Kayaking across Crowley Lake but beware of Pelican Crossing!

A day of rest or at least no long distance driving just exploring the beautiful area here.
The High Sierra Nevada is wonderful - full of mountain roads leading to isolated lakes of exquisite beauty.
But this morning i was adamant to do a little bit of exercise - like almost 3 hours of it kayaking around and across beautiful Crowley Lake (a natural reservoir for LA) ! - watching the seagulls come in and the masses of pelicans bombing down onto the lake.
Drove also up to Convict Lake another beautiful place close by between the
mountain ranges.
Weather perfect - warm, some breeze and no humidity - was even too badly tempted today and drove California style with cut trousers and trainers - what would they think back at home :)!
There really is a true California feel here even if I'm still away from the 'West Coast' vibe - can't explain it but I know I'm here at last on the west side of the country.
This beautiful place called Rainbow Tarns, 7000 ft high in the High Sierra, watching in a hammock this evening an orchestrated dance of bats swooping down and skimming the surface of the tarns next to the house in the coming of night - and what a spectacular sunset - greens, blues, oranges, reds everything under the setting sun ...
Drinks in the evening too with the hosts and their lovely half welsh, half Australian sheepdog who I'm told has a 6th sense, telling stories of bears coming down into the gardens looking for apples in their trees - I think I'll lock my door tonight and put any food in the kitchen fridge ;)
Air so clean and silence, besides the sound of the bubbling flow of water into the tarns, at night wonderful. Why is time going by so quickly? A phenomena I've never truly understood when other moments in life can go by so painfully slow. I feel I just want to grasp and retain every single memory of what has been experienced so far and put it in a 'life' bottle - and pour it out whenever I wanted to see and feel all those amazing, positive experiences again.

From the Wild West to California Cool ...

Middlegate Junction, NV to Crowley Lake, CA / Rainbow Tarns - 182 miles.

Oh boy, my gold digger friend was knocking at the door as promised at 6 to wake me up - hadn't slept too well as the archaic AC had been rumbling all night and was freezing cold. The weather temperatures are still soaring to records never before seen!
Open the old shutters in this cabin and was welcomed by bright sun and blue skies. 'hey the coffees already on the stove' he called and I pulled my biking jeans on and wanted to get on with the day.
Days like this are a rarity, middle of nowhere but map prepped, and ready to load the bike and hit the road.
Nevada seems to be an enormous place and I wasn't sure again when I was going to be able to get gas - we're so spoilt in the UK - stations every couple of hundred yards that we very rarely totally top up - here is the total opposite - top up when you can!
This wasn't going to be a 4th time of the trip panicking for fuel but I knew I'd chosen a route that was very isolated down Rte 361 - amazing I reached Gabbs 40 miles into the route and had been told that although the small gas station down a side road would be closed, I could walk across the street to the coffee shop and they'd open the pump for me - and that they did - in fact they take it in turns with the paper shop who opens it up in the afternoon - community spirit!
Petrified Summit soared to over 6000 ft and then passed into the quirky Mina town with funky gas station, a boat turned into a restaurant as the authorities wouldn't allow the owner to breed river lobster and a desert 'Girls House' for the roaming traveller and cowboy - that's Nevada, a very free state.
The landscape quickly changed to soaring mountain peaks with Boundary Peak between NV and CA @ 13141 ft being the tallest.
All of a sudden thought I was entering passport control but it was something to do with California's food and agriculture laws - funny I had my GoPro on at the time when the lady was asking me questions on what I was bringing into California - nothing of much interest! So she didn't bother to search as didn't think much would be in the panniers! Looking for what?
Agriculturally green irrigated fields lined the mountain valley entering Bishop and up Rte 395 to my next stop over next to Mono Lake- beautiful fishing lake/tarn place in the hills.
Spent afternoon driving to lake to maybe doing canoeing tomorrow - due to my years rowing the boat club captain offered me to use a boat tomorrow - cool, and up into the mountains to organise some horse riding - yippee- and not forgetting driving to the nearest half decent place for buying food of over 12 miles each way in Mammoth Lakes.
Great hillside house with a kitchen I can stock the good healthy food and some excellent Californian wine - that's what I call the good life then savouring the wine in a hammock overlooking the tarns and drinking further with the hosts.
California here we come! Or rather, here I am!
This is what it's like here from Gary Brechin - 'it's a place where the grand processions make you acutely aware of being alive on the planet. You watch the passage of the moon, sun and stars over the knife-edged horizons, and the jagged shadows of evening reaching beyond the lake into Nevada and the sky beyond. You watch the birds in their arrivals, departures and intricate ceremonies and stalking grace, and you take comfort from such order and cyclical permanence.'

Pony Express stop over and wild, wild horses ...

Eureka, NV to Middlegate Junction - 133 miles / 107degrees C - their hottest day of the year!
Packed up again and headed further west on R50 which was now running parallel with American Legend, The Pony Express Trail.
Less than 20 miles out of Eureka I sighted my first wild Mustang horses out on the plains - just 4 of them but apparently have been told that there are so many in the area that they have to be culled!

Drove and stopped briefly in Austin another small one road town but at least with a gas station!
It was starting once again to change from miles of forever straight but beautiful roads to mountainous ranges until dropping into the basin and stopping at Cold Springs Station, an old pony express stop over and now not more than a bar and a few rooms - but my destination was another 20 miles to the historic Middlegate Station which served as a key pony express changing station when the service began in April 1860 for 18 months until October 1861 when the completion of the Pacific Telegraph line ended the need for for those courageous riders.
During that time The Pony Express Riders (adverts openly asked for children, preferably orphans) and their brave mounts relayed their mail laden Mochilla 1900 miles in 10 days from St Joseph, MI across the Great Plains, Rocky Mtns, Central Nevada and the High Sierras to Sacramento, CA. With 157 stations averaging 10 miles apart and up to 400 horses, more than 120 courageous riders were challenged with the Indians and terrible winter weather.
Don't forget before this mail could take months to get across America - in 1848 the Pacific Mail Steamship company carried mail by ship from
New York to Panama, moved across Panama by rail, then by ship again to San Francisco. The goal in getting a letter from the East in 3 to 4 weeks was seldom met.
So hot this afternoon, 107 that just lie in their pool among the mobile homes and try and catch some shadow time.
To further add to this one off experience I also just happen to meet a gold prospector who has just set up a site on educating people how to find gold in the area - yes apparently it's out there ! ! www.mygoldwhisperer.com
Recommend a great black ale beer 1554 from Fort Collins,CO which I'm currently drinking to the sound of live western music in the background of this amazing Middlegate place no middle of nowhere place ;)
Tomorrow will be heading with the Bonnie south through the desert and into California.

A true Eureka moment! Wake up and smell the coffee!

Ely, NV to Eureka, NV - 78 miles / Sunday day of rest & short trip!
A great slap up breakfast with my
'Harley Heros' before we wave each other off leaving in opposite directions.
They'd warned me that this part of R50 has long roads but also elevations up to 6500' with a lot of bends - true but this morning I was chilled and knew I had enough gas to get to my next destination.
Another reason I love biking out in the open landscapes is that you smell the wonderful clean air, flowers, trees, coming rain, parched and burnt grasses, forest fires (yes I smelt those going thru Colorado and Utah which have been ravaged) and smells of the countryside which are hidden away from you in a car. This morning was no exception - clear clean breezy air, the smell of pine trees ... wonderful.
Even drove for a short while on the long stretch with my hands off the handles just to see what it felt like - quick deceleration but fun!
Ironically R50 which is supposed to be the Loneliest Road in America, running parallel to the Pony Express Trail (more on that tomorrow) probably had more traffic on it than most other roads I'd been on - OK not at UK congestion level but maybe 20 to 30 vehicles along the couple of hours route;)!
Eureka is literally just 1 main road with beautiful, historic buildings including an Opera House - yes you heard it right!
Unfortunately the beautiful hotel next to it has been empty they say for about 10 years and apparently the owners who have the other hotel in town are wanting to sell it for a lot- so currently no takers!
Incredible but true, I've been given the keys to my own place which I call Little House on the Prairie - the owner doesnt live in this lovely house and no one staying in the other room so I have the whole place and garden overlooking from a hill onto the little town. I might even cook something with a beer or 2 tonight instead of going out or getting a take out.
Which reminds me, the food grocers shop is something else - lining the walls over the food aisles are the most incredibly sized hunted heads of all forms of game - deer, elk, bear etc.!
Architecturally this is another place which captures your imagination for great photographs ...
And ... wonderful silence sitting in the garden (with the vegetable plots!) and looking over the Nevada hills and amazing landscapes. I never, never take anything for granted - each day is special but sometimes some are better than others. Every single day these past few weeks have been very special.
Been told to bring the potted plants in from the porch at night or the deer will eat them!

note - trip mileage exceeded the 4 000 miles going through Bonneville yesterday ...! Good place to remember that.