Groveland to Lone Pine

Got an early start this morning, destination: Yosemite National Park. The ride from Groveland to the park entrance is some amazing riding, lucky for me, I got to do it three times with my return trip the night before. Lot's of big back to back esses and sweepers. Very little traffic too, most that I caught up to pulled over to let me pass. The exception to this rule of course was those damn RV's again. What is it with those RV drivers? Bah!

Only one wildlife sighting, err make that squishing. A butterfly that still looks like a butterfly!



Talk about elevation gain too, Groveland is at around 900 meters, I hit about 3300 meters at one point. Managed to get quite a few pictures on this run too. All too soon though the park had ended and I was at the exit gate at 2800 meters and began the steep descent to the valley located one kilometer below to Lee Vining for a much needed break off the bike and a chance to get a coffee.

Other than getting swarmed by wasps at a rest stop, the ride from Lee Vining to Bishop was pretty uneventful, too many straight highways, not enough curves. The innkeeper in Groveland made me promise to stop at Erick Schat's Bakery in Bishop. She said I couldn't miss it as it was located at the only stop light. Sure enough one stop light on the highway and it was for people coming out of their parking lot!

Quite the bakery, have to highly recommend it to everyone. I didn't partake of their sweet stuff, but I did have a very nice sandwich and ice tea(have to say I'm loving the unsweetened ice tea here).

Next stop, Lone Pine.

The turn off to Death Valley is just past Lone Pine, stopped at the info centre located there to try and find a camping spot. The ranger looked at me rather incredulously when I asked about nearby camping. Turns out there are two sites within a mile of the town, however they're unmanaged and tend to attract the local yahoos with the monster 4x4's and that awful fizzy beverage that they call beer or even Bud. I did check both out, they did show signs of partying and had no services(no showers).

Found an overpriced little motel in Lone Pine, by the time I went to bed I decided I really didn't like the town and wanted out ASAP. A contributing factor was the local hip hop wannabe teens hanging out in front of the laundromat that I went to(the only one in town) and looking at my bike/gear a little too predatorily. I was starting to consider breaking out the bear spray

The one highlight of the evening was a very yummy hand tossed pizza with pesto and sundried tomatoes.