Jawbone Canyon, California, November 4-5, 2012

Sunday: Move Day

The move to Jawbone Canyon took us through a lot more sagebrush and sand.  We took a side trip to the town of Ridgecrest in search of groceries.  We had planned to stock up in Bishop four days ago, but the only market we could find had no parking for rigs the size of ours, so we kept on going.  We found both a Wal-Mart and an Albertsons side by side, with plenty of parking.  After taking care of business, I set the Tom-Tom for our next destination, only to have it route us onto a dirt road which we could see went on for miles across the valley to SR 14.  We passed on that and ended up detouring farther north to catch a paved road.


The Jawbone ORV area is located on State Route 14.  There are tons of dispersed camping sites located off the main roads as well as the side roads.  We eventually found one we liked off Dove Springs Road, and after leveling up, opened the door for the cats to explore.  They were a hoot.

We parked next to a fairly deep erosion ditch the cats could range around in.  The birds spent a lot of time teasing Bailey.  They live in the brush at the edge and they kept nattering at him until he’d chase; then they would fly farther down the ditch. Bailey and Andy would slink around down in the ditch, hiding from ‘prey’ and each other, pouncing on imaginary critters and having a blast.

Monday: Ride Day

In the morning we talked to some quad riders about maps for the area, and they pointed us to Jawbone Station.  This Visitors Center had maps of many areas, so I had to buy some.  My California map collection continues to grow!  Guess we’ll just have to come back some time.

From Jawbone Station we headed out on the Jawbone Canyon road.  This took us past some huge hill climbs, the kind that had Wayne wondering how you get down once you have gone up them.  The area is riddled with old 2 track roads.

 

The newest use for this stark land is Wind Farms.  Much of the land around the canyon road is private property, and the owner is probably making a ton of money, renting his land out for wind mills.

 

 

We followed the road up into a large valley, and from there followed the signs to the Piute Mountain Road.  The hills began with juniper trees, and then with a tree I didn’t recognize, but it made great tunnels to ride through.

On the way to the Piute Mountains

Tunnel Trees; check out the roots on the left.  You’d think that tree would fall over

Soon we were back up in the pine trees, and the Sequoia National Forest.  Not many sequoias in this portion, but there are several large groves of the giant Sequoias located in this forest. We traveled on several ridgeline roads, and crossed the Pacific Crest Trail.  What a waste.  It looked very unused in this area.  However the motorized single track trails Wayne found had plenty of motorcycle tracks on them.  It looks like a good sized system.  With more time, and another partner to ride with, Wayne would have been happy to evaluate them all.  But with just one day, and only me as a partner, he had to pass.  Where is Doc Johnson or JD when you need them?

 

We came across evidence of an old sawmill operation, along with this sawdust burner.  It is obvious that this area had been logged clean to give them clear space to work, but the trees have already returned, and are big enough to need to be logged again.  And why is timber not considered a renewable resource??

This area is such a study in contrasts.  We went from heavily forested hills to this in just a couple of turns.

Check out the road down to the valley, yep that is where we are going!

At the bottoms of the valley road is the old town site of Sageland.  In the 1860’s it was the support town for the surrounding mines.  However the mines played out and the town soon followed.  Nothing remains at this site now.

Sageland Town Site

From here we took the Dove Springs road back to camp.  At this end it is a long winding road of deep loose sand.  We could move along fast enough to stay on top of it most of the time, but some turns were blind enough to make us slow considerably.  We thought the road would be in better shape because it is hard packed down where we are camped.  Fooled us.  What a workout!

Once back at camp we had to get ready to go back to civilization.  Tomorrow we move to Temecula near San Bernardino, home of Chapparell Motorsports.  For the next 10 days or so we will be hanging around San Diego and Baja Mexico, in preparation of Wayne and Bob running a pit for the factory KTM Motorcycle team at the Baja 1000.  The bad news is that the weather is caving in, even in San Diego.  the day time highs should only be in the 60's and rain is expected.  Bummer.

 

Bristlecone Pine Forest -- November 3, 2012

Saturday:  Maintenance and road ride

Today we spent the morning doing maintenance and housework and the afternoon riding up Highway 168 to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.  Highway 168 starts out with one of those yellow squiggly line signs indicating a twisty turning road ahead.  This one had a sign underneath that said 16 miles.  Yahoo!  It was so fun!  Wayne led the way which meant he had to wait at the top for me, but we both had a ball. Wayne says “Bring your street bike and be prepared for turns before and after every blind hill”. It was a real peg dragger.

 

From there we turned north on another very twisty road that only goes to the Bristlecone Pine Forest which is made of several groves of these ancient trees.  Located in the White Mountains these trees are considered the oldest trees in the world. The oldest one documented here is 4,600 years old!  And these are knarly, short, tough looking trees.

 

Knarly

Once we got up to the visitors center, we went for a short walk at Schulman Grove.  We would have done the longer Methuselah Trail loop, but it was a little late in the day to start that one.  The one mile Discovery Trail went up and over the hill next to the Visitors Center.

Following Wayne, as usual

The view from the top was awesome

The builders did some nice work with the available materials

These two trees are side by side, yet one is alive and one is not.  Why?

On the way back to the highway we stopped at a viewpoint and climbed to the top there too.

Can you see our bikes way down by the road?

We could see the valley that Highway 395 passes through

Deep Springs Lake

The Bristlecone Road with Deep Springs Lake in the background

Of course we just had to go back to camp via Highway 168. I know it was a tough job, but someone had to do it!  J

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big Pine California, Saline Valley —November 1-2, 2012

Thursday: Travel Day

After leaving Lee Vining, we headed south again on US 395. The road rolls along the edge of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  When we come back this way again we will not stay in Lee Vining (and the RV Park) but will look for dispersed camping in the area south of the June Lakes Loop Road.  That means getting to the area well in advance of darkness.  If we had more time when we first got to Mono Lake, we might have looked in the June Lake area for camping. But we took too long on the Sonora Pass ride (and it was well worth it! See earlier Sonora Pass Post) to accomplish that, plus we wanted to ride the Tioga Road into Yosemite, which is easier done from Lee Vining.  However we didn’t get to check out Mono Lake and there appears to be a nice dual sport ride around the lake, out through the forest, down to Lake Crowley and around the town of Bishop.  But that will have to wait until next time.

US 395 south of Lee Vining

We took a quick stop at a rest area 5 miles north of the Mammoth Lakes Turn off.  We left the coach there and used the truck to go into town.  Wayne had found a flyer for the Mammoth Lakes Brewery and tap room, so we had to go!  My Tom-Tom had some problems again, I really need to replace that thing, but we found the tap room, bought beer and then looked for lunch in town.  We stopped at a bakery/cafe and split a great turkey sandwich. From there we took the scenic route back to the coach, and then headed south again. 

At Big Pine, we went east on SR 168; out to the Death Valley Road.  It is closed to regular cars farther down the road, but we figured we’d find a place to camp on either BLM or USFS land and then take a dual sport ride through Saline Valley.  And we did find camping, sort of.  Just past the start of US Forest Service Land Wayne actually backed the coach and trailer up the start of one jeep road, and then angled on to another two track road.  Taking us back far enough to find level, we then put out the slides and called it home.  The cats loved being out in the sage brush again, although I get tired of pulling sharp twigs out of their fur.

Friday: Dual Sport—Saline Valley

Saline Valley is just to the west of Death Valley.  It is not as severe as its more famous neighbor, but still very stark.  We have been hearing about this area for years from various friends who have camped and ridden here. We headed up the Death Valley road to where the Saline Valley Road takes off to the south through old mining sites and over North Pass.

This crew is rebuilding some mining buildings, and making them safer for people to look at

This one has been rebuilt

Anyone down there??

The North Pass road is slightly washed out in places, and travels through Juniper covered hills.  Sometimes the trees are so thick the road looked like it was in a tunnel. After we got below the tree line, the road resembled a roller coaster.  Very fun. 

As we came down this road we could see the salt flats in the distance that we were told were a clue that the turn off to the Saline Valley Warm Springs was coming.  Although the road gives you the best hint; it appears as if this is the only way the traffic every goes.  And it is true that the road from there to the South Pass is in much worse condition, so maybe everyone does come from the north.  Well, not everyone, we did come across a number of vehicles that had braved the pass.  Neither of us wanted to trade rigs with any of them.

The hot springs are wonderful soaking springs, complete with camping, lush lawns, palm trees and water temperatures in the low 100’s. Several of our friends have talked about this place, and although I wouldn’t want to take my motorhome down that road, our friends Ken & Jackie as well as Stan have all taken theirs out there.  I think Dual Sport bikes, loaded with camping gear might be the way to go; once camp is set up you could spend time exploring all the things in the valley. Wayne thinks the pick-up truck with camping gear might work.  Either way I’d have to sleep in the ground, hummmm.

Sign post lets you know you’re close

 

Nice lawn

Palm trees

There are 4 source pools in the area

Some one did a lot of work out here

 

Back on the main road we went by sand dunes and salt flats and this:

Really? Does the mailman really deliver out here? The flag is even up.  This is almost 30 miles from the closest paved road and I guarantee the mailman doesn't drive one of those little white trucks (LLV).

Wayne says you hook this to your pickup truck to grade the roads.

It was strange to ride all that way in the drab desert, and turn a corner to this green marshy place.

Left over towers from the Swansea Salt tram

In the early 1900's salt was still used as a preservative for food. The Saline Valley had plenty of salt, so a tram was built to carry it from the valley over the Inyo Mountains to the town of Swansea in the Owens Valley, and off to market by rail.  The tramway was constructed from 1910-13.  Gondola cars carried 800 lbs. of salt, and traveled at a rate of 20 tons per hour. It ran on and off through the 1930's and moved a total of 30,000 tons of high grade salt.  The 13.5 mile length was made of a series of tramways with a unique crossover system allowed the gondolas to go from one tramway to the other without stopping. It was an amazing piece of engineering for its time, yet only a few towers are still visible.  A ride for another day would be to go to Swansea to see if more of the tram system is evident there.

 

At the end of the valley, the road starts up a narrow drainage.  It’s no wonder that this part of the road washes out almost every year. What surprised us was the presence of Joshua trees.  They don't usually look like this, and I haven't seen them in this kind of location before.  Did you know that the Joshua tree is actually a member of the Lilly Family? It is amazing what you can learn at Rest Area Information booths!

 

We finally turned away from the Saline Valley, with one last great viewpoint.

Once we got down the other side, Joshua trees were everywhere, and looking much more like I would expect, like little solders in a giant formation.

After the Joshua trees, we continued through the sage and rocky hills, finally reaching SR 190 at the 100 mile mark of our ride and the clock at 4:00 PM.  So we turned right on the pavement and did 90 more miles, this time in less than 2 hours on state routes and US 395.  Once again we were racing the sun, but this time we won, arriving at camp with some day light remaining.  It was another great day, we were both glad we had a chance to see this area; it is so different than anything we’d normally see.

 

 

Yosemite Park, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween!  I didn’t even realize what day it was until I put the date on this entry. This is the first year without the house, and the trick-or-treaters that visited us each year. The good news is it means no left over candy to tempt us.

Today we did another road ride, all paved, no dirt. The route to Yosemite Valley was over 150 miles. We left before 10 am even though we knew it would be cold.  We are camped at 6000’, the entrance to the park is at Tioga Pass, 9945’.  It was very cold at the higher elevations, but down in the Yosemite Valley it was much warmer, as it is only 4000’. We were over dressed for walking around the valley, and of course that is where all the famous sites are. I would have liked to see the visitor’s center, but their signage is bad, either that or it was closed for the season, which is hard to believe.  Although the visitors center on the Tioga Rd was closed, but then so was everything else on that road.  In fact the Tioga road itself closes sometime in November. 

 

El Capitan

Lunch stop at one of the many picnic areas

 

This forest contains many different kinds of trees; sequoia, more Jeffrey pine, Ponderosa pine, Pinion pine, Douglas fir and my favorite the Noble fir.  They remind me of the Christmas trees myfamily always had when I was growing up.  We went through many stands of Nobles of all sizes, from table top size to the giants used in reception areas of businesses.

 

The entrance to Yosemite Valley

This is remote living

Color amongst the Sequoias

Natural rock formations, kind of has a man made look to it

What a great view

Tenaya Lake

One big rock, trials bikes anyone?? The face is very steep!

Mother Nature’s idea of logging; or pick-up sticks, if you prefer.

It was very windy as we started back to homebase through this canyon; yes that is the road in the distance

It was nice to get down out of the wind, and into warmer weather.  Although the cold front is coming in; we can feel it.  Much of Lee Vining will start to shut down; the RV Park where we stayed is closing tomorrow.  We barely snuck in.  Tomorrow we head a little bit farther south, hoping to warm up and to ride in the Saline Valley.