are nice and warm, and the lower springs are flowing, just at a reduced rate and not as warm as the upper springs.
There is "non treated" water from a cold spring which can easily be filtered or treated for drinking. We were there on a Thursday, and there were only about four other people in the valley...very nice. Tie-downs at the chicken strip are lacking, so be sure to bring enough rope that you can get creative with rock piles.
) People kept landing on it, and ending up stuck in the sewage leech field at the end 
I'll be the first to admit we can be b*****s sometimes. Part of the job.
