High Sierra tour of 2019

On Highway 120 to Tioga Pass

I like to plan multi-day bicycle trips for the Fall. It's been a while but I had a hankering for  trip so I decided to ride over Tioga Pass, one of the High Sierra passes I hadn't yet ridden. Looking over the map it seemed that I could combine riding Highway 120 through Yosemite with an overnight stay in Sonora, followed by a climb over Sonora Pass on Highway 108. On paper, it looked like I could do it in two days.

I booked a room in Sonora and planned to have a camp site on Hwy 120 below Tioga Pass for three nights. This would allow me to leave my truck there while I made the ride. The weather proved to be a little dodgy, I had to put everything off one day due to an early season storm system passing through Northern California and brushing the Yosemite area. Watching the weather forecasts proved to be a nerve-wracking experience because it seemed like the only bad weather was to occur around the time of my planned trip!

Anyway, the day arrived and I made the long trip to Lee Vining and found a great campsite at Lower Lee Vining Campground, a USFS campground on Highway 120, about 12 miles below the summit of Tioga Pass. I set up a tent and had dinner and looked around the campground. This is a nice site, although it is a "dry" one, you have to bring your own water to this campground.

That night I watched a movie on my tablet, ("Air Strike" a Chinese movie with Bruce Willis, if you aren't interested in Chinese air warfare in the early days of WWII, don't bother!), then went to sleep.

The next morning I hit the road at around 7:30, starting the long grind up to Tioga Summit. At first, things were pretty routine, just a long slog up the grade. It gradually became a little breezy, then downright windy. As I approached a gap in the mountains approaching Ellery Lake the wind gusts and grade combined to make things downright difficult! At one point on a steep curve a gust hit me in just a way that I was moved into the gravel shoulder and the next thing I flopped over to the ground! Well, that was interesting! I got up and back on the bike and the wind seemed to relent a bit. Soon I was on a slightly less steep section and things got back to normal.

On the way up Tioga Pass on Hwy 120.

At Ellery Lake

It wasn't long after Ellery Lake that I reached the Park entrance and Tioga Summit, (9945 ft.). It's too bad they don't have a nice summit marker there, just the entrance kiosk...

Made it! At the Park entrance.

Then I biked through the northern half of Yosemite NP. Lots of interesting scenery. Being Fall, the traffic wasn't too troublesome, but there was definitely a good number of people about.

Along 120 in the Park.

I paused at Olmstead Point to take in the extraordinary view...in the distance you could see the back side of Half Dome.

The Mercian at Olmstead Point; that's Half Dome in the distance.

Then it was just a ride in the park! But this park consisted of a continuous series of tough climbs and swift descents. I could see this would be a tough ride in either direction! I had considered making my return ride from Sonora back through the Park but I now rejected that plan because it seemed like it would be simply too hard a ride!

I eventually left the Park and continued on Hwy 120, finally reaching Groveland after 4:00 pm, man, this was taking a long time!

Finally, Groveland!

The climb out of Groveland was rewarded with the impressive view from the top of Old Priest Road. Old Priest road, in the picture below, is the narrow and steep road on the left, while the modern road is on the right. I took the modern road and it was hoot! I was lucky to hit it when there was virtually no traffic so I was able to really hit the downhill with gusto! The Mercian was handling very well with the saddlebag/handlebar bag combination so I was able to let it go. MapMyRide indicated a top speed of 45mph on this stretch.

Past Groveland is Priest Summit. Old Priest Road is on the left.

Of course, all good things must come to an end and so did this descent, at Moccasin. After that it was a gentle climb to a cutoff on Jacksonville Road which took me to Jamestown. This was a tedious climbing stretch but it cut off quite a few miles from taking the Hwy 120 route. I finally reached my hotel in Sonora as it was getting quite dark! It had been a long day, 12 hours and 122 miles! That night I found I had very little appetite which was a little worrying, but I forced myself to eat some dinner and have a pint of Sierra Nevada; that I could do!

The next morning I had breakfast and headed out. The nice thing about the hotel I chose was that it was on the east side of Sonora so it was easy to get out of town and onto Highway 108, the road up Sonora Pass. I had no illusions about this day's ride; it would be a lot of hard climbing. The only other time I had climbed Sonora Pass, I had stayed the night in a cabin at Dardanelle and had a relatively short ride to the hard part. This time I would have to do a lot more climbing.

On Highway 108 to Sonora Pass.

It was a tough ride but in many respects, I preferred riding 108 to riding through Yosemite. Generally the road was in better condition and seemed to have more shoulders. It was also much less traveled, traffic was way less. The scenery is still very beautiful although at Dardanelle a fire had destroyed the cabins I had stayed at last time, that was sad to see.

Past Dardanelle things started to get tough. Approaching the "gates", a gap in the rock that the road goes through, the grade approaches 26 percent! At one point I stopped to catch my breath. Upon starting again, my front wheel swerved and I caught it with my toe! Down I went. This section was so steep that I had to push the bike a few yards before I could even try to mount it. I went down one more time during this ride but fortunately all this mishaps occurred while climbing, so I was going quite slow with no damage to me or my bike!

The grade continued in varying degrees of severity. I actually flopped over once more on a steep hairpin! This was getting ridiculous! To make matters worse, I had gotten the idea that the summit was 7800 feet, imagine my surprise when I passed a 9,000 foot marker!

As I continued to slog forward, the weather was getting more and more threatening. First there was an occasional spit of rain but that soon turned to a occasional flake of snow. At least it wasn't windy!

At long last I came to the summit! what a relief. I snapped a couple of pictures, then a couple of guys who were getting ready to camp up there came along and I got them to snap my picture, thanks guys!

At the top! I was getting pelted with snow pellets at this point!

In my face I think you can see some of the strain of this ride!

The strain of the ride is on my face!

Of course, now I had the pleasure of the grand descent from the summit! And it was thrilling, with lots of steep drops and wild hairpin turns. I loved it. My max speed on this day was 46 mph.

Upon reaching the bottom of the descent I realized I was really in the middle of nowhere at 5:00 pm in the evening, and with no reservations anywhere. I had to push on to Bridgeport, there was simply no place between where I was and there! I finally made it to town as darkness was falling. I actually used my new bike light! I was relieved to find a vacancy, the last room the place had as it turned out. It was a little pricey, but I definitely enjoyed the room!

That night I enjoyed a plate of spaghetti and garlic toast and the most delicious pint of Ballast Point Sculpin I ever tasted.

The next morning I started out in the chilly air. I had managed to loose my gloves the day before so I was using my extra pair of socks for mittens. The ride was now on HWY 395 from Bridgeport to Lee Vining and I had no illusions that this would be a dream ride. However, traffic wasn't too bad and I was enjoying the lonely landscapes of the Eastern Sierra. The was a seemingly endless chain of little summits to cross until finally I reached Conway Summit, 8138 feet. shortly after this was a vista point.

The final summit...?

At the vista point I was able to look down upon Mono Lake and Lee Vining. What a great view!

...Yes!! Overlooking Mono Lake and Hwy 395!

The downgrade here was very  broad and well shouldered, an easy ride though I didn't hit any extraordinary speeds on it. At the bottom I just rode a series of low hills up and down to the Highway 120 junction. Turning on that it was a few miles to my campsite where I started the ride.

Total mileage for the two and a half day ride was 244 miles. If the MapMyRide stats are correct, my total elevation gain for the three days was 25,000 feet with the biggest day being the climb up Sonora Pass which amounted to 11,400 feet. Maximum elevation was 9,962 feet while climbing Sonora Pass!

The final picture taken as I turned onto the road to Lower Lee Vining Campground, looking up at Tioga!

Equipment Notes

I rode my King of Mercia Touring model on this ride. The gearing was the most important feature on a ride of the nature, mine consisted of a "wide-range" double, 26/46 chainrings up front and a 12/28 8 speed cassette on back which gave me a satisfactory gear range. I didn't have any serious issues with the drivetrain.

In fact I had virtually no mechanical issues, at least I thought that much before I got home. No Flats at all, (I put a fresh 700X32 Pasella on the rear before the ride). About a week after this ride, however, after a short day ride at home, I noticed my rear brake wasn't centered. It turned out the brake was fine, the wheel was a bit out of true. It turned out that I had actually broken a spoke on the rear wheel on the drive side at the head! I don't know when this happened but suppose it occurred during the climbing, probably on Sonora Pass!

My baggage was carried in a Carradice Camper saddlebag supported by a "Bagman" saddlebag support. In addition, a Velo Orange Rando Bag up front carried food and light gear. The bike handles superbly in this configuration.

This was a very challenging ride. I don't know if I'll ever be able to tackle something like it again! The grades on both passes were really taxing. But I won't be forgetting this ride any time soon, and that's the whole point, isn't it?