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2011-04-09 tl;dr: I'm back into the mountains. These mountain backroads are the best part of California. It is just as well that I stopped at a motel. The weather maintained itself miserably all night. Even in the morning the Current Conditions informed me that it "feels like 31 degrees." Still, it was supposed to be warmer today so I hit the road once the sun was up.I biked through the Lost Hills Producing Area. This is just miles of oil wells of all ages, sizes and conditions positioned at random points in random orientations. Perhaps it was just my viewpoint from the road, but it's hard for me to imagine anything less organized. It was a pleasant enough day for bicycling through Mexico. I mean California. I stopped at a small grocery store in Kettleman City where a bunch of locals were lingering out front talking and examining a wall of DVDs. Most of the Mexicans I've met so far have a wave and smile, but these guys seemed a little disgruntled. I didn't linger. I eventually ended up back in the mountains. I'm taking Los Gatos Road west from Coalinga. It's pretty up here. And as has been the case with many of the backroads so far in California there is almost no traffic. I met four other touring bikes. They were spread out and heading east. The first three waved but the last guy was grumpy. Probably because he had so much gear packed on his bike. Sometimes I wonder why people think they need so much stuff. I made a solid 90 miles today. Not bad. Finding a campsite was more challenging than I expected because of all the ranches and barbed wire. |
 oil farm  treeless panorama  STOP! the COSTA PELOSI BOXER DUST BOWL  California Aquaduct    heading back into the mountains    more bees |