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08-17-08, 11:32 PM
I'm taking advantage of my best friend's largess, and occupying his Mammoth Lakes condo for the entire week. I'm up here with the girls and the dog (it is a family vacation, after all), but the riding here is just too spectacular not to bring a bike along.
We arrived yesterday late afternoon, and so today was the first full day we had. I took advantage of the girl's travel lethargy, and slipped out for a ride this morning. I told the wife to give me a 2 hour head start and then head out to pick me up as a predesignated spot.
Saddling up, I headed out in perfect weather and made my way down to US395 via CA203. Since the condo is right at 8,000' and there is precious little flat ground on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada Range, I had my work cut out for me. A quick downhill, followed by about 2 miles of 7% climbing at altitude had me panting in short order, but the 6 mile sweeping descent to 395 more than made up for it. Turning North on 395, I struck out for the June Lake Loop, some 19 miles distant. Between me and the junction of 158 is a little incline called Deadman's Summit. Achieving that, it was a nice glide down to the 1st June Lake junction.
A bottle of Gatorade and freshly baked cinnamon roll later, I headed into the June Lake Loop. This road heads into the lakes basin, skirts June, Gull, Silver, and Grant lakes, and then veers north with another sweeping downhill towards Mono Lake and US395. If you ever get the chance to come by this way, you simply must ride the loop - it is spectacular.
My timing was pretty good, as the girls buzzed me with about 5 miles to go. They took the pooch down to the lake and let him fool around for awhile, and allowed me to finish my run. After they picked me up, we had some lunch and spent the balance of the day swimming and playing in a remote little creek. What a blast. Ride totals were ~35 miles and 2,500' of climbing.
Anyway, I'll be here all week, and plan to get a lot more riding in. I'll be sure to post here with additional reports and pictures. For now, these will have to do:
US395, heading north:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/deadmandescent.jpg
Deadman's Summit:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/deadmansummit.jpg
Heading into the June Lake Loop:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/junelakesign-1.jpg
Rabbit Brush:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/rabbitbrush-2.jpg
June Lake:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/junelake-3.jpg
Skirting June Lake - doing about 20mph:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/aroundthelake.jpg
Aspens:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/aspens.jpg
Squiggles:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/squiggles-1.jpg
Some interesting rocks:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/rocks.jpg
Up and over:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/upandout.jpg
We arrived yesterday late afternoon, and so today was the first full day we had. I took advantage of the girl's travel lethargy, and slipped out for a ride this morning. I told the wife to give me a 2 hour head start and then head out to pick me up as a predesignated spot.
Saddling up, I headed out in perfect weather and made my way down to US395 via CA203. Since the condo is right at 8,000' and there is precious little flat ground on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada Range, I had my work cut out for me. A quick downhill, followed by about 2 miles of 7% climbing at altitude had me panting in short order, but the 6 mile sweeping descent to 395 more than made up for it. Turning North on 395, I struck out for the June Lake Loop, some 19 miles distant. Between me and the junction of 158 is a little incline called Deadman's Summit. Achieving that, it was a nice glide down to the 1st June Lake junction.
A bottle of Gatorade and freshly baked cinnamon roll later, I headed into the June Lake Loop. This road heads into the lakes basin, skirts June, Gull, Silver, and Grant lakes, and then veers north with another sweeping downhill towards Mono Lake and US395. If you ever get the chance to come by this way, you simply must ride the loop - it is spectacular.
My timing was pretty good, as the girls buzzed me with about 5 miles to go. They took the pooch down to the lake and let him fool around for awhile, and allowed me to finish my run. After they picked me up, we had some lunch and spent the balance of the day swimming and playing in a remote little creek. What a blast. Ride totals were ~35 miles and 2,500' of climbing.
Anyway, I'll be here all week, and plan to get a lot more riding in. I'll be sure to post here with additional reports and pictures. For now, these will have to do:
US395, heading north:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/deadmandescent.jpg
Deadman's Summit:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/deadmansummit.jpg
Heading into the June Lake Loop:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/junelakesign-1.jpg
Rabbit Brush:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/rabbitbrush-2.jpg
June Lake:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/junelake-3.jpg
Skirting June Lake - doing about 20mph:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/aroundthelake.jpg
Aspens:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/aspens.jpg
Squiggles:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/squiggles-1.jpg
Some interesting rocks:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/rocks.jpg
Up and over:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/jd6572/2008%20rides/mammoth%20trip/upandout.jpg