Day: June 19, 2016

We had a truly amazing first day to kick off our bike tour. Great ride out of Bakersfield this morning – rolling hills, gorgeous scenery. Meet some cool bicyclist, and had a chat with some rail fans. Then we began our first big climb of the trip, and boy was it a doozy. Relentless, 6 mile slog with a bunch of switchbacks, but we made it up in true bums fashion, slow and steady (well, Andrew did beat me by 40 minutes, but who’s counting?)

After our descent, we watered up at really cool dude ranch, and then crossed the spectacular Walker basin. we were completely drained by the climb, and searching for a spot to camp. We must have looked pretty pathetic, because a pickup truck stopped to offer us water. Lucky for us, the truck was occupied by two of the nicest folks you’ll meet, Skip and Cis, who ended up inviting us back to their house to camp, and then offered us dinner. We had great conversations with them ranging from the abundant wildlife around their house (of which Cis takes award-winning photographs) to the various safety concerns of building a C-17 aircraft. Now I’m in my tent, well fed and well beered, and ready for a great night’s sleep. Tomorrow: lake Isabella.

PS: go Cavs!

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.