Was doing a fair bit of training in the Lone Pine - Bishop area this summer. Both road bike and extended MTB. rides. Here's some shots from two of the better climbs around for roadies: Onion Valley Road and White Mountain.
Toasty
Onion Valley is rated the toughest climb in California for roadies. I wouldn't doubt that - relentlessly steep and no flat sections.
The rollers up to Westergard Pass are a bit of work as you roll up to White Mountain. I'm on the MTB now and have set out to summit - all up weight on the bike is 45 pds. Left from Mendenhall Park in Big Pine. This climb is well over 11,000' gain with the ups/downs heading up that dirt road to Barcroft Lab and then to Summit Lab
Bristlecone wonderland
Made two attempts from the valley and bonked. Third attempt was to have been from Schulman Grove. Got injured and will have to wait till next year for another.
Hope to see this myself someday. Image captured off Google Earth.
thanks. these are my first trips to the Sierras and I've been reluctant to post the pics here thinking you folks on this forum know all these places inside and out. Plus, I'm looking at a different kind of challenge on the bikes which I think pales compared to what hikers do up in the Sierras.
Yes, Ze you would enjoy the work on Onion Valley. Along with Horseshoe Meadows I think those are just in a class by themselves for steepness of grade, length of climb and lack of any flat sections. Major efforts both.
L.- I figure you have another 20-25 miles past Schulman Grove to the Summit Lab. (It's about 24 miles to Schulman from Big Pine. )I only made it about 10 miles up past the gate at Schulman with the MTB.
I got a late (9:30) start with the MTB from Big Pine. It took me about 5 hours to get to Schulman Ranger Station. It was way too hot in the valley that day, I got baked pretty good before I got above 7000'. On the road bike (all up weight about half of the MTB setup I used) I was at Schulman in about 2.5 hours and then made it up the paved road about 5 miles before a couple of steep, loose sections turned me around. I had 23c's on the roadie - you might make this climb on a CX bike with 32c tires - the road is fairly well maintained for the most part.
What my friends tell me who have summited on MTB's is that once past Schulman you will have to go down a couple valleys and back up again to make the summit. They put the ride at about 50 miles round trip from the end of the paved road and probably 5-6000' of climbing. I brought my bivy, extra clothes, lights, food etc. for the third attempt. They camped near Bristlecone the night before and just bagged it with water and snacks. One of them rode all the way to the summit...an impressive feat I'm told as there are some steep, scree sections up past 13,000'.
Wow, nice work! I like the bag setup on your MTB. That's gotta be a lot better than carrying everything in a backpack and you don't have wide load panniers to deal with.
Dave G wrote:Wow, nice work! I like the bag setup on your MTB. That's gotta be a lot better than carrying everything in a backpack and you don't have wide load panniers to deal with.
Thanks. Yea, these bags are working well. Hand-made to your own bike and bomber-proof zippers.
Eric Parson's the guy to talk to on this kind of gear:
