Warmin’ up

After a lovely breakfast with Skip and Cis (at the low price of helping them move a 400 pound concrete turtle), we hit the road early this morning. We had a few more bumps to go over before we got a glorious downhill into lake Isabella. We fueled up on fajitas, and took a quick dip in the lake in preparation for our next big climb, Walker summit. With luck, we’ll make it up and over in time to catch part of the NBA game at a brewery on the other side. The next few days will likely be challenging, not because of terrain, but because, once again, I’ve managed to schedule our ride during record heat -it’s supposed to get into triple digits. We may only be riding at dawn at dusk, passing our afternoons in the freezers of the dairy queens that are surely conveniently located every twenty miles.

Into the Eastern Sierra desert

Wilson pass turned out to be a bit harder than expected, so we ended up camping right at the summit. (It didn’t help that I left my phone at the cafĂ© i last posted from, and I had to tack on an extra seven miles doubling back to get it. Thankfully, we hadn’t started the real climbing before I noticed it was missing!)
In an effort to beat the heat, we were up at five and on the road just after six. After an amazing descent, we were plopped squarely into the desert, and the temperature started climbing rapidly. Thankfully, we had a really nice tailwind, which kept the heat from beginning unbearable, but we definitely stopped at every gas station to refill on cold water. (And dumping water over our heads) Can you believe we didn’t see a single Dairy Queen?
Andrew got a flat during the hottest part of the day (at least 100 degrees), after which we decided to reassess our original plan, which was to ride to the next restaurant and hang out there for five hours waiting for to cool down, and then beg them to let us camp behind the place. One of the nice things about not being broke while bike touring is that you can afford to stay in a motel when it’s too hot to camp, so that’s what we did. We got to the motel at 2pm, just as the tail wind shifted to become a cross wind. We showered, napped, made a quick run to the aforementioned restaurant for dinner, and are now going to bed, well rested and hydrated.
Tomorrow, we’re getting up even earlier, in the hopes of catching a bus in the next town to take us to Bishop, after which the temperature should be much more manageable. We certainly could ride the whole way – we’re right on schedule – but getting up before dawn in a mad race against the thermometer, then sheltering somewhere all afternoon to avoid getting cooked doesn’t leave a lot of room for fun. The bus let’s us skip two days of that malarkey, and gets us up to the mountains where there are lakes and streams ripe for the plunging a day sooner.
Photo dump incoming!

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Rail fans!
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Cis and Skip! We were so lucky to run into them. Notice the beautiful Walker basin in background
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Lake Isabella from above
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Our campsite at Walker summit
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This is not all of our water
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Desert riding

Mountains majesty

Just a quick update here. Yesterday, ee left Olancha just after 5am to ride the 25 miles to Lone Pine to catch the bus to Bishop. Really glad we made that decision to avoid the heat. In Bishop, we did some errands and then headed out to an amazing campground – Pleasant Valley – on the rushing Owens river. The presence of water makes such a difference! Even though it was probably pushing 100 degrees, it doesn’t matter when you have a cool river and shade at your campsite. The guy next to us gave us freshly caught trout for dinner!
This morning, we had a beautiful rude through the owens river canyon before we began a pretty steep, but very scenic, 3000 foot climb up the Sherwin grade. Luckily, there was another creek to jump into about halfway up. At the top of the climb, we were clearly in a different environment – Aspen, pines, many babbling creeks, and so many wide – open mountain vistas! And the temperature dropped into the low 80s. Along the way, we took a slight detour to go to an awesome hot spring (which had been unthinkable during the heat of the previous several days). Now we’re camped at mammoth lakes, where it’s going down to the low 50s tonight! Tomorrow, we meet Morgan in Lee vining, and possibly began to climb tioga pass.

Two legs bad, ten wheels good!

Let’s see where I left off… After mammoth lakes, Andrew and I had a beautiful ride to Lee vining, taking detours off the highway to ride the mammoth lakes scenic drive, and then the June lake loop. We stopped for lunch, a dip, and a beer at silver lake – perfect! Then we headed into Lee vining where we picked up Morgan at the fanciest Mobil station you ever did see.
We decided to stay at a campground about two miles up the Tioga pass. There, we meet McMann, a fellow bicycle tourist on his first tour – he had come up from Nevada through death valley. His route: ride for two months, and just see where the road takes him. Sounds good to me!
We made quick work of tioga pass, which wasn’t as hard as I though it would be, and were in Tuolmne Meadows campground by 11:00. Morgan, McMann, and I did a short hike up Lyle canyon, and had a great lunch, dip, and nap at a gorgeous spot on the tuolmne river. Back at camp, we met a ton of Pacific Crest trail hikers, and entertained them with a little double-clarinet/melodica jam session.
The next morning, we said goodbye to McMann, and headed down through the rest of Yosemite – what a beautiful ride! Definitely one of my favorites! When we were able to get in touch with Alice and Anton, it turned out that they were only an hour behind us, having ridden the huge climb out of the valley in record time! They caught up with us in buck Meadows, and the five of us continued on to the most deluxe RV resort I’ve ever seen – bocce, hayrides, a petting zoo. Now we’re just outside of groveland, about to head to Sonora and then up ebbets pass!

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Hot springs!
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Lunchtime at silver lake

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The view from tioga road
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Victory! Andrew and Morgan played Spoitoresa as i topped the pass, much to the delight of the rangers at the entrance station
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Nap time on the tuolmne
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Just one of many amazing views from the tioga road

Out of the valley and into the trees

We last left our heroes at a breakfast joint in groveland. Let’s review their accomplishments since then:
* They rode the crazy roller coaster ride that is Ward’s ferry road: insane steep winding downhill, a swim in the river next to the graffiti bridge, then a grueling climb back up the other side
* Left Morgan behind in Sonora to get some bike repairs done
* Swam through caves in natural bridges state park – attempted to free camp there, but the locals weren’t having it
* Slept in a field in vallecito, then spent the morning plucking sticker seeds off of everything
* Had the best breakfast burritos at grounds in the town of Murphys
* Drank Apple cider and ate donuts and fritters at a roadside stand
* Were reunited with Morgan off the bus in Arnold
* Swam, played music, and ate a watermelon for lunch at white pines park
* Hiked through a grove of giant Sequoia at big trees state park

What a couple of days! Tomorrow, we aim for the double passes of Pacific grade and ebbets!

Outta Cali

OK… Where were we….

After leaving Portola, Erin and I decided to take the scenic/shortcut route up towards Susanville, through the Plumas national forest, along a mixture of dirt, gravel, and deteriorated pavement. Luckily, it was not a repeat of the ill-fated Ball Mountain road fiasco of last year’s tour (which resulted in us pushing our bikes up six miles of sand and Nick’s bottom bracket evacuating itself). Instead, we were treated to some really gorgeous wide open valleys and practically no traffic at all – maybe 10 cars over 30 miles. The 2000 foot descent on gravel at 10% grade at the end was a bit hairy, though. 

It’s all downhill from here!
You can see Nevada from here!

Erin decided to take a shortcut out of Susanville, hitching a ride up to the next campground (and possibly landing a book deal in the process). I took the slow route, riding through yet another series of gorgeous valleys interspersed by amazing vistas. We were clearly out of the Sierras by then, as the climbs were now in the 500 to 1000 foot range (as opposed to being three times that).

Mount Shasta from afar

We then had a pretty easy riding through rolling terrain into Alturas (which had a Thai restaurant!), and a similar ride into Lakeview today. It’s amazing how quickly you can chew up 50 miles when there’s not much elevation involved.

Oregon-Oh!

Tomorrow, we veer west towards Klamath Falls – we’ve got just over 100 miles to go!

Last day!

The recum-bum and I are on the final leg of our journey. Similarly to last year, as soon as we entered Oregon, the weather did a 180 – yesterday’s ride was overcast and in the low seventies, with occasional drizzle. We were warned by two different people about the two passes we would have to cross, but they turned out to be little more than bumps in the road compared to what we’ve been through. Also, it should be noted that I ate an entire 16″ pizza by myself. About two miles from our camping spot, the skies opened up, and we set up the tent in the pouring rain – the first rain of the whole trip. The person running the tiny store we’re having breakfast at just told us that it’s forecast to snow up in the hills tonight!

We’re about 50 miles from Klamath Falls, most of which should be on a bike path!

Wide open spaces
The view from our tent after the rain

Bums away!

This has been one of the best first days of a bike tour! We started off with breakfast at a place where Erin was overwhelmed by the vegan options, then we headed out of Eugene along a really nice bike path along the Willamette River. The weather was perfect – upper seventies and sunny, with a decent tailwind. We ride along back roads through mixed farm and forest – all of it so green – as we followed the Willamette up to Oakridge, where we stopped in the world’s coolest bike shop (you can buy Carhartts and cast iron pans as you enjoy the view from their deck). We then threw back a few pints at the brewery, where we played two genres of trivial pursuit, young players (easy) and baby boomers (stupid). We swung by the DQ so I could get my blizzard fix before setting up camp at an abandoned campground on the river. Tomorrow we’ll head deep into the Cascadian forest as we travel the Aufderheide Highway, where there is certain to be swimming and hot springs along the way! 

Bums away!

Hostel takeover

We had a nice stay at a campground on the reservoir outside of Prineville, but unfortunately Erin’s insomnia started catching up with her. Luckily, I happened to have noticed that there was a new bike hostel in the next town, Mitchell. After a long, but beautiful, climb up into a ponderosa forest, we were dropped back into the searing Eastern Oregon high desert. 

Just as we were about to melt, we came upon the magical oasis that is the Spoke’n Hostel.

I should say that I remember riding through Mitchell, Oregon with Mike Bush during BikeBums 2004, and all I remember being here was a general store and a bear in a cage. It’s an old mining town whose population has dwindled to about 150. It’s the last place I would have expected to find not only a hostel, but a brewery as well!

The Spoke’n Hostel is run by Jalet and Pat Farrell. They used to live in Eugene, but Jalet had a vision of opening a bike hostel in Mitchell after learning about how many cyclists pass through each year on the Transamerica route. They bought the old church in town and filled the main congregation room with bunk beds, moving services to a basement room (they’re both pastors). Everything about this place is so thoughtfully put together: super comfy beds, bike maps and guides galore, even a tool kit and bucket of rags for tune ups. The bunks have reading lamps and charging outlets. There’s a creek in back where they’ve set up a bunch of hammocks, and a kitchen with a full bar of cereal and ramen for hungry cyclists. Oh, right, and also a barber shop. (In addition to being a pastor and running the hostel, Pat is also a barber, school bus driver, photographer, and web designer.)

And to top it off, Pat takes guests up to the painted hills every night at sunset for a tour!

He also directed us to a new brewery operating out of a trailer for now, but soon expanding to a full restaurant. Tiger Town Brewing Co. also serves up vegan chicken strips with about a dozen sauces to choose from. What?!

Pat and Jalet are two of the most generous people you will ever meet, and the hostel is a truly amazing project that allows them to keep the church open, create business for the community, and provide an wonderful experience for the many cycle tourists who pass by this tough spot of the Transamerica bike route. In fact, we liked it there so much, we stayed an extra day!