Day 21: To Crowley hot spring

July 30, 2009

I didn't get away from my motel until almost 9AM. I looked for unpadded lycra shorts at several stores without success. I'll probably finish the tour with just one pair of shorts because I can't bring myself to buy $80 shorts at a bike shop and then spend hours removing the unnecessary padding.

North of Bishop I start to see more trees.

I started today's ride by pedaling 12 level miles north of Bishop on US 395, then turned left onto Lower Rock Creek road. It's also called the Old Sherwin Grade. It was wonderful to escape the traffic noise of US 395 and do the long slow 3000 foot climb on a quiet back road. Plus, the scenery is better. Lower Rock Creek road stays in an agricultural valley while US 395 goes through barren desert.

Eventually the Old Sherwin Grade turns away from the creek and starts the big climb to the Long Valley Caldera. At first the landscape is relatively barren, but pine trees appear above 6000 feet elevation.

Not many trees at the bottom of the Old Sherwin Grade.

Big Ponderosa pines near the top of the Old Sherwin Grade. And orange poles to guide snowplows.

After climbing more than 2000 feet I was surprised to have a 270-foot descent to a creek. Then the road climbs alongside the creek to the top of the grade where the road merges with US 395 again.

The Old Sherwin Grade included an unexpected 270-foot descent to this tree-lined creek.

It was a lovely shady creek with a mountain bike trail on one side and road on the other side.

I was only back on US 395 for 1.5 miles before turning left onto Crowley Lake road. My first stop was at Tom's Place for a late lunch. It's a really interesting funky place. 3000 feet higher than Bishop, the weather was delightfully cool, in the low 80's with tall pines all around.

I had a late lunch at Tom's Place in the forest at the top of the Sherwin Grade.

From Tom's Place I continued 10 more miles on Crowley Lake road. It has views of Crowley Lake far below, but doesn't go near it. The road goes go through several sprawling rural communities of summer homes. And a few new subdivisions of upscale homes. It gets more populated as I approach the town of Mammoth Lakes, but traffic is light. Most of the traffic is down below on US 395.

Crowley Lake in the Long Valley Caldera.

Upscale homes on the edge of the desert. US 395 is visible below.

Crowley Lake road eventually merges with US 395. I'm now in the Long Valley Caldera which is a 30 mile wide ancient supervolcano. It doesn't look like a volcano but it has a lot of geothermal activity. I continued 3 miles north, then turned right on Benton Crossing road. After 3.5 miles I turned right on an unmarked gravel road to Crowley hot spring. I arrived at 5:30 PM and the temperature was only 80F. What an amazing cool-down after climbing the Sherwin Grade!

Crowley hot spring has great mountain views.

I soaked in the 104F hot spring for an hour, then went a quarter mile away to set up my campsite. I carried an extra gallon of water from Tom's Place because I planed to free camp here and knew that no drinking water is available. After dinner I walked back to the hot spring for an evening soak with a spectacular sunset.

Magical twilight sky at Crowley hot spring.

Today was a great day. I finally got to an area where the climate is more suitable for summer bike touring. Most of today's ride was on quiet back roads that were more scenic and had far less traffic than US 395. I didn't really think about how noisy US 395 is until getting away from it for most of the day. Today's distance was somewhat short, but it was mostly uphill.

Distance: 41.1 mi (65.8 km)

Climbing: 3757 ft (1138 m)

Average speed: 7.5 mph (12 km/h)

Max speed: 39.5 mph (63 km/h)

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Today's ride: 41 miles (66 km)
Total: 980 miles (1,577 km)

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