The Land of Cut-Off Jeans: Travels through the Mid-West into PA

Link to Photo Album of this Trip/Blog Photo Roll

This chronicles my travels through the Mid-West and ending in Carlisle, PA

So... I Actually Left California- so may as well ride bikes along the way

Leaving CA

I should change the title of my blog. But yes, I left the Eastside. The Range of Light. The Eastern Sierra. It is happening. It is real. Wow.  If I'm going to leave, then I need to at least enjoy my drive to quaint New England.
I currently am wishing I owned a truck and had the whole summer off to bike and tour the West and British Columbia.  However, my knee needs a'fixin, so I'm doing a "Sampler Tour" of the West, and trying to mountain bike or bike in every stop along the way.  I'll have to go to more National Parks and do some dispersed camping on National Forest lands in the fall, unless that fire outside of Fort Collins is still going then.  Then I'll just re-route.

HIGHLIGHTS of my Mountain Biketastic Adventure in an Easterly (sigh) Direction

Parting with the Sierras and the Great Basin (I hate goodbyes) .  

I decided to meander up 395 and over Monitor Pass to the best little towns South of Tahoe... Markleeville and Woodfords. You do blink and they are gone, but oh I love them.

Mammoth Lakes Interagency Welcome Center- Where Dreams Come True
Where my love began (and my first USFS job and first job in the Sierras)

The Pie's the Limit

Nostalgia is starting to take over my life.  There are lots of things I want to see and do and probably will need years more time to do them.  The knee, time, and distance are always factors. The seacoast and Redwoods will have to wait. British Columbia and Montana will have to wait. I also am going to physical therapy three times a week.   I suppose I could not go, but my knee is pretty important to me right now.

This weekend aside from getting ripped off at the Subaru dealer repair shop in Reno,  I went to Tahoe.  I love the North Shore and my friends were so kind as to take time out of their busy wedding planning lives to hangout with me.  I took a friend along, as his job doesn’t start right away and he’d never really been to Tahoe.

Why We Build the Wall

I've had a few weekends of office work, with a computer looking at a wall.  The Fire Prevention Officer shut the lights out on me one Sunday.  I said loudly, "Nope!", and he popped his head in and said, "Sorry didn't realize you were in here. We're going to have to cut a window infront of your desk so people know you're in here".

Haven't done that yet. But I did get to listen to a good ETown, from Burlington, VT episode.  The last song is Anais Mitchell and "Why We Build the Wall".  I love this song!

Zoom-a-Flume.... Trail...

Errr... Otherwise know as the Flume Trail. 

Silvia goes to Melissa's!

I finally got to Flagstaff. Was a quick trip to see the cuz.

I got to see Dan, my UMaine and Rose Bike alumn.  Thanks Dan for telling us the secret spots to bike in Flagstaff.  I loved the biking in Flagstaff!

Let's just say that 12 hours in the car and a broken camera lense (again) later... I had a good time.  Thanks for the David Sedaris CD Em!

Arizona Trail, Flagstaff, AZ

Biking in the Caldera

Last Friday, Greg, Julia and I decided to do some biking. I was hesitant to do a trail because I didn't want to tweek my knee, and Julia was using a bike she'd never used before so... Long Valley Caldera exploring was the answer.

Long Valley Caldera is about 20 miles long and 10 miles wide, and is one of the largest caldera's on Earth. And I live 15 minutes away.

We were questing for Little Hot Creek, and clearly went by the side road. But we parked at the Hot Creek site and biked down into the Caldera more and hung a left on 2S07 which ends up going all the way back to 395 if you want it to. We would have been far from our car, and didn't care to make a loop out of it.   Normally it'd be really hot along this road, but the partial cloud cover and later storm, made for a beautiful ride as usual.

2S07 in all it's wide gravel glory