We got up leisurely on the 7th and enjoyed breakfast. It was our last morning in the Sierra. Then, after prepping the bikes, we headed from our campsite across 395 and up, up and away. Our bike ride today was up Rock Creek.Rock Creek is the highest paved public road (not necessarily a state highway) in California. It begins at 395 near Tom's Place northwest of Bishop (elevation approx. 7,500 feet) and climbs southwest into the High Sierra along Rock Creek. The road dead ends around 15 miles later at Mosquito Flat, elevation 10,300 feet.
This is a popular ride in the area also because it is steep. An early section known as "the narrows has about a 9% grade. The ride then backs off to various grades between 4 and 7%. A popular destination up this drainage is the Rock Creek Store where they serve “Pie in the Sky.” I stopped at this point, and Dave continued up the remaining three miles to gain the last 800’ or so to the top at Mosquito Flats. Unfortunately, we biffed and forgot the camera at the trailer so we were not able to get any photos of this pretty ride. I did find this photo of a piece of nectarine pie from the store. The pies all looked this good!
After Dave returned to the store from the summit, he rewarded himself with a big, delicious piece of banana cream pie. Then we headed down. In some ways, the downhill part of this ride is the crux. The pavement is dreadful – huge expansion joints, potholes, really rough chip seal, no shoulder, and at least on this day, strong gusty crosswinds. At one time I stopped certain I’d flatted. It turns out that it was just a squirrely ride from the wind and pavement. We completed the downhill back to the trailer and immediately started packing up for the long ride home. It was nice to pack without pressure, head to the dump station (where we saw someone foul up the black water dump – poo on the pavement!!! – blarg), and hit the road. We drove a nice distance and found a quiet bivy about 25 miles east of Tonopah, NV where we enjoyed the last margaritas and watched the sun set.
In the middle of the night, we woke to a pack of coyotes near the trailer yipping and howling. It was sort of creepy listening to them ‘talk’ to each other knowing they were pretty close. Pente wasn’t very pleased either. The only other time we’ve heard her growl like she was growling was when the bear was on the back porch.
After another long day of driving on the 8th, we bivied again in Fruita, CO. It's a great stop where we managed to get some good sleep. And after a bit more driving (and the two big passes at Vail and the Eisenhower Tunnel) we were home by about 2:30 pm. It's so nice to see the birds!
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