Day 41 - Yosemite to Bass Lake

The 55 miles, 4943 up

There are no waterfalls in Yosemite this year. The Merced River is barely moving.

We decided to come back another time to spend some time. Biking shoes or camp shoes definitely limit hiking possibilities.

We stopped for a while on our way out of the valley to watch rock climbing from a safe distance.

Here's a view of our "bedroom wall" from last night. At one point I looked up and saw a light way up there.

As we left the park, headed for the Wawona exit, we stopped for a last view.

Along with a few other people...

We took their pictures, they took ours.

Then we rode through the long, dark scary tunnel...

Here's that light you hear about...

Of course, Charley and Rose had to say goodbye, too.

And, asked us to relay this message...

You know, when you ride into a valley,  the way out is often uphill. It was this time.

We stopped in Wawona for lunch and visited with a couple who had travelled from Indiana - they asked to take a photo of us, because "it's unusual to see a couple from our generation doing what you're doing!" Of course, they are our age, so it was a fun comment to hear.

These photos are of an old fire zone we passed through.

When we arrived at Bass Lake, we found a severely receded water line.

The water shortage has compromised the pines, making them vulnerable to the Pine Bark Beetle, which kills them. There are vast areas of dead pines. In fact, there was only one campground open because the trees were being cut down in the others.

While Trudy went into a store to ask directions to the campground, I visited with a couple of bikers outside (the Harley kind, with dew rags and tats) - I have to admit it's fun to see people's expressions when I tell them what we're doing. One of them offered to let us camp in his back yard, but his place was pretty far out of the way.

When we got to the campground, the host told us that we should use the bathroom for a "bear box," so we did.

It was a long day... Trudy caught up on some email late that night.

In the wee hours of the morning, we heard the trash bin slam open, then snuffing noises. It was a bear! Trudy yelled and I flashed on my headlamp and it ran away. Recent wildfires have pushed the bears into areas where they weren't living before.

Day 40 - Porcupine to Curry Village (Yosemite Valley)

43 miles, 1706 up

It was cold above 8000 feet elevation, so we put on all the riding clothes we had in the morning, including rain pants and jackets for wind protection. The early part of the ride was flat to downhill and pretty cold.

We reached the valley...

Charley and Rose were thrilled.

And so were we!

We found a place to camp in the hiker - biker camp, had showers and made dinner. It was so much warmer and comfortable in the valley, at lower elevations and no wind!

We met a Spanish bike tourist there who had ridden, across Europe and Asia then crossed to Anchorage and was headed for the tip of South America!!

Day 39 - We made it to Tioga Pass! Aspen campground to Porcupine campground

35 miles, 3903 up

This was the most challenging and rewarding day of bicycle riding day I've ever done! (I've ridden 20 double centuries, including some of the toughest in California.)

Trudy was there with me the whole time!

We started around 8:30, our usual time and headed for "the hill."

About a mile into the ride, I realized that I'd forgotten to drop off our camping fee, so I went back and Trudy went on. The weather wasn't looking good, but we decided to press on.

I hustled to catch up to her.

Soon, the wind picked up, in circling blasting gusts! The wind direction was continually changing - we could hear it roaring toward us, so we had a few moments to prepare. Most of the time there was no shoulder, so we had traffic on the left, a soft shoulder on the right and blasting winds bashing us around as we crept up the hill.

Many times, we stopped and cowered over our bikes until the wind blast went by!

Where we were...

The rain came in short squalls. We were wearing all our warm layers and rain gear.

We passed this lake near the summit, which meant we were getting close to the top.

Just before the top, we reached the Tioga Pass Lodge, a truly welcome sight - warm, dry and food!

We made it!

The ranger said: "Are you two crazy, riding up Tioga on a day like this?"

Guess so... But, we had to press on!

It wasn't our longest riding day in miles, but it was by far he most challenging!

Our camp for the night was Porcupine Flats, at a little above 8000 feet elevation.

The Bears were happy to be off of the road and advised us to put on all our clothes. They were right. Brrrr!

Day 38 - Lee Vining to Tiog... No, a retreat to Aspen campground

7 miles out n' almost back!

The morning dawned clear and bright, so I grabbed my bike to head off to the Post Office to pick up our re-supply box.

My back tire was flat! A very careful inspection showed that a tiny piece of wire had caused it.

So we were delayed a little - the box had a refreshing batch of stuff we wanted. We  re-packed the box with our unwanted things so we could send it home.

Another camper stopped by to talk about  bike touring a little, so it took a while longer to get to the Post Office.

We didn't get on the road until noon and I was getting hungry, so I told Trudy to go ahead while I dashed into a market to grab a sandwich.

When I caught up to her, the clouds were gathering and the winds had picked up.

The gusts increased and it became impossible to make any headway, let alone complete the Tioga Pass journey, another 10 miles.

We decided to retreat to a campground we had passed already, and plan on an early start the next day.

Aspen campground was practically deserted and the hosts showed us a sheltered sight near a creek and some firewood that had been left behind.

We're in bear country now, so virtually everything goes in the bear box. It's dry too!

Ahhhh! Home sweet home!

We explored a little.

Then, built a...

And settled in...

We had some very heavy rain and high winds during the night, but were safe comfortable and dry in our little tent. 

Day 37, completed

After being hunkered down behind the shower room for a few hours hoping to wait out the rain and wind, we were dry, but darkness was coming on quickly. We decided to head in to town for dinner instead of cooking behind the building.

Here's a snap of our tent during a lull in the rain.

All of our neighbors departed this morning... The tent is staked down to keep it from blowing away.

When we finished dinner the weather was calm, so we headed back to the tent for the night. As we were getting in, we discovered that a huge potato bug had moved in with us! We evicted him by launching him into space...

Heavy rains with thunder and lightning  at times throughout the night.

Day 37 Lee Vining to Lee Vining

Last night, we were put in the "camper section," which turned out to be quite international - we talked a little with a French couple, who had visited many of our National Parks in the Southern California, Nevada and Utah areas over the past couple of weeks. Another large group came in, but we couldn't recognize their language. In the morning, some German visitors had arrived during the night, but soon packed up and left.

Today, we wandered around town and visited most of the stores, then went to the Mono Committee Center and learned about Mono Lake, how close it came to extinction and what happened to bring it back from the brink.

We bought a sandwich to bring back to the RV park for lunch. Then we walked over to the Mono Lake visitor center, where we learned more about the long term history of the lake, it's geological history, the natural environment, and listened to an informative "ranger talk" about our current water situation. His bottom line was that we have to become proactive in addressing water issues.

Right now, we're sitting under a porch roof near the showers, waiting for a late afternoon rain storm to let up. Our tent and bikes are all buttoned up, so we'll just have to wait to decide about making dinner or heading into town...

Day 36 - Walker to Lee Vining / Mono Lake

58 miles - 4200 up

Today's ride was 700 feet less climbing and about the same distance as yesterday, but seemed easier! Maybe it depends on how the medicine is delivered?

Anyway, we started climbing from the git-go, into a steady headwind, for about 20 miles, until we started a nice long decent into Bridgeport, which was about our halfway point.

Highway 395 is a beautiful road along here and we were following the Walker River, but there just weren't many photo opportunities. The river was low and the traffic was high.

Here's one snap along the way...

We stopped for lunch in Bridgeport at the "Burger Barn," but I had Bison, so I had no guilt when I took this.

The climb to Conway summit, which was our anticipated "climb of the day," started just outside Bridgeport. It's a pretty long steady climb too... And the headwinds didn't stop, but we plugged along at a steady pace.

We crossed paths with another rider who had started from Bellingham, but his route was via a week at Burning Man  and he had the gray dust on his saddlebags to prove it! We visited a bit here and there on the way up the hill because one or the other of us would stop for a break or a photo.

While the Aspens along Monitor Pass  had already dropped their leaves or were on the way to doing so, we saw some that were starting to change today.

We reached the summit not long after, and guess who insisted on a photo?

It's your guess!

We had a nice, but not quite long enough downhill toward Lee Vining.

It was "about" seven miles to town. There was a highway sign that said 7, then, a ways down the road another that said 7... Maybe there was a surplus sign.

We came to rest in an RV park in Lee Vining, which was quite handy, because we realized it was Saturday and we'd mailed stuff to ourselves to be picked up at the Post Office, which is closed on Sunday.

An unexpected, er, unintended, day off!

The ride up Tioga Pass awaits!