July 12 - My birthday present has finally arrived. Time for another vacation. I woke up this morning at about 6:00am. Figured I’d pack everything and just get the hell out of town and worrying about riding after setting up camp. My car was packed pretty tight and ready to go at about 9:15am.
Got to camp around 1:30pm and had it all set up a few hours later. I’m slow like that. I tried taking a nap on my fancy new queen size blow up bed, with nice sheets and my regular pillow set, but it’s really difficult to do when there is no shade and one’s tent takes on the properties of an oven. It was only about 80 degrees up at 9200’, which was 25 degrees cooler than Independence a mile below, but the direct sunlight was pretty intense. So, after a nice sweaty hour long nap I woke up and decided I’d ride down to the base of the climb. It’s about 13 miles down, and as Independence sits at 3980", it is supposedly exactly one vertical mile of climbing/descending. It took about 20:00 to get down and 1:40:00 to get back up. There was one particular stretch, shown in the picture, that was steeper than the rest. About a mile long section where 3.5w/kg is good for all of 6.5mph. With a 36/25 low gear I was seeing in the neighborhood of 50-55rpm. Very high torque. In the picture below that steep part of the road there is about half way up the climb. You can actually see almost all of the rest of it, well, I can anyway since I know where to look. It’s tough to see, but the road cuts across the top of the picture going from the right up towards the left where the stream is flowing. You can’t actually see the stream in the picture, but as you can imagine, it’s right underneath that zig-zagging green coming down the mountain.
It was dark by the time I got back to camp, and I had forgot matches to light my stove with, so I made some sandwiches before going back to sleep. I had read about peanut butter and honey sandwiches being in the musettes at the tour, so I figured that’d be good enough for me tonight.
Totals for the day…
2:04:54
1447kj (I weigh about 71kg)
25.8 miles
TSS - 96
July 13 - Woke up a little before 4am so I could beat the heat. Slept OK, but not great. Woke up several times thinking the alarm clock hadn’t gone off, since I’d never used it before and was unsure of it’s reliability. Got dressed in my trusty spandex, had some cereal, packed my water cooler and ice chest into the car, along with the camera and whatever else, and was gone around 4:45am. Drove down to the 395 and headed South to Big Pine, about 15 miles away. Went up Whitney Portal Road to where it meets Horseshoe Meadows Road. It looks pretty gnarly in person.
As I was getting my bike out of the car and going through my regular ritual of cleaning/lubing the chain, pumping up the tires, kneeling down towards Xantusia, etc. I noticed that there were still some “ultra-travelers” doing Badwater that were coming up Whitney Portal Road. One fellow in particular looked really horrible. He was walking with a horrible crook. The girl that was with him was really hot though, so that was nice. Funny thing about seeing these people was that I got absolutely no inspiration from them. They really looked to be abusing their bodies. Later in the day after my ride though I met up with someone that had finished the night before. Nacny somethingorother, #40. She looked great and talking to her was inspiring. She had super white teeth too, probably bleached from the desert sun of course.
The road up to Horseshoe Meadows starts out pretty mild, as seen in the picture. Then it gets quite steep. Lots of pitches that must have been in the 8-10% range, because again around 3.5w/kg I was seeing about 6-7mph. Brutal. It was pretty clear this was going to be an Inyo torque-fest. Those switchbacks seen in the upper left hand corner are very long. They keep getting shorter as you go up, but since you are going up and losing air, they don’t seem all that much shorter. I made 16 miles and was completely spent. I was trying to hold 225-250 watts the whole way up, as my plan was to put in tons of tempo work on this trip, but that fried me. I got just past the top of the switchback seen on the picture and when a solid wind was blowing into me that was quite cold I decided that was enough of that. Didn’t want to get shelled the first day out there. I wasn’t feeling great from the start either, and was blaming that on a host of things, such as sleeping 3,000’ higher than normal, eating a small dinner, climbing a vertical mile at high torque just 12 hours previously, etc.
Went back to camp, had some lunch and tried to go to sleep. Woke up about an hour later and went on an hour long hike up the Robinson Lake Trail. Pretty sweet place. Later that night, before dinner, I did the Onion Valley road once again.
Totals…
4:16:37
3041kj
56.7mi
TSS - 238
July 14 - Woke up at trusty ol’ 4am once again. It’s still dark at that time of the morning, so I’m eating outside and just listening to the cascading water that is just behind my campsite. It’s nice, and the moths were happy to keep me company. They don’t talk much either, which is excellent. Here you can see the cascading water during the day, along with some nice and fresh clean clothes lying on the table. This picture was shot on the 16th I think.
Left around 5am and drove out north on the 395 to Big Pine. Today my plan was to ride the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest climb after riding Glacier Lodge. When I got to HWY 168, which is the ABPF climb, I just wasn’t feeling up to parking and riding. Too tired. So I drove to the top as a bit of foreplay. Driving a new road always gets me excited, and this worked as usual. I was stoked by the time I got to the top and parked my car, just above 10,000’, a good 6,000’ above Big Pine. I spoke with Jim, from Illinois, for about 30 minutes and he was a great guy. Talked about le Tour, photography, teaching, and running. Then I made the descent. It was cool at the top, but not so at the bottom. By the time I was climbing Glacier Lodge, which goes from 4,000’ up to 8,000’, it was very hot. Probably just under 100. Again I encountered a steep road, where I could only manage about 6-7mph for a couple mile stretch when riding at tempo. The problem with this was that there was a slight tailwind, going about the same speed as I was, which made it feel like I was riding in a 100 degree vacuum. I was sweating tremendously. I drank about 60oz of fluid by the time I reached the lodge. Bought a 20oz Sobe, a 12oz Mountain Dew, and a 32oz water from Kathy, who owns/operates the Lodge.
Went down the hill towards the 168, but got a 12oz V8 at a market at the bottom because it was very hot and I knew I was in for it. No refills going up to the Bristlecone’s. By then it was nearing 105 degrees. What I encountered was odd. Again I had a tailwind going up the 168, and again it was going the same speed as I was. I was forced to stop at the 5,000’ marker to cool off, then again at the 6,000’ marker. There I found hiding on the side of the road a trough with some water flowing out. A dream in this heat. I was already getting dehydrated so I decided to soak my jersey and helmet in the water. Thankfully the bees patrolling the trough didn’t mind my presence. This kept me cool for about 90 seconds afterwards. Oh joy.
By the time I got to the 7,000’ sign I was spent. Survival mode was turned on. 100-150 watts was all that was left. I reached the turnoff for the final 10 miles to Schulman Grove. 1/2 mile in there is a Forest Service booth, unmanned, that I stopped at. I sat there for about 20 minutes wondering how I’d make it the last 10 miles and 3,000’ of climbing on 1/2 a bottle. I came to the conclusion that I wouldn’t, and would have to beg for fluid from some people passing by. So, off I went. A mile later I had to dismount. I couldn’t spin the cranks. I ended up walking 4 miles, during which time 17 cars passed by me. I raised my hand up as each pass and looked directly at the drivers face to try to get someone to stop. Only one person even made eye contact, and she just gave me a thumbs up and smiled. Two cars in particular seemed to really piss me off. One was a white Explorer with custom plates reading “USA FMLY”. Yeah, some family the USA is, bastard would have stopped if his mom was walking on the side of the road pushing a bike in nearly 100 degree heat. The other was a VW bus. I always think those things are driven by hippies who want to save the world or something so I was bummed he didn’t stop. When I later got to the top and saw the bus parked I noticed there was a USCF sticker on the back along with all the other stickers. Bastard! Anyway, I finally collected some water at a campground midway up and rode most of the rest of the way after that. That climb kicked my ass in a big way. A few hours afterwards, while I was eating at Uncle Bud’s in Lone Pine, my left hamstring cramped up and it would have made for great drama/entertainment, but nobody else was there eating to witness it.
Totals for the day…
6:07:55 (this includes any walking that was at least 2mph or faster, below that the PT PRO doesn’t register I believe)
2837kj
69mi
TSS -235
July 15 - Regular morning charade. Headed back to HWY 168 to take care of an unsettled score from the day before. This time I parked halfway up the climb, at the little Forest Service Booth. That way I could refill there and nobody would be there to talk to that would keep me from starting on time. Went down the hill, and almost got hit going through the narrows. It’s a narrow road, but some people think they need to drive right down the middle just because there is no painted line to seperate the imaginary lanes. Genius. That’s what happens though when we are always forced to stay within the lines, suddenly they are gone and people don’t know what to do. Unreal. Whatever, it’s still real purdy.
Descended uneventfully from there and climbed Glacier Lodge about 5 minutes slower than the day before. Filled up the bottles once again and headed back towards 168. Made the climb up to my car with no issues, refilled, and kept going. Ended up doing the ABPF climb 1:11:00 faster than the day before. Cool, mission accomplished. At the top a girl asked me if I raced for Arrogant Bastard Ale, since I was wearing their jersey.
Took a shower at the Bristlecone Pine Motel in Lone Pine for $3.50. Money well spent. My buddy Lutz showed up to camp around 5pm. Dude is a great cook, so as you can imagine, I was stoked to see he made it up, even if only for a couple nights. I rode the bottom half of Onion Valley, stopping where the picture was shot on the first day of this journal. Lutz had driven down to pick me up because he didn’t want to wait for dinner any longer. Fine by me. He made pasta and threw chopped up sausages, that were marinated and had some cheese in them, into a sauce. Nice. Went to sleep around 10:15pm, a bit later than I wanted to.
Totals…
6:04:13
4008kj
87.9mi
TSS - 307
July 16 - Up at 4am once again. Kind of tired. Oh well. The sun was coming so there was no time to sleep in since riding in 107 degree weather isn’t all that productive. Drove out to Bishop, about an hour from camp, to ride the west 168 to South Lakes. Started about a mile above Ed Powers Road. Took 1:54:00 to reach the South Lakes Parking lot. Lutz was a little under 10 minutes behind me. This guy is a climber if ever there was one. He hasn’t been training because he hurt something in his leg that no doctor can seem to figure out. He’s been doing some light circuit training, and light jogging, but nothing with intensity. He was also riding on a bike that probably weighed about 25lbs, wearing a camelback that had more water than he needed, and was using the pedals a BMX’er would use since pulling up hurts his leg. Plus he’s currently about 15lbs over weight. Dude could be a serious threat for USA duathlon if he can figure out what’s up with his leg.
Afterwards we went to Erik Schatt’s bakery. That place rocks. I had a pastrami sandwich and one of their complimentary pecan cookies. Excellent.
Back at camp I figured out how to take a nap during the day. Soak my towel in the ice cold stream running near our camp and then lay it over me like a blanket. Worked very well. McGyver style baby.
Later on we went down a dirt road towards the Alabama Hills, as our camp host Bill suggested we ought to. Thanks Bill. My Subaru did alright, but that road is better suited for a Jeep. We had to think a bit as I got stuck on a rock. Thankfully the frame was on the rock, and the car has AWD. The left rear tire was completely off the ground. Nothing like denting and scratching up your car to really make it feel like it’s your own though. Actually, in the picture below we backed up and drove the tires over the rocks, but coming back we tried taking the high road and nearly got stuck. The road ended about 100 meters past this and that where I got the second shot below.
Totals…
2:34:18
1696kj
35mi
TSS - 137
July 17 - Morning schmorning. Drove to Tom’s Place, which is north of Bishop. Went up Old Sherwin Grade to check it out before I would ride it. The plan was to park at Tom’s Place, elevation 7,000’, ride down to Bishop at 4,000’, head up to South Lakes parking lot, at about 9,750’, then go back to Tom’s Place. About 2 vertical miles. And that’s exactly what I did. Went up the South Lakes climb about 10 minutes faster than the previous day because I was feeling excellent, probably from taking an easy day yesterday and already being warmed up by the time I got to the climb on 168. Old Sherwin Grade is an awesome road. Totally deserted, although there are people who have houses just off it. Functionally it’s deserted though. With 3,000’ of gain it’s a nice test of fitness without being too huge like the climb up the old Bristlecone Forest which would really nail most people.
This is just off the side of the road. The bottom of the road is down by the large green patch in upper middle portion of the picture, and it weaves nicely getting over to it. Got back to Tom’s Place and noticed I had left my cooler out of the car all day. Oh well, people weren’t up there to steal coolers, so it was still there. Somebody came over and started talking about le Tour with me. I guess if you have a cycling jersey and bibs on, that means you need to hear their thoughts on cycling. This guy was telling me how Lance’s team totally sucks. “This new Discovery team is just horrible. Lance is riding all alone, doing everything by himself. He might as well not even have teammates. The Postal team is doing much better, he should have stayed with them.” Hmmm…yeah, okay, sure dude, smoke another one of those fatties and have a nice day.
Afterwards I went into Bishop’s sporting store, Valu-Sports I think, and bought some Power-Gel. Strawberry-Banana, and it’s good stuff. One of the guys working there suggested it. We got to talking and he asks me if I want to go on a ride tommorrow. Yeah, sure. “Why don’t you just come over to my place in the morning. My wife and I’ll make some hotcakes and bacon.” Score!
After lunch I headed up towards Schulman Grove and did the last half of that climb, going from about 7,000’ up to 10,000’ in about 10 miles. From 8,500’ up to 10,000’ is very steep, often deceptively so. You’ll be going up a 10% grade only to hit a switchback that pitches up to about twice that. Those little walls take about 1w/kg to go 1mph. Definitely brutal.
Totals…
6:12:17
4063kj
97.2mi
TSS - 329
July 18 - Slept in…until 4:30am since breakfast was being made for me later on. Drove out to Bishop and found Erik and Natalie’s house very easily. Had four large pancakes, some bacon, and some orange juice. Awesome. Totally unexpected experience. Erik and I headed out towards Tom’s Place. This time he showed me the back roads though so we wouldn’t have to ride the 395 at all as I had the day before. It’s good to meet locals. Once we got up to Tom’s Place he mentions there is a loop he’s been wanting to do for the past couple months, but hasn’t done it yet. I told him I’m game. So we kept heading away from Bishop, towards a little green church that was right by Crowley Lake. At that point we were about 35 miles into our ride. Then we rode 37 miles to the little town of Benton. That road was very nice. Went through the Pinon hills/mtns? and the entire thing was paved very nice. We stopped and had a sandwich at the little cafe in Benton and then headed back down the 6 towards Bishop. By then it was well over 100 degrees and people were looking at us funny. For the first 10 miles back I was totally spent. Maybe I ate too much or the week was just catching up, but thankfully Erik didn’t mind pulling me back that way witout me taking more than about 2:00 at the front. We were going into about a 15mph headwind, so he was really doing a lot more work than I was. Then the roles reversed. I got a second wind and he was shelled, so I did most of the pulling from there. That ended up being a pretty long ride.
On the way back to camp I decided that this trip started out on a whim, and it would be ending the same way. Instead of staying for 13 days, I turned that into 7. The heat was forcing me to get up so early that I wasn’t getting enough rest since I couldn’t nap during the day very well. I knew I needed a day off and didn’t want to sit around for a day up there, so I packed up camp and headed home.
Totals for the day…
6:07:50
3809kj
111.9mi
TSS - 277
Tuesday I slept for about half of the day and just felt tired when I was actually awake. I really needed that rest day to recover from that big week. It’s the biggest week I’d ever put in, but to top that off the torque values were very high on every ride because a 36/25 low gear just isn’t enough for the climbs in that county. There was quite a bit of time spent in the 45-65rpm range. I’m assuming that added to the muscular and overall fatigue. Whatever the case, I felt really awesome riding today and did a monster ride, relatively for me anyway, up in my local San Bernardino Mtns. All of it was in between 5,000’ - 8,443’ and I missed getting hit by a hail storm by about a minute and a half in Angelus Oaks. Ended up doing 7:33:36, 137 miles, 5,242kj for a TSS of 357, which are all new highs for me I believe and I felt great the entire time. Mental and physical breakthroughs probably.
I plan on going back from August 15-21st. This time I’ll stay at the Bristlecone Motel in Lone Pine so I can sleep in an air conditioned room during the day, and night for that matter. Let me know if you are interested in making it up for a ride, or several, sometime during that week.