Day 16: To Inyokern

July 25, 2009

Today I cross the southern Sierra Nevada mountains. It was 73F in the tent at sunrise. I got up at 6:15 and got on the road at 7:45 after hauling all my stuff up 200 feet to the road. I stopped briefly at Miracle hot spring to confirm there is still no soaking pool. 123F water flows into the Kern river. After only 5 miles I stopped in the town of Lake Isabella for breakfast #2.

Kern river downstream from Lake Isabella.

There's not much shade as highway 178 goes east of Lake Isabella. It was very warm. Vacation traffic was heavy. I had a tailwind most of the time.

Lake Isabella. A reservoir on the Kern river.

After Lake Isabella highway 178 turns south of the Kern river and starts climbing with a vengeance. The first few miles to Onyx is in a valley. The famous old Onyx store is closed, but the same owners have a new store a mile to the east. They were celebrating the first anniversary of the new store with free hot dogs and hamburgers. Quite the party atmosphere there. Free food definitely brings people out of the woodwork.

Joshua tree zone on the climb up Walker pass on highway 178.

The temperature climbed into the upper 90's as I climbed to 5280-foot Walker pass. Not much shade, and not much evaporative cooling when climbing 4 mph with a gentle tailwind.

Just below the summit of Walker Pass is the Walker Pass BLM campground. The large campground has many trees and great views. At that elevation it was cool enough to camp, but the water system was shut off and there was no creek nearby. So I reluctantly continued over the pass and down to Inyokern. I left the Onyx store with 1.5 gallons of water, but drank most of it during the long hot climb.

View from the Walker Pass campground which had its water system shut off.

Downhill to the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

It didn't take long to descend 3000 feet from Walker Pass to Inyokern. Downhill all the way, into a dry salty basin.

Another Joshua tree zone (3000-3500 feet elevation).

Wide open basin looking at the town of Inyokern in the distance.

I arrived at Inyokern an hour before sunset. The temperature was at least 100F. The town had a high that day of 110F, about normal. Inyokern is the driest, hottest place I'll see on this tour. It has an average July high temperature of 108F (42C) and average annual rainfall of 4.73 inches (12 cm). Inyokern is at 2400 feet elevation. I will need to pedal north to higher elevations to get relief from the heat.

I got a room at the only motel in Inyokern. It's pretty basic, $28. The A/C wasn't on and the shadeless cinder block building was extremely hot. At 11PM the room had cooled down to 84F. It probably would have been cooler at the mountaintop campground, if only it had water.

This morning I forgot to take down my clothesline before leaving my campsite. I left behind a clothesline, cycling shorts, and a pair of socks. Now I have only one pair of cycling shorts (started the tour with 3).

This is the easternmost point of my tour. To get home I will travel a long distance north AND west. Overall I'm dealing with the heat pretty well.

Distance: 61.8 mi (99 km)

Climbing: 3737 ft (1132 m)

Average speed: 8.3 mph (13.3 km/h)

Max speed: 41.5 mph (66.4 km/h)

Today's ride: 62 miles (100 km)
Total: 768 miles (1,236 km)

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Charmaine RuppoltI've done that before - leaving bicycling clothes/items behind! Bummer! I was an hour or so away before I realized it. :/
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