August 3, 2009
Day 25: To Buckeye hot spring near Bridgeport
It was 38F in the morning, the coldest night of this tour. I zipped the sleeping bag this time. I got on the road at 7AM without making breakfast. It was so cold that I wanted to get out of my shady area and have breakfast someplace in the sun. A few miles down the road I stopped at the sunny Grant Lake marina for breakfast. It has water and toilets as well.
Shortly past Grant lake the June Lake loop ends at US 395. I turned south for a mile to get to Highway 120 east. My next destination is Mono Lake.
I could see the silvery lake from miles away. The area is a basin. Water flows in but the only way out is evaporation. As a result, Mono lake is 3 times saltier than the ocean and has a pH of 10, more alkaline than most soaps. The lake is full of salt and baking soda. This chemical soup doesn't support fish, but it does support billions of tiny brine shrimp which in turn attract migrating birds.
5 miles east on highway 120 I took the turnoff to the south shore tufa area. After 2 downhill miles of loose washboarded gravel I parked the bike and walked the nature trail to the shoreline. This area has Mono lake's best tufa formations.
The lake is huge but not as big as it was before Los Angeles diverted 4 of the 5 streams that feed the lake in 1940. Since then the lake has dropped 40 feet, revealing interesting tufa formations around the shoreline. The tufa formations are formed by soda springs that once percolated up from under the lake.
I backtracked 7 miles to US 395 and continued north to the town of Lee Vining (elevation 6781 feet). It's a small tourist town that overlooks Mono lake. It's also the eastern gateway to Yosemite National Park . I went that way on a tour 9 years ago. After lunch in Lee Vining I continued north along the western shore of Mono Lake for a few miles, then started the big climb to 8138-foot Conway summit. Surprisingly there were no trees even above 8000 feet.
I made an illegal left turn to see Mono lake from the overlook near Conway summit. The viewpoint is 1500 feet above the lake.
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North of Lee Vining US 395 is only 2 lanes. But there is much less traffic. Most of the southern California tourist traffic turns west to Yosemite. North of Conway summit I see more irrigated fields because I'm finally north of the giant plumbing system that diverts water to Los Angeles.
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North of Conway summit it was downhill all the way to Bridgeport (6468 feet elevation).
On the north edge of Bridgeport I filled the water jugs at a convenience store and turned left on Twin Lakes road, towards Buckeye hot spring. It starts in an agricultural valley but the last 5 miles is mostly uphill and the last 2.1 miles is washboarded gravel. I free camped in a forested area on a bluff across Buckeye creek from Buckeye hot spring. My campsite was a 10 minute walk from the hot spring. After dinner I had a long evening soak in the hot spring. It even has a hot shower!
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Today was a long day. I got an early start and was very tired when I arrived at my campsite at 6PM. The day was longer than I prefer, but the reward is a nearby hot spring. The weather was sunny with a high in the low 80's. Tomorrow will be an easy recovery day.
Distance: 63.7 mi (102 km), 6 mi (10 km) unpaved
Climbing: 3380 ft (1024 m)
Average speed: 9.9 mph (15.8 km/h)
Max speed: 43.5 mph (70 km/h)
Hiked 2 mi (3.2 km)
Today's ride: 64 miles (103 km)
Total: 1,121 miles (1,804 km)
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