Day 4 - Needles, CA to Bishop, CA

354 Miles

Day 4 Trip Map

Actually slept until my alarm went off.  Woke up two times before that, but did go back to sleep.  That's sort of a new thing on these trips, but I was pretty worn out after the last two days rides.  Temperature when I stepped outside at 7:45am, a nice cool 96° F.  Wow, it's only going to improve from that huh?  But it did.

For some reason the air had a little "cool" in it so, even though the temperature was approaching 100° the ride didn't feel a bit over 99°.  It's a seemingly long, long way from Needles to Barstow.   And I gotta tell you, there is no scenery worth photographing.  Only a plumber could feel at home in this place.  Everything is brown.  The mountains, the sparse vegetation, the desert, the clouds...well, not the clouds, but that was all.  Only a Sierra Club vet could find something to appreciate out there.

Today is day 4 and you experienced travelers with me know what an important day that is.  It's laundry day.  Consequently, blog's short and I'm all cleaned up looking forward apprehensively for tomorrow.  Based on my friend Claye's super-observent comment on the first day I decided I needed to check out the road up to Bodie before committing Betsy and myself to a hair-raising experience.  It seems the road is paved for the first 12.8 miles, but not for the last three.  One site says, " Bodie is down a dusty, bumpy, slow 13 mile long road off of State Highway 395."  Another says, "...it is about another 13 miles to the entrance gate, beautiful drive but the last 3 miles are not paved so drive slow!"  But the comment that got my attention was, "I actually had to go rent a jeep, because my car would have had it's suspension destroyed if I attempted it."  I'm thinking if I see this place it will be based upon the last comment.  Some locals at a watering hole here in town said it isn't bad now that the BLM has taken over the park and maintenance.  We'll see.

Not much to show from today's ride.  After turning north on US395 you fall in between two moutain ranges constituting the Owens Valley; the Sierra Nevada (on the left heading north) and the White Mountains on the right.  More of the pretty brown but that's to be expected since the Sierras wring every bit of water out of the Pacific winds before "releasing" them to the brown part of the state.

Some green appears where man has had his way with nature.

See?  Brown

Note the brown-faced hill in the center of this picture.

I was trying to figure out what would cause such a precipitous facing and could only come up with one natural determinant: Man.

A little further up the road I saw another such scene facing in the opposite direction.  I'm guessing they mined the ore until the market didn't justify the expense of process, or, perhaps the ore played out...but that doesn't seem to fit to me.
Anyone else got any ideas for this?





Cross your fingers on my being able to visit Bodie.  We'll know at the end of the day tomorrow.