At least we had a more civilized start time today. Breakfast at the trailer at 7am and on the road by 7:30. We could see Mount Whitney right from our hotel. Fiona (the photographer) crawled out of bed to get this early morning light on the mountain.
And here are a few amateur shots with our van in the foreground.
The forecast said winds from the north 5km/h. I'm guessing they were more in the 20-25km/h range. Ugh! Our saviour was that we were mostly on US 395 again (good road, wide shoulders, not much traffic, gentle grades). Once again we were in the wide valley with the Sierra Nevadas on our left and the Panamint Mountains on our right. Most of the photos in the morning are of the Sierras because that's where the light is best.
A few more photos on our way out of Lone Pine.
And here comes Linda. She still hasn't learned that when Patty says we're leaving at 7:30 pretty much everyone but me has left at least 10 minutes before that. If Linda does leave behind me, she catches up in a flash.
More scenery from the first few miles...... The wind was so annoying that I had to keep reminding myself to look up and admire the scenery.
After about 10 miles we came to the site of a Japanese Internment Camp during the second WW. The visitor centre didn't open until 10 so we just took a few pictures and moved on.
Back into the wind and through the small town of Independence. Inyo County Courthouse below.
It seems that we really started to get lots of nice colours in the hills as the day went on. At about 21 miles we turned on to a little-used road for about 10 miles. It was nice to have almost no traffic but there were too many bumps for it to be truly enjoyable.
A little bit of lava................
A little bit of agriculture.............
A little bit of tourism...........
A little bit of tree education...............
And, finally, coming into Bishop after a long hard day.
Emily had smoothies and watermelon waiting for us; thank you! Rest day tomorrow - woohoo!
Stats for the day:
98 km / 61 miles from Lone Pine CA to Bishop CA
1918 feet up
1498 feet down
Weather: started out about 12C. Got in almost 20 miles before it hit 20C. Gradually rose into the low 30s by early afternoon. Thankfully we had a refreshing headwind in our face aaaallllll day to keep up cool.
Sue, are those cow hides hanging in the picture above? And what are the crops in the fields, do you know?
ReplyDeleteI don't know how you can take the temperatures... Keep hydrated!
Yes about the cowhides. I was just happy they weren't the neon yellow coverings of former cyclists! Not sure about the crops.
DeleteNice tanning! Uh, I mean the cow hides.
ReplyDeleteGreat pics to go with the great descriptions. Thanks!