Another deep sleep after yesterday’s exertions (& not quite as chilly) & I awoke when the dogs were let off at about half past six. Another great meal from Sam – a lot of French toast with a nice dash of cinnamon & other goodies. Decamped & loaded the truck with bikes (I had to borrow a spare Juicy 7 from Bill, my brakes were still faded & it wasn’t the pads) & we all drove in to Kernville & gassed up (running short on gas was a bit of a theme for the weekend). On the way saw my first American bush fire – a spotter plane, chopper with monsoon bucket, countless fire engines (Forestry Service, Bureau of Land Management, Kern Valley Fire Dept & who knows how many other agencies) & a troop of kitted up firefighters crossing the river & hauling a lot of weight up the hill side. It seemed to be relatively out of control – I didn’t get burnt.

From the west shore of Lake Isabella, we drove up to the top of the ridge & past a skifield (it’s strange seeing an off season ski field surrounded by pines – back home it’s usually all rocks), found the trailhead, & left for the lake. With different front brakes I was somewhat tentative hauling in to more great corners, & Irmina was similar with pretty poor rear brakes. Still it was another great trail – more dirt (& therefore more dust – one had to keep quite a distance behind the previous bike to facilitate useful vision) & nice corners & yet more cases of the trail suddenly turning to rocks. It was mostly in trees, so no great vistas – but did get in to this very cool tunnel of overgrown junipers (“I say, those are my juniper bushes”).

Shortly afterwards, we hit another good climb (what is with these climbs when you are going down a hill??) – well practised & not at such an altitude, it was another good middlering grind. I emerged on to a fire road & waited for the others. Apparently we were to follow the fire road down a while & then head in to the trail again. Much to our disappointment we never found the trail again & after riding up hill for a mile or so, trying to find it, had had enough of the sun so we blasted all the way back down to the lake & met Sam. As this was almost the end of our weekend together we got all our belongings in the correct vehicles & headed back to Kernville for a great last meal at some cafe (Sam got out of cooking this time).

Saying goodbyes the others headed back to LA & struggled on very tired north a couple of hours & crashed in some overpriced motel with a very poor shower (I was very much looking forward to ridding my skin of two days’ worth of dust & sweat). I think that may have been the end of my west coast mountain biking – a shame that, I had an absolute blast & really enjoyed the challenge of riding on different surfaces, some good climbs, fantastic downhills, great scenery & best of all riding with some super people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. A big thank-you to those that shuttled, showed me rides & were just generally good riding buddies.

Irmina’s husband Sam turned up at the campsite with their two dogs at four in the morning – he left LA late after work & also managed to get slightly off the best route to Big Meadow. With my two sleeping mats & toasty Fairydown sleeping bag (it was needed, it got down to under 40 degrees – water freezes at 32) I had had a great sleep & dragged myself out of the tent to see what our little campsite looked like.

This is obviously the stream I could hear the night before.

Not the best photo, but we were surrounded by pines – it’s quite nice seeing native pines in the wilderness, as opposed to plantation forests that I’m used to in NZ.

Our small campsite, there was a great fire off to the left that we got a permit for for the second night – greatly helped to ward off the chill. From what I worked out, Sam came along to cook & drive shuttle runs for us – & he did that superbly. We seemed to have a small store’s worth of food & supplies – first up for breakfast was fantastic omlettes cooked on the tray of the pickup. As we generally lazed around quite a bit, by ten o’clock the bikes were loaded & ready to go.

Even though we were a long way up in the hills, we had to back track along the gravel road to the seal & then climb up to Sherman Pass. About ten minutes from our camp on the gravel we spotted a rather large brown bear cub running away from the road – this was quite exciting, I had never seen a bear in the wild before. It was difficult to get a photo of it as we had to stop first – Bill managed this one – if you look closely in the centre you may be able to make out the shape of a bear.

After that excitement, we continued all the way up to the pass (9200 ft). Good views out to Mt Whitney – the highest point in California & the 48 contiguous states. There were a few others up there preparing to ride & then an old school bus with twenty bikes & riders (& only nineteen helmets apparently – do we have a spare helmet? As if.) turned up – we made sure we were ready to go before them (some were either ambitious or just nuts – with over 7000 ft of downhill, there were a couple of hardtails to be seen).

The trail started off as I expected it to go most of the way – downhill, rocky (but also sandy & dusty) & technical.

It quickly became apparent that I would be the slowest on most of this rocky downhill goodness. But I was in for a rude shock – after our first initial down hill, there was quite a bit of climbing & with all the riding I’d done in the previous fortnight I was a bit quicker – nice not to be holding people up. Most of this climbing was on dirt single track through pines & it got steeper & steeper. More of a matter of pride I stayed in the middle ring & grinded most of the way up, but with a few hundred yards to go & my lungs screaming as we got near 10000 feet I succumbed to the granny ring & relaxed a bit. With a few little stream crossings & the increasing steepness, it was nice to have a slightly technical climb. But it was better that it was all worth it.

Soon we were going down again towards our campsite. To start with (I think, it’s a bit of a blur – it all happened so fast) it was nice tight twisty modestly downhill singletrack.

As has so often been the case with my riding here, the grade increased & the trail turned to rocks in a flash & about five minutes later I emerged from a fantastic chute & pretty pleased at how the riding was going. Back to the smoother track & emerged in another pretty meadow.

I waited a while for the others to catch up & after Bill & I waited for Irmina to show up we wandered back up the track a bit. Met the first of the group of twenty coming down & he advised Irmina was looking for brake pad – not a great sign, but better than injury. Somewhere after all the rocks ended, Irmina grabbed a handful of front brake & quickly found nothing. Quick inspection revealed a pad, the spring & the pin missing. She quickly found the spring back up the trail & proceeded to walk up the trail very slowly looking for the pad. Bill & I joined & gave up after about fifteen minutes of staring at too many rocks & too much dust – but Irmina was determined to find it (“If I can find a rock of cocaine – I can find a brake pad” – police training has some advantages, probably many). Bill & I were both carrying spare pads – but for the more common Juicy brakes – not XTR (who has them?). But the missing pad was found after an hour & the brakes reassembled & the missing pin was MacGyvered out of a keyring & it was just like a bought one. Back on the bikes & it was only a few minutes to the campsite, a quick refuel for the Camelbak, move the coolers/chilly bins/Eskies in to the shade (the sun moves – who would have thought?).

From here we avoided the boggy singletrack around Big Meadow & spent a bit of time on fire road before climbing a long steady hill (my middle-ring efforts were humbled by a guy riding up to the top while we were waiting on a singlespeed 29er). We had also picked up another guy, Brad, near Big Meadow – he had been let out & was riding by himself, & just happened on us – he knew Bill & Irmina from somewhere. From the top of the hill, it was down a bit more & then back in to the most rocky & technical climb I’ve done in a long time. Sod the singlespeed – I was pleased to ride the whole thing in middle ring, only stopping once to push around some big rocks & dabbing one other time.

From here it was another great rocky twisty downhill – I was pleased to let Brad past, he was noticeably quicker than me. Can’t remember too much of that section – except it was great again. By now, the sidewalls on my rear tyre were getting a good beating from scraping on rocks – I must have two or three cuts in them now. Due to our brake pad hunt earlier in the day, the group of twenty had passed us (very spread out) & we were now catching them up & passing them. One of their group had an endo & I was surprised to see as we waited at a fireroad that he was riding with an eye patch on!

From here it was through another gorgeous meadow (perhaps the flattest part of the ride) – there were a few rocks to play on at the end of the meadow:

Now we were at the part we were all waiting for – a 5000 ft descent in just 8 miles (1500 m in almost 13 km). Bill & Irmina had been carrying armour all day & now it was on – this had me slightly nervous, I was hoping that the downhill wasn’t too much steeper & technical than what I had already done – I didn’t have any extra protection. I did put my camera in my backpack, so unfortunately don’t have many photos of it – here is one looking down to Lake Isabella (not the best view of the lot) – we ended up only a couple of hundred feet above the lake in Kernville.

So this eight miles was just fantastic. The start was really tight & rocky with a lot of dropoffs & weaving through obstacles at relatively low speed. After a steep uphill push on sand, the trail opened & smoothed a lot & as we were getting lower, the temperature jumped a lot – just as well there was significant breeze. There was about a mile of heaps of choice switchback as we lost much more altitude. About this time, I experienced my first brake fade – not too surprising. A brief rest at one of the gates & the Juicys recovered somewhat. It was almost over, the last part was blasting down a potted dirt track through a meadow taking less than ideal lines trying to pass the people in the big group that had passed us at our last gate stop – great fun. We waited a little for Sam to pick us up & then it was in to town & I was thankfully able to get a gas can & a couple of gallons of gas for my dry car.

Back to camp – by then it was getting on to seven & a dip in the chilly stream to remove all the dust wasn’t so appealing – I think I got to my knees & that was enough. Sam cooked up a storm & I devoured too much salad, a wonderfully divine huge piece of fresh salmon & some excellent steak. Camping in style, what a great day.