2 Wheels Into the Sun...: Highs, Lows, Curry-flavored Clothes

The movie Chinatown is one of my favorites. It concerns money, power and water. It’s hard to imagine that one "desert oasis" grew in such an unfettered manner that it successfully sucked the water out of the southwestern corner of the United States with little impunity. Thank you, Los Angeles County and your verdant suburban lawns, swimming pools, and unmistakable footprint.

California's Central Valley--natural state

Riding California's dry valleys was a striking contrast to the majesty of Yosemite National Park and the High Sierra. I got my first exposure while crossing the “central valley” from San Francisco to the Sierra Nevada range that lies to the east. Here, in a veritable desert, water transported hundreds of miles by aqueducts and pipelines has made apple orchards, nut groves and acres of year-round vegetables a reality. Much of the land surrounding the mountain sources of water is owned by distant utilities like the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. What isn't owned by them is strategically set aside as the Inyo National Forest. These holdings make life in L.A. possible. The Owens River, which drains the valley between the Sierras and the state of Nevada, is dry much of the time. John Muir took Teddy Roosevelt to the Yosemite Valley over a hundred years ago and persuaded him that that this pristine and remote area needed to be set aside and protected for future generations. But the neighboring, and equally impressive, Hetch Hetchy Valley was dammed and flooded to provide a source of water to the San Joaquin Valley and to Alameda and San Mateo Counties. I guess compromise is, or at least “used to be,” the American way.

Yosemite was as impressive as I had heard and I was lucky to visit on a weekday and late in the year. It isn’t crowded in October but does receive many millions of visitors each season. Yosemite, like its “national park cousins,” Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, seems to have more infrastructure than other national parks with miles of roads, bike paths and walking trails making the valley accessible to those of all abilities.

Yosemite Valley showing El Capitan and Half Dome

When it was first discovered in the 19^th Century, the Yosemite Valley looked like a park with lawns, shrubs and groves of huge trees. This was the result of the Indian practice of regularly burning the forest which cleared the undergrowth and promoted a healthy ecosystem. It has taken our “modern” society many generations to learn the role fire plays in this natural balance of life in the wilderness. Today, fires sparked by lightening burn throughout the dry season in our national parks and forests. This often obscures longer landscape photos of the valley, although the son-in-law of a pioneer photographer at Yosemite still took some impressive snapshots. That son-in-law was Ansel Adams and the Ansel Adams Gallery at Yosemite is a treat.

El Capitan

Tough on motorists too

The Tioga Road (California Highway 120) through the park offers plenty of excitement for travelers on two wheels. It gives views of the famous rock-climbing sites of El Capitan and Half Dome and ascends from moist meadows through deciduous forests of black oak, groves of sequoia and redwood, to finally terminate in the desert climate at Mono Lake near the Nevada state line. A visit with son Jeff and his room-mates in Bishop, CA, access to a washing machine and a good Margarita, and I was ready for my night-time crossing of Death Valley.

Jeff Deikis, Southwest Coordinator, American Alpine Club

Inyo National Forest, near Bishop, CA

In the space of 24 hours, I rode south past Mt. Whitney, at 14, 494 ft. (4,418 m) the highest peak in the continental United States, and through Death Valley's Zabriskie Point, close to the lowest spot in North America at 282 ft. (86 m) below sea level. Keeping with the “highs and lows” theme, I went from the magnificence of Yosemite down to a $19 dollar room at the Four Queens Casino in Las Vegas. In my defense, let me add it was the middle of the night. I also will admit I couldn’t figure out how to use the complimentary $20 slot machine card they gave me and tossed it in the trash on my way out the next afternoon. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Las Vegas TV informed me of an early snowfall in Cheyenne, Wyoming and a closure on Interstate 80. Despite having a brand new rear tire, I decided to take the southern route. Arriving in Flagstaff, Arizona in the dark, I pulled into a centrally-located 1960-style Rodeway Inn on Route 66. The place was small, clean, over-priced, and run by a friendly Hindu family who lived on the ground floor, right under my room. By morning, everything I owned, save my motorcycle, smelled of curry. Good thing I like Indian food. It was a small price to pay for some great Arizona canyon riding the next day and a late afternoon visit to the Grand Canyon.

Hwy 89A to Sedona, Arizona

Highway 89A from Flagstaff to Sedona, Arizona was worth the detour but Sedona itself was a bit too "precious" for me---cute in a Pixar Animation sort of way. A ride along the "Mother Road," Route 66, was a must. This road, unlike other historically significant "old" east-west highways like Routes 2, 6, 30, 40, and 50 has been mostly obliterated by an Interstate. Yet the locals do well merchandising to Japanese, German and French tourists, Harley and muscle-car folk....and me, I guess.

I considered another night at the Rodeway Inn but decided to camp in the woods instead. I like the smell of pine.