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69.21 miles, 5710 vertical feet, maximum speed 37 mph
Up about 6, called Jacky. When I told her Loren had crashed, she tactfully but immediately inquired about the condition of her bike.
Big pile of apple pancakes at Nicely’s. Got Sunday night reservation at Best Western Lone Pine, but Saturday was booked up. On the road by 8. Wind down, good riding. Took the June lake loop.
Well worth the detour. I thought the east side of the Sierra was all desert sage and a few sparse trees. Not so. There is real high Sierra forest country over here, even aspens. Horsetail ferns. Flushed a deer out of the woods; it ran along the road ahead of us for a while.
South on 395 was windy, not so nice, but we made good time. Exit to Mammoth Lakes was under construction, but we talked to the CalTrans guy and he let us through; we walked bikes along the sandy shoulder around the few hundred feet of paving in progress.
Got to Mammoth Lakes before noon, found a Motel 6. Loren mailed his shredded shorts home. I wanted to know whether he was going to tell his parents he was okay, or just send them the shorts. He was thinking about it. Met a local at the post office who said he had cycled across the country; he was all set to offer us accommodation for the night. A real shame we’d already committed to the motel. Asked him about bike shops. He recommended Brian’s and told us how to find it.
At the bike shop, I got a new spare tire. Loren noticed that my front derailleur cable was fraying, so I got a new cable at the same time. I asked where to have lunch. The woman named a place, but said they were closed on Wednesdays. I asked her where to have lunch on Wednesdays, and she recommended skipping lunch on Wednesdays …then she came up with a recommendation for a place called Good Stuff.
It was. I got an enormous veggie burrito, filled with brown rice, black beans, and bits of veggies. I was sure I couldn’t eat it all – but I did!
The morning was about 42 miles, about 2000'. We checked into the motel, stripped off the panniers, and set out for Devil’s Postpile national monument in the Minarets wilderness.
Mammoth Lakes has an official elevation of 7860', Minaret summit is at 9175', and the devil’s postpile is down the other side at about 7500'. It’s actually on the west slope of the Sierra: the river running down the valley is the middle fork of the San Joaquin! There is an average grade of about 7.5% climbing out on the way back. The ride is described in my Sierra bike tours book, along with a gross underestimation of the total elevation gain.
I quote from the sign:
Less than 100,000 years ago, basalt lava erupted from a vent near Pumice Flat into this already glaciated valley. Lava filled the valley from side to side for a distance of nearly three miles. Here at Devil’s Postpile the lava was more than 400 feet deep.
The lava flow began to cool from two surfaces: the top surface, which was exposed to the air, and the bottom surface, which was in contact with cooler granite bedrock.
Surface cracks started when the tension caused by the shrinkage of cooling was greater than the strength of the lava.
When cracks became about ten inches long, they branched to form angles approximating 120°, which provided the greatest stress relief.
Each new crack branched again when attaining the critical length and together with other similar cracks, formed polygonal patterns.
At the bottom of the flow, conditions were ideal. Solidification and cracking proceeded from that cooling surface upward into the interior of the flow, forming nearly perfect columns. An exceptional aspect of Devil’s Postpile is not that some columns are curved, but that in places, conditions were favorable enough to have produced columns so long and regular.
After the columns formed, this valley was glaciated once again. Moving ice advanced over the fractured lava. The upper portion was quarried away exposing a wall of columns 40 to 60 feet tall. What you are seeing is only the remaining portion of the basalt lava that cooled here.
Since the glacier melted, numerous columns have spalled from the face of the cliff creating this pile of broken posts.
Short on time (ambition, really), so we skipped Red’s meadow. A wonderful, spectacular, isolated valley. The river running through the meadow looks a lot like the Merced in Yosemite valley. A deer and a fawn in the stream. Chipmunks everywhere. Our old friend, the John Muir trail, runs through; it’s the same as the Pacific crest trail here.
There is an entrance station at Minaret summit. The same ranger was there for both directions of our passage. On the way in, she warned us that it was a long, steep climb out, and she congratulated us when we returned. We found out later that $6 would have gotten us a shuttle bus ticket out, but we’re cheapskates, and we’d rather do it ourselves anyway.
The road is theoretically closed to all but shuttle busses and bicycles before 5:30 PM, but there is camping in the valley, and campers leave at all hours. Still, not much traffic, and no one crowding us by trying to hurry.
When I got to the top on the way out, I found an adventure in progress. The gatekeeper had summoned cops and an enforcement ranger because some kids had broken into their parents’ van and driven around terrorizing everyone in the parking area and surrounding woods. A troop of boy scouts had almost been wiped out; they left immediately for parts unknown. A woman who had almost been hit was there, waiting for the cops to arrive.
A cop and a ranger both arrived while I was waiting. The witness told her story and left, while the cop and ranger went on to deal with the kids.
I asked the gatekeeper what was going on. She said the kids had asked her for a wire coat-hanger so they could get into their parents’ van. Even without her assistance, they managed to get in, started it, and began driving wildly around the parking lot and surrounding woods.
After the first reports, the gatekeeper called 911. She also began warning hikers coming up from the valley below about the danger in the parking area. Turned out that one of the couples hiking up from the valley was the kids’ parents. They were really pissed – and went hyper when they found out that the authorities were on the way! They went off to discuss matters with the kids and wait for the cops.
The ranger came back to talk with the gatekeeper. He said the oldest of the kids was 15. The ranger was trying to quantify off-road environmental damage – I bet there’s a bill for that added on top of everything else!
I led the way on the descent from the entrance station back to Mammoth Lakes. An enormous raptor landed on the road ahead of me to scoop up an ex-chipmunk or something. Its spread wings spanned most of the lane. I had actually started to move into the left lane to pass it before it noticed my silent speedy approach and flew off. I was within about 50' of it. Wish I were a birder, to be able to identify it.
Mammoth Mountain and Mammoth Lakes is a big ski resort area. Forest, hills, chalet-style buildings, very Swiss Alps. All it needs is snow. Enormous (life-size?) statue of a mammoth at the ski resort. Lots of summer recreation, too – busy place. Hikers, backpackers, general purpose tourists. Haven’t met any other bicycle tourists yet.
Ski lift moving against the sky at the top of Mammoth mountain, presumably preparing the machinery for the winter season.
Ate Mex. How could we, after what we had for lunch? Burp! Gringo’s restaurant: good, had Negra Modelo beer.
Cleaned bikes. Asked motel for an old rag – they gave us a new towel. This happened to Jacky and me on our cross-country trip, too. Interesting.
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