Day 61, October 1st 2007 (Mammoth Lakes,CA to Lone Pine,CA)

I was told by the family that I had stayed with that today would be down hill the entire way. I had been told this by many people in the past but they had always been wrong. There always seemed to be a couple of big climbs that people never seemed to notice. I had to trust the family that I was staying with though because not only had they been so good to me, but they were also cyclists in the area. I have never been happier to see how the day turned out and how nice it was to be able to make a 100 mile journey seem like a breeze. I started my journey downhill out of Mammoth Lakes. It was incredible to hear that around noon, there was going to be snow in the area. I could see as I left that I was heading away from the clouds and I was happy to be headed towards blue skies. Looking back at Mammoth Lakes, after being a good 15 miles away and 1,500 less feet, I could see an incredible difference in terrain. From the nice mountains that could be skied on, I was heading through the desert. Closer and closer I came to Death Valley. The first big town that I was going to run into out of Death Valley was in Bishop and so as soon as I went the 50 miles to Bishop, I took a break. I hadn't had to deal with any tough terrain so far and as I was told it had been, downhill. It was such an easy ride up to this point and had finished into Bishop from going on a couple thousand foot drop to where I was. I had been given some great supplies from the family that I had left in Mammoth Lakes and was happy to be able to use them. From some great food for the road to powdered electrolyte supplements to use as gatorade for the trip. Joe's family was in the chocolate business and so I had a couple of Blommer chocolate bars that I was able to take with me and they were incredible. I had been given one at their house and was happy to have a couple with me for the journey. Soon after leaving Bishop, another rider came up behind me. He was on a journey towards Independence it was nice to be able to chat with him for a good 20 miles before he pulled ahead of me at his pace. He told me that the wind yesterday would have probably stopped me in Bishop for the day. With winds that were at around 30 mph straight from the south to the north I couldn't have agreed with him more. I was even happier at this point that I had stayed where I was in Mammoth. What a great timing and day that had been set out for me on this trip. It just didn't seem possible how all of the pieces were falling into place. I was making great time for the day and was impressed that things were truly all downhill. This had to be the easiest day that I had ridden because absolutely nothing was stopping me. The wind was a little at my back, but mostly a cross wind and it didn't seem to slow me down too much. I continued riding for the day and made it to my destination, Lone Pine, in what seemed like only a few hours. It was about 5:30 when I was where I wanted to be and I was now on the hunt for the campground. I saw the sign for the campground, but just beyond it I saw a sports complex. Full of baseball fields, soccer fields, and plenty of space for a small tent to be for the evening. The grass looked too green to put a tent down and so I tried to put the tent down on some nearby sand from the fields. The stakes for the tent wouldn't drive into the ground and so I had to be careful at where to place my tent on the grass. Obviously, the grass was so green in the area because of the sprinklers that had been set up. I looked around in the day light to try and find the best place where I could put my tent without having to deal with much showers from the sprinklers. I picked the one spot that I thought was perfect and after watching the sun go down behind the mountains, I called it a night. I woke up in the middle of the night at midnight exactly. I could hear the sprinklers going off through the night, but now it was showering my tent. I thought I was going to be okay because it was only a mist over my tent, then things went crazy. Another sprinkler was directed at me like a power hose at a car wash and practically knocked my tent over. I was wet at this point because of the power of the sprinkler on my tent and couldn't handle it much longer. I jumped out of my tent and looked around. There were five sprinklers all around me and I had to make a run for it. I took the stakes out of the ground and picked up my tent and started to run out of the way of the showers. I was soaked from head to toe and although I was only at around 3,500 feet at this point, it was still cold. With the wind and a temperature in the fifties, it didn't help to be soaked and running around. From carrying my tent I escaped to the outfield and managed to get away, but not without first breaking one of the poles on my tent. It was right at the center from where I was carrying it and it was such a dumb way to have an accident like that occur. The tent still stood up without a problem, but I didn't want to have to deal with it for too long. It was something that I was going to have to replace down the road, but for now I needed to try and sleep. I laid in the tent for a good 30 minutes cold and wet before I realized this wasn't going to work. I worked up the courage to get out of my tent and went to a bathroom that I had seen in the area. I brought everything with me and started to hang up all of my wet clothes to dry while wearing the few remaining clothes that were still dry from the monsoon. It was a lot warmer in the bathroom and since I had everything hanging up, I knew I had nothing to sleep in outside. My sleeping bag and tent were among some of the things that I had hanging around in the bathroom to dry. There was a small bench that couldn't have been longer than 5 feet and I used it to lay down on for another great night sleeping in a bathroom.

Daily mileage: 101.3 miles
Average speed: 16.5 mph
Total mileage: 3,609.3 miles