Saturday, 14 Aug 2010
We were up around 7 AM Saturday morning. I made some bacon and french toast for my breakfast as well as enjoying several cups of good coffee. We were in no hurry, having all do to do not much more than visit the Ancient Bristlecone Pine forest and ride down to Big Pine to refresh supplies. About 10 AM we rode up the hill to play tourist. I’ll let the pictures tell much of the story.
Playing tourist
Where we are
Short walk
Forest?
Almost above the tree line
Old cabin
Cabin innards
Got ya!
Mine
Dirt road
Trees
Patterns one
Patterns two
Patterns three
Tom and I took off on the dirt road that leads to the Barcroft Field Station, a research station run by the University of California. Well, we rode the 20 miles to the gate that leads to the station. The gate is only open one day a year. The gate is at about the 11,500 foot level. We hiked up a little bit more to take in the views overlooking the Owens Valley. Again, I’ll shut up and let you look at the pictures.
End of the road
Looking toward bishop
Owens Valley
View from 12,000 feet
The bikes wait
Owens Valley, again
Wider view
Lichen
Bishop
The road back
Dusty
Here’s a video showing the road to and from the gate.
20 miles later
I took the lead on the way back. Since we were now familiar with the road it took us half the time that it took getting there. We met Carl at the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest info center. From there the three of us rode down Westgard pass to Big Pine where we had lunch and picked up some beer, ice, and snacks/dinner.
Great day. I had planned on taking more star photos but instead found myself in my sleeping bag shortly after nightfall. Sleep came easy. It helped that the camp across the way was quieter than they were the night before.
