Day 3: Last Night On The Mountain
october 5-7, 2007 | by John Siebenthaler: photos©john siebenthaler
taking business to market
quik links & essentials
Trial Rider magazine
Cycle World magazine
GPS Babel data conversion
Under Armour environment
bandana(s)
In The Company of Giants
It’s the last night on the mountain. Temperatures are still too cold for all but a few to brave the normally enticing patio fire. But it’s tough to hold a cocktail with your hands stuffed in your pockets, and without a crowd the ritual potato gun assault on the ski lifts goes unattended.
There’s plenty of buzz inside though, as the freshly minted graduates of the Adventure Tours mini-camp are busy proselytizing their newly discovered riding skills. Reloading the roll charts for Sunday’s ride back down to Oakhurst is the traditional activity, but as GPS becomes more prevalent and routes are digitized, that may become optional for some. Personally, if given a choice I’ll always opt for analog backup.
Right about now is when we realized Scott’s bike was minus a plate. Which didn’t really matter because Eric’s license was safely packed in his gear bag. And that was on the gear truck headed for Oakhurst. Might as well ride it like you stole it.
Frosty Daybreak = Cold Saddle For those still thawing out after Friday’s ride, the sight of frost was a bit unsettling.
During his four-wheeled explorations on Saturday, Scott discovered the McKinley Grove Botanical Area, a short distance southeast of Shaver Lake and home to an unlogged stand of giant sequoias.
Besides eight small groves, including McKinley, this rare species only exists between 5,000 and 8,000 feet elevations on 36,000 scattered acres in a 70-mile corridor on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, between and Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and in the Giant Sequoia National Monument.
Growing to a height of 300 feet and with diameters up to 30 feet, these enormous forest giants were to close to miss before heading back to our respective homes on Monday. We followed the traditional route around Lakeshore into Shaver Lake, then east on Dinkey Creek Road to McKinley Grove Road and the park. Kings Canyon, part of the normal range for the tree, is another 20 miles or so east, so this small stand would have been established as a result of a unique natural occurance.
If Forests Could Talk The McKinley Grove giant sequoias are witness to centuries of history.
The weather was crisp — well, cold, no surprise there — and we were ready for a break by the time we arrived. When we pulled in, a lone cowboy, in well-oiled chaps and flannel and with his horse in the trailer, was just pulling out. Past meets present, as we all stood together for a moment, dwarfed under the majestic elegance of these mountain sentinels.
Another Adventure Nearly Finished
We still faced a good ride back to Oakhurst so it was time to head for Shaver Lake where we’d refuel ourselves with some donuts and coffee and the bikes with some high test before riding down into the valley on our way home. The warm sun felt good as we sat outside the Chevron station kicking around what we’d seen and done over the past couple of days, and realizing that these were the times that can’t be duplicated. Or recreated.
End Of The Trail
Just shy of 300 miles and another Sierra adventure’s ready to be loaded.
The weather was perfect for the ride in, and the view from 168 during the descent was one of shafts of sunlight on golden hills. By the time we’d again passed through North Fork and finally pulled into Oakhurst we were the last ones to finish the day’s ride.
With tight schedules and with the aftereffects of Friday’s weather challenge still being felt, the need to get back down to Fresno and from there plane connections to the rest of the country meant fewer takers for the final off road chart, which left our dawdling trio hustling to catch one of the last rides back to Fresno before the curtain closed on another memorable Trek.
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