San Diego or Bust, August 2017, Part 6

Wednesday—Day 16

Destination:  Deadman Campground, Sonora Highway, California

Miles:  248

Word of the Day:  Yosemite

Critter Count:  deer and squirrels

Boy, it was another really hot night.  But it is nice to start the day with just a vented jacket on, not 3 layers which then have to be taken off at some point. Once again, up at 6:15 and on the road by 7:30.  We took roads that ran along the edge of the National Forest, stopping in North Fork for coffee.  The sign claimed it was "the center of California".  I wonder how they figured that out?

 Then it was into Yosemite National Park.  I got to use my new 'old guys pass'.  How cool is that? The park is very smokey, as there is a fire in the area.  And they are doing a ton of road construction.  The summer high season seems like a dumb time to do that, but oh well.

 Yosemite is a long narrow valley.  That is the north road in the distance

El Capitan, Yosemite Park

 After crawling our way into the park and finding the park store, we decided not to camp with the masses.  We found a picnic area for lunch, then started out of the park to the Tioga Pass Rd, SR 120.

 We found a bear trap showing that there are still bad bears in the park

 View from SR 120

 Lake Tenaya

 Me and my guy 

 Tioga Lake

 This is SR 120 just east of Tioga Lake.  It must have been a thrill, building this road.

Mono Lake

SR 120 meets US 395 at Lee Vinning. Here we took a left and went north to the Mono Lake Interpretive Center.  Mono Lake is a vast inland sea nestled at the feet of the 13,000' peaks of the Sierra Nevada Range to the west and the ancient volcanic Bodie Hills to the north.   It is one of the oldest lakes in North America at an estimated 760,000 years old.  Mono Lake does not have an outlet.  Streams bring minerals into the lake and evaporation has removed fresh water from it.  As a result, the salinity content is over twice that of the ocean.  The islands in the lake are the result of volcanic eruptions.  The white island, Paoha, erupted about 325 years ago.

From here we headed north to Bridgeport for an early dinner, during which we decided to go to Kennedy Meadows and the Deadman campground for the night.  They have a camp store right there, so beer/juice will be cold still when we get to camp.

Sonora Pass, SR 108 is located about 20 north of Bridgeport. It is our very favorite road ever!!!  

Besides a 25% grade it should also have one of those twisty road signs with 'Next 50 miles' noted below!!  It is like a roller coaster, and so much fun.  If it hadn't been so late, I think we all would have turned around and done it again!

We have now gone over the crest of the Sierra Nevada's 2 times, only 9 more to go!!

Thursday—Day 17

Destination:  PiPi US Forest Service Campground, California

Miles:  237

Word of the Day:  Ginormous 

Critter Count:  3 deer

We started the day with more of SR 108, what a great road! Once we got down out of the National Forest we dodged off the SR and on to county roads to work our way around Sonora.  We were on SR 49 for a very short time, but then took CR (county road) E18 over to Murphy to catch east-bound SR 4, the Alpine State Highway.  This has Ebbetts Pass to cross.  We started by going by the Big Trees Recreation Area.  We went through miles of ginormous trees.  It was so cool.

 SR 4 is an odd highway.  It had many miles of single lane road.  I've never seen a 'highway' that didn't have a center line on it.

 Lyon and Wayne

 Cindy

We opted to take the short cut on SR 89 through Merkleeville, where we stopped for lunch.  Then it was up to SR 88 as we head back west and over Carson Pass.  4 down, 7 to go. This road had a lot of construction zones on it. We eventually turned north on a Forest road and ended the day at Pipi campground. This is the first time we have been on deserted skinny forest roads since Wayne's bike has developed problems.  It really showed us that it would be HORRIBLE if he finally broke way out there.  That plus the unexpected log truck we came nose to nose with was enough to make us rethink our return route.

 Wayne and Lyon at Pipi campground.  This is in the area that is open to trail riding

Friday—Day 18

Destination:  Lake Almanor, California

Miles:  268

Word of the Day:  Compromise 

Critter Count: 8 deer, lots of hawks

Compromise is important in marriage and also when a diverse group rides together for a long time. Even though I spent many a night designing and verifying our planned route, today I have to ditch that in favor of what is best for Wayne and Bob's bikes.  At this point we were going to spend 4 more days zooming around on the Paved Mountain trails and cross the crest of the Sierra Nevadas another 7 times.  None of which would really advance us north.  With the beemer having problems and Bob's tire issue, we decide to do what needed to be done to get us all home safely.

 Bob's tires are shot.  It's time for him and Cindy to head to Reno and get him some new ones

 Wayne needs to go more directly home so that he can begin taking apart his engine and replace his main seal.  Although the bike is not any worse than before, he still is worried.  So the group will break apart one more time, Bob and Cindy heading back east, Lyon, Wayne and I heading north.  It's sad, but we'll ride together again later.

The three of us rode forest and county roads to Placerville, where I got out my misbehaving laptop.  It said it had 23 minutes of power left, so I quickly put together a route north that used primarily SR's, and had just got it done on both bike-mounted units when it ran out of power. Even if we need to go a more direct route, that still does not mean I-5.  We will stay on state highways and smaller roads when we can.

 We got coffee, pie and worked on the laptop at the Buttercup Pantry/cafe in Placerville.

 That Lyon, not only did he have a valley named after him, but Root Beer too.  And we all missed taking a picture of the best one--the "Lyon's Dam Rd".  I wish we had stopped there!

 We left Placerville on SR 193 which took us north and then west to Auburn.  We hit more road construction, this one had us sitting for about 25 minutes in the hot sun.  We had no idea when the pilot car would arrive, so I didn't takeoff my helmet.  I should have, I thought I was going to heat stroke!!

 We crossed I-80 at Auburn and headed north on SR 49, through Grass Valley and Nevada City.  We had lunch at the Indian Valley Outpost on Fiddle Creek.

 We continued along the Yuba River

 Yuba River

When we got to SR 89 we turned toward Graegle, Quincy and Paxton. After a quick stop in Greenville, Lyon said he wanted to find a woodcarver  near Lake Almanor.  He had purchased several of his pieces from this guy who winters in Arizona.

 Meet Almanor, Lyon's new friend

 There is a story behind this bag.  Lyon's daughter gave it to him before he went on his first bike camping trip, the 6000 mile Trans America Trail in 2014.  It has survived not only that trip but also the Washington Back Country/BC loop in 2015, the 32 day Alaska trip in 2016 and now the 2017 California trip.  That is one tough bird bag.

 We stayed at the North Shore Campground on Lake Almanor.

 Lake front view

 Sunset on the lake

Although it wasn't the most miles we have done in a day, I think we went the farthest in one direction.  We went north almost all day.  At this rate we'll be home in no time at all.