Of course! My friend there is a couple years younger and 50 pounds lighter and he is on an e-bike. He has a-fib worse than I do so he needs the e.
He is also carrying a ton of stuff. It was 40+ miles between water sources and he had a spare battery in one of his cages so he brought the backpack. It was in the 50s most of the day so water wasn't a problem.

Evening ride on Memorial Day

Good stuff! GMR? Lots of people were out there this weekend.

San Francisquito to Dry Gulch to Lake Hughes road (where the pic was taken) to Liz Lake road to San Fran to Spunky and down Bouquet. Sun came out around Lake Hughes, which is full, as is Lake Elizabeth. Tailwinds for most of the climbing until the turn south on San Fran where that little 10% climb is. That's where I wanted another gear.
A beautiful day, actually, and a satisfying ride.

Distant cloudburst in the Owens Valley

What a magnificent picture. Unreal.

Crappy pic, so use your imagination. Seattle with Olympics mountains in background

Seen on today's ride on the grass median between a MUP and adjacent highway. No carcass observed in the vicinity.

The horror! Not the leg, but the bike lying on its drive side!

That poor, poor, derailleur hanger.

A Catalpa (bean tree) in bloom today

Your forgot to say, “I’ll be here all week”.

How long did it take for the water to spill out ?

Not to worry. It wasn’t in contact with the ground.

Dan

Finished the Eastern Sierra Double on Saturday … my first longish ride in a couple of years. Beautiful!

Oil Creek State Park

You know you’re in the boonies when there isn’t enough traffic to wear the graffiti off the pavement.

Looks like the party spot. Growing up in Oakland there was a turnout on Thornhill drive that was pretty notorious. Hard right on a steep uphill. You had to swing out wide otherwise your tires would break loose and billow smoke. The trick was to head straight at the crowd piled up in the turnout and make them scatter. Not much brighter than the sideshows these days.

I never doubted you. Did you ride with anyone?

Thanks! All about the subject matter ... the Eastern Sierra is beautiful!

Yea, I rode with Ron Iseri. He was on our RAAM crew back in 2018. It was a comeback double for him too ... first one in a long time.

The ride started out a bit ominously. The Sherwin Grade is always a grunt, but this time, we had to do it into some pretty stiff headwinds (15-20 MPH). I am used to headwinds there (the colder air at higher altitude spilling down the slope), but this was unusually windy.

I was concerned that it was going to be headwindy all the say to the 100 mile mark at Lee Vining, but in truth, the winds behaved themselves. The only headwindy section after that was the ride up 203 to the Mammoth Lakes Village. After that, it was actually mostly tailwinds.

I finished pretty strong, but felt beat up pretty good at the end of the day.

Did you happen to go into Mammoth? I'm considering a trip there in the next couple of weeks, the lodging rates are cheap!

I don't know Ron, at least I don't think I do. Do you know TJ and Brook? They were there and were in a pretty good group.

how long (time) was the double ?

even at a decent clip a double gonna require some signif time in the saddle

add more time for climbing of course

You should! I have a second home in Mammoth and always stay there when doing the ESD. Great road and MTB riding up there, as well as hiking, fishing and all kinds of stuff. You should go!

I saw TJ at the start, and Brook and Loren on the route. They're too fast for me! Loren was looking good at lunch: