Monday, Sept 11th.
We had to drag ourselves away away from Three Rivers and the amazing National Parks that lie just beyond. We rode out of the foothills of the Sierras, early on Monday morning. Before long we were back into the hot plain that lies west of the mountains, we turned south and rode through the many citrus groves and fruit farms that abound in this area. We noticed a massive plume of smoke to our east and helicopters flying to and fro - obviously another significant fire in that area.
After a while we made a left hand turn and rode a wonderful route across and over the Greenhorn mountains, through more of the Sequoia National Forest to the plains that lie east of Sierra Nevada. What had started out to be a lovely, warm, sunny day began to get ominously cloudy.
We were amazed and delighted to suddenly see Joshua Trees, neither of us have ever seen these rather strange looking trees in person!
After pausing to take a few photos we put on our rain gear and watched the skies anxiously as it got darker and darker. Sure enough, soon there was thunder and lots of lightning. At this point we pointed our wheels north again and made a beeline for our destination for the night. For the most part we managed to keep ahead of the worst of the rain but I was very worried by all the lightning crashing down. We kept slowing down, anxious to stop and eat our lunch, but no sooner would we find a spot, than it would start raining so we had to set off again. Eventually we reached Mammoth Lakes, somewhat cold and soggy and very hungry!!
Total miles for the day: 335.3. Trip Odometer: 6872.
Tuesday, Sept 12th.
The morning was cool and crisp and thankfully, clear blue skies. We had spent the night at the very lovely, Alpenhof Lodge, right at the base of the ski mountain.
Our route this morning took us around June Lake - stunningly beautiful.
After going around the lake we headed back into the valley east of the Sierras once again and continued our ride north.
Before long we were back at Mono Lake, where we had passed by on our way to Yosemite last week.
Mono Lake is an interesting place. It is a large shallow lake with no outlet and therefore has high salinity. It was formed by volcanic activity 760,000 years ago! In the 1940's the City of Los Angeles extended their aqueduct system into the Mono Basin and diverted so much water that the surface level of the lake dropped dramatically and by 1990 the lake had dropped 45 feet. As a result alkaline sands and tufa towers are exposed.
Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of a Stanford University graduate student and his research, the ecological impact of the water diversion was recognized and after lengthy court battles has resulted in conservation efforts to reverse and mitigate the effects of the municipal water diversion. Once again, we see a good example of the unintended consequences of human action on our fragile environment. I am grateful that there are people out there that can make the changes that are needed to preserve these places for the future.
After pausing at the Mono Lake Visitor Center we continued our planned route to Lake Tahoe. Once again, the skies darkened in the afternoon and we had to make a beeline for our lodging, thankfully getting in just before the afternoon lightning show and missing some heavy rain!
Total miles for the day: 191 Odometer: 7063
No comments:
Post a Comment