We had the first wildlife sighting this morning before even rolling the bikes outside. Bizarre as it was, a frog had taken refuge from the desert heat in the same place I had. We exchanged greetings and both went our separate ways.
Even the frogs know it is hot outside
As we headed north along the west side of Lake Isabella, we finally got to see some of the lake. It is pretty low this year with the severe drought but there were still folks by the shore enjoying what water there was.
Sunrise over the lake
We got to spend a little time by the lakeshore as we dealt with the first real mechanical failure of the trip. After noticing some squishy bike handling, Sarah spotted the issue, she had a flat rear tire. We pulled over and it was quite windy. The forecast for today included a high wind warning for the area in which we would be traveling and it had started to build pretty early.
Because of the wind it was a bit difficult to try to listen for the site of the leak in the tube. We decided to just install her new tube and deal with patching the leaky one later. After everything was installed we pumped up the rear tire...and pumped... and pumped. Something was clearly wrong. Grabbing the rear wheel and heading for some shelter from the wind, everything got a closer examination. It turned out that Sarah's "new" tube was an old tube with multiple patches and a hole that had just been folded nicely in her seat bag. Away from the wind we were able to find and patch all the leaks and get everything back together before too much time had passed.
First breakdown of the trip
The rest of the morning was a pretty pleasant ride past the lake and through the very neat little town if Kernville. It is at the opposite end of the the lake from the town of Lake Isabella and about a world apart. It is full of outdoor shops and nice little motels and cabins. We hit the grocery store for a few more items and filled our extra water bladders. It wasn't clear that we were going to find much water for the next day and a half so to be safe I loaded an extra 5 liters onto the bike in addition to my three bottles.
The ride out of Kernville followed the Kern river up a canyon and was some of the most pleasant riding of the trip so far. We saw lots of kayakers and rafters getting ready to put into the river to ride the rapids back towards town.
Nice ride up the Kern River valley
There were lots of campgrounds along the river and we had identified one as a potential stopping point. The next good opportunity would be a couple hours down the road and a few thousand feet of climbing away. When we got to the site, it was still very early in the day and we had only gone about 30 miles so we decided that we would continue on up the road. We did pull in for a brief stop and while we were there we were called over by a really friendly guy who saw us ride up and wanted to give us some cold ice tea before we left. It is warm work riding a bike uphill and I would pretty much drink anything offered if it were in a cup full of ice in the middle of nowhere. We chatted with Jeff the Good Samaritan for a bit and heard about his camping trip and swapped some stories about Seattle as he is headed there later in the year to visit. It was a random encounter that really brightened the day.
Jeff our road Angel of the day
Not quite half of the remaining distance to our campground, we pulled off at what turned out to be a timeshare ranch to hit the general store for more cold drinks. The place was pretty neat with a little lake for fishing, views of the mountains, a bunch of cabins, horses and trail rides. It even had a saloon/dance hall. I have a thing for general stores. I am not sure why but I think they are cool and I like to check them out. This one was another good break in the day.
The general store always has a cold drink
Our destination for the night was Redwood campground in Sequoia National Forest. We slugged out the rest of the climb (the day off was really helping here) and arrived in mid-afternoon. As it turns out, the campground is adjacent to the Trail of 100 Giants.
Goo find at the end of the day
We stopped to check it out. It was very cool and had some of the largest trees that I have seen anywhere. There was a self guided walking tour that gave us some interesting information. Several if the largest trees are 1500-2000 years old!
Over 18.5 ft in diameter
Three giant trees grown together make a heck of a tree house
About 150 years ago, one of the giant sequoias fell over and the remains are very clearly evident and not particularly deteriorated. Two and a half years ago another fell and blocked a good chunk of the trail. Stuff that big doesn't get cut up so now the trail goes around it.
If a tree falls in the forest...it leaves a huge hole
The trees were great. It was nice to get in a bit of a walk to work some different leg muscles and this was the perfect way to do it. It is so different here than the desert we were crossing not that many days ago. I am excited to see what is aheads in the next few days.
The campground we planned to stay in is not yet open for the season. When you ride a bike several hours uphill to get there and the next one is fifteen miles uphill further along, that means one thing; private campground.
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