06.05 - eastern sierras

in lone pine, you wake up every morning with mt. whitney at the end of the block. there's a series of towns every 15-20 miles up the eastern sierra valley.  in each of the towns you'll see backpackers walking down the street.  the pacific coast trail runs down the western side of the summit with trail heads coming down at the towns along the valley.  hikers come down into the towns to resupply and maybe sleep in a bed.  some of the towns have shuttles to the trail heads.

we woke up early, ate breakfast a little after 6 at alabama hills cafe.

60 miles to bishop, pretty much flat.  a test to see how we had recovered from the heat and the sun of the mojave.  only we were still in the heat and sun.  projected temp 100, no clouds, no rain, lots of sun.  big difference was that the morning was cooler, the heat wouldn't hit hard till around noon.  and we were heading north.

and we were back in civilization, with towns every 15-20 miles.  and even though the valley at first felt like the same old sage desert, the towns were located in islands of trees.  shade could be found.  relief from the sun.

we have passed a few churches, very few.  the architecture has not been typical.

the big story about the eastern sierra valley, though, is water and los angeles.  back in the early 1900's, the powers that be in la realized that if they wanted to grow, they would need more water.  they looked around and saw the owens river in the eastern sierra as a good source.  they petitioned the government for water rights and proceded to buy up the land in the valley.  mr, mulholland engineered an aquaduct that gravity fed water from bishop all the way to la.  to this day 25% of the water for la comes from the valley and, as a result the valley has no water of it's own to sustain development.  the good and the bad.  as part compensation, the land the city of la owns is primarily allocated to recreation use for the public.

there's a sub story concerning japanese-american internment camps, but hey...

the geography is scattered with lava flows.  the highway runs through el malpais, the badlands, which consists of lava fields.  along the highway, lava rock can be seen on both sides, and in the mountains you can see where the lava flows came down.

we took a long break in big pine.  layed in the grass under tall cottonwoods.  grass, grass, i remember it well.  green, plush grass.  took a nap.  

with the help of the wind, it was a quick 15 miles into bishop.  we handled this 60 mi. ride much better.  having towns closer spaced with places to get out of the sun really helped. maurice seems to have finally recovered from his heat exhaustion.

in bishop, our warmshower host had left the house unlocked for us, but first a stop for a well earned pint.

our host, gigi, is quite the dynamic person.  american mother, south african father; she grew up in south africa.  a gymnist and dancer, her mother was a dancer, her daughter is a dancer and choreographer.  father was an artist in south africa;  her home is a gallery of his works.  she knows everything there is to know about bishop.  rock climbs, bicycles, motorcycles.