Trona to Mountain Mesa (141 km)

LA temptingly close

Now we are so close to the Pacific, but it still needs a lot of endourance to get there. The distance between towns remain a challenge for us bikers.
First we drove on Route 178 to Ridgecrest, which is mainly a military airport dominated town. Jet noise all day long, close to here is a shooting range for the jets.

In Ridgecrest we found the Mc Donalds, they usually have free WiFi. On the internet we saw, that to the next hotel it´s roughly 60 miles and decided to go, even though it was already 12 noon. So of we rushed to buy some food in a nearby supermarket. There Frank met an interesting lady, while queuing to pay. As they were discussing she said "I´am not a conservative!" ´This is very interesting, most people we meet are open minded and take pride to be Democrats, not Republicans. We can´t figure out why. Then again, listening to the Republican Candidates on TV, one might be ashamed to belong to a party that offers such a choice.  

Ridgecrest from far

Again a pass had to be climbed, this time 5450 feet, but not from 0 feet, so it semed much easier. The route we choose leads through the Sequoia Forest Area, it´s a very scenic drive but again a detour. Just before the pass was a junction, were we could have taken the direct, easy way to Los Angeles. For a few moments we considered it, but then we opted for the quiet scenic detour. It was well worth it (Route 178 again), Walker Pass was ok, but while climbing we felt the weight of the bikes with all our equipment and probably our tired legs too.



The last light and still 50 km to go



It was definitly dark when we arrived in Mountain Mesa, only the moon gave some light.