ROUTE CONTINUES BY CAR....

Monterey 

After a rest day in Bakersfield, we rented a car, drove back to Lake Isabella and continued the Sierra Cascades route by car.  Our goal was to scout the route for a return visit by bike.  Our conclusion – it’s a beautiful, but difficult route with steep and winding mountain roads through the Angeles Forest - a ride we might do in the future, but it’s not high on our priority list.  The distances between services each day coupled with steep and huge amounts of climbing are the negatives.  The positive is the road had NO traffic. 

Day 1, Oct. 31 – from Lake Isabella to Tehachepi is 60 miles with NO services, including camping.  Doable with panniers,  until you factor in the 7,000ft. of climbing!  Tehachapi itself was a pleasant surprise, with several decent motels and restaurants. 

Day 2, Tehachepi to Big Bear Lake.  From Tehachepi to Cajon Junction would be a nightmare – the route goes through Palmdale, not pleasant.  But the dangerous and unpleasant part of the route is still to come – uphill riding on Highway 58 with its busy and high speed traffic.  In between these sections the road is hilly, steep, and beautiful.  However, the view was obscured by the Southern California haze of pollution. We stayed at a wonderful B&B, The Inn at Fawnskin.  

We decided at this point to take a leisurely drive home and stay a couple of days in Monterey and visit the Aquarium.  If you haven’t been for awhile it’s a must-see.  The sea-horse exhibit alone is worth a special trip.   

THE TRIP ENDS IN BAKERSFIELD

Kern River

DATE:  Sun, October 30
HOME: Bakersfield, ca  Sheraton
DISTANCE: 63
ALTITUDE: 2600
WEATHER: Perfect
NARRATIVE:
Our ride today -  our last for this trip – was supposed to be a mostly downhill 53 miles.  We did make it to Bakersfield, but it was 2600 feet of climbing and 63 miles!  That said, it was a fascinating ride through the mountains following the Kern River most of the way.  The Kern has created beautiful canyons as it plunges down the mountains.  For 40 miles we followed the Kern through these canyons till we emerged with a sign that said, “Bakersfield 17 miles.”  Here it opened up to flat, treeless vistas – except for the orange groves that have sprung up with water from the dammed up Kern River.  A most bizarre sight was climbing a bluff with acres and acres of irrigated orange groves breaking the brown of the hillside.  Then to look at the top of the bluff and see two housing developments.  We had just read in the paper last night that Bakersfield-Delano area was one of the top 10 for the number of underwater mortgages and unemployment in the US – and these recent developments were what were underwater.  Many looked unoccupied, and the development was in the middle of nowhere.

One thing Bakersfield has done right, though, is a bike/multi-use path along the Kern River through Bakersfield.  Along this path are multiple parks.  Makes for nice biking without having to go onto city streets.  We had a great taco dinner at Kay and Brian's - not only did they just get back from Milan at midnight last night, they are hosting two Korean visitors, and still found time to cook dinner for us all!

A few Final statistics – more to come in the following days:
Miles we rode on this trip:  2, 050
Climbing: 145,000 feet

A DAY OF EXTREMES

On the climb up to Mountain Top Inn

DATE:  Sat, Oct. 29, 2011
HOME: Kernville, ca.  Whispering Pines Motel/B&B
DISTANCE:  55miles
ALTITUDE:
WEATHER: Perfect, but another day of extremes:  began at 42 degree, ended at high 70’s
NARRATIVE:
A great day of riding.  We began early – not only to outsmart the bugs, but we had a lot of climbing and many miles to go to get to Kernville.  At 42 degrees we had most of our layers on, but they were soon shed as our climb was 8-13% at the start, then settled in to a more gradual 8-10% grade.  Once the sun hit, the bugs began to gather.  Fortunately, we got to the 6,000foot level and, just like Sequoia NP, they pretty much disappeared.  We could then settle in and enjoy the ride through the vegetation zones as we topped out at 7200 feet.  The forest was beautiful, steep, and rugged.

At the top we had lunch at the Mountain Top Inn, which was cold when we went in, and hot when we began our descent.  Again, we went through all the vegetation zones, but a surprise was A Sequoia Grove, and a beautiful one at that, around 6,000ft.  Then, at around 4,000 ft. we suddenly hit desert again, but this was the harsh rugged desert.  Once we hit the Kern River the only green was the area immediately surrounding the banks of the river.

The desert near Kernville

At Kernville we found a really nice B&B/motel with rooms with a deck overlooking the river and the surrounding mountains.  In the late afternoon sun it was beautiful.  A great find for our last day on the road.  Tomorrow we ride in to Bakersfield and end our trip – for now. This section of mountains has been beautiful….the trip will be continued – in the Springtime when the desert is in bloom.

RESCUED BY CAL-FIRE

Kerk Swartclander and Phil Brown
CAL-FIRE, Tulare Unit

DATE:  Fri, Oct. 28, 2011
HOME: Pier Point Springs Resort near Camp Nelson, Ca
DISTANCE:  16 (Bob), 10 (Shelagh)
ALTITUDE: 3500 (Bob)  1500 (Shelagh)
WEATHER: Perfect, except for GNATS!!!!
NARRATIVE:

On the way to Pier Point Springs Resort.

The weather was perfect, the scenery spectacular (steep forested hillside with the Tule River below), and the road windy and steep (sometimes up to 13%, often 8-10%, but with a few flat spots to rest).  The climbing was actually doable (we’re strong and rested).  So what was the problem?  GNATS – they swarmed at the worst times, when you’re struggling up the 10-13% grade and having difficulty taking a hand off the handlebars to swat them.  They seem to know this and get up your nostrils and down your throat.  Bug spray completely ineffective; if there was ever a time we needed mosquito netting for our heads, this was it.  But, we had none.

I was on the side of the road with my head down trying to get rid of the bugs, lifted my head when I heard a truck coming round the corner, and seeing it was a pickup without a load, stuck out my thumb for a ride.  Turned out it was CAL-FIRE and they were more than happy to take me up to Pierpoint Springs (it’s where they were going for lunch and a meeting).  Bob, of course, declined.  Nice guys – we talked fire, and it turns out one of them was fighting the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire.  He was with the Fresno Fire Dept. at the time.

Meanwhile, Bob was freed from my slow pace and nasty mood, had a fun and fast paced ride up the rest of the hill to the resort.  I had showered, and was walking to the restaurant for lunch when he appeared, sweaty, with bugs swarming around him, but smiling.  He always likes those challenges – glad I could help him out:)

NO SERVICES

While this sign was at the beginning of our road today, it's a good symbol for many of our roads.  No Services has doubled the time we usually take each evening in figuring out where to stay, and what we need to take with us for the day.  

THE LONELY ROAD

On the way to Springville

DATE:  Thurs, Oct. 27, 2011
HOME: Springville, ca  Springville Inn
DISTANCE: 35 miles
ALTITUDE:  2600 ft gained
WEATHER: perfect
NARRATIVE:
After a fabulous breakfast at our B&B we got on the road around 9:30.  What a beautiful ride it was today.  No more than a dozen cars and a handful of motorcycles did we see all day long, not a single store, and few houses – but lots of cattle – this is ranching country!  Wonderful, lonely roads to ride with with hills, oaks, grasses and large rock out croppings.  While this is desert country this time of year the sun is low, casting shadows on the hills, which soften them.  We had a nice lunch just before our big climb to the top of the mountain, which zigzagged up at a mostly 5-7% grade.  Only occasionally did it go higher.  Once up, it was a nice 10 mile downhill to Springville.

Springville Inn, Springville, CA

The Springville Inn:  Built in 1911 it’s the cornerstone of this town, which, at first glance, looks like a bustling town – nicely restored houses, new sidewalks, newly paved streets.  The first sign that anything was wrong was our Inn – big FOR SALE signs outside.  The owner is still keeping the motel open, but this was a destination hotel – nice banquet rooms, a high end restaurant with lots of outside seating.  And our room had recently been remodeled and was very nice.  The owner said the recession hit them big – they are this little out of the way town and people stopped coming.  We thought how sad it was – she had put her heart and soul into refurbishing the place (opened in 1998), and now she has to sell it, but no one is buying yet.
Then we took a walk along main street and found a good number of stores closed down.  One woman said that the valley had 25% unemployment with lots and lots of homes in foreclosure.

LEAVING THE SIERRAS

Sequoias at Giant Forest

HOME: Lemon Grove, Ca.  Plantation B&B
DISTANCE: 40 miles
ALTITUDE: Descended 7200 ft., ascended 1,000.  We’re 6200ft. lower than yesterday
WEATHER: Perfect
NARRATIVE:

Greening the desert thanks to Kaweah Dam.

Today we left the Sierras and the Sequoia groves for the desert and palm trees in one dramatic drop.  A fascinating descent where we began in the morning with the temperature at 38 degrees, and ending at our B&B with a temp of 72.  One amazing ride going through the vegetation zones of the big trees to the foothills of oak, Manzanita, maples, and buckeyes to the bare desert hills.  We had lunch in Three Rivers, a scenic town made up mostly of motels, and aptly named three rivers – the North Kaweah, Middle Kaweah, and South Kawea all merge here to form The Kaweah River, which is dammed just below Three Rivers and “greens” the desert.

Our B&B, in Lemon Grove (named in late 1800’s when they did grow lemons.  No one wanted lemons in LA, they liked oranges, so the owners ripped out the lemon trees and planted orange trees.  The name stuck).  The theme of the B%B is Gone with the Wind, we are in the Scarlet O’Hara Room, and the large back yard, with it’s palm trees and grass gives the feel of an Oasis in the desert. We spent the last few hours of daylight under the palm trees soaking up the sun. Our room looks to the surrounding hills, which are lovely in the late afternoon light.  The owners have been in business for 15 years, and it is a lovely place.

We encountered our first bicyclist in quite awhile today – a 22 year old German guy who was heading uphill to Sherman Tree in Sequoia.  The remarkable thing about his journey is that we met him at the bottom of our descent at around 2:00 and it is dark at 6:30, and he had no idea it was 6,500ft. of climbing and 38 miles to Sherman tree, and thought he could make it today. We told him the situation; there are few services beyond Three Rivers – he seemed undaunted – I guess it has something to do with being only 22:).

A NOTE ABOUT OUR CHANGE OF PLANS:  As it turns out we are both ending the trip in Bakersfield in 4 or 5 days.  The logistics of getting through the remote desert mountain areas below Kernville were getting difficult.  There’s lots of climbing and great distances between services, even camping, and the days are getting very short (dark by 6:30).  We’ll rent a car in Bakersfield, check out some of the areas on this last section to see if we want to do it another time.  My thought is that it would be beautiful in the Spring, combined with a trip through Anza Borrega and Joshua Tree.  There’s nothing more beautiful than the desert in the Spring.