Panoche Pass

With a long ride coming up on my calendar, today's route seemed like a fair test: 55 miles, 2,720 feet of climbing. On Friday my coworkers had been sharing their weekend plans, and when they heard mine one of them asked “Will you camp?” (Evidently this is not the sort of outing they picture when I say that I'm going for a bike ride.)

Not surprisingly, none of them had been to this area. It's a challenge not to take the same photos every time I ride here; the same sights always catch my eye. And I wanted to convey a sense of just how beautiful it is (albeit in a desolate sort of way).

A small group set off for the Inn, and conditions couldn't have been more favorable—no headwind on the return. (The condtion of the road has not improved, but ... this trip is worth the trouble.)

One cyclist lost half their lunch to the Inn's resident pooch, who evidently is well-practiced in the art of pilfering sandwiches from unsuspecting customers.

As expected, we saw very little traffic on this road—our bicycles may have outnumbered the vehicles ...

... until the end, when a slew of emergency vehicles and patrol cars roared past. I regretted, then, that I had gotten ahead of my ride buddy. Had someone crashed, or been struck by a car? [Fortunately, no.]

A few of us were chatting near our cars when a pickup truck passed us, then suddenly reversed. “Are there more cyclists out there?” he asked. It turned out that he was one of the responders, so we learned what had happened. A gunshot—reportedly someone had shot a rattlesnake—and a gunshot requires a response from law enforcement.

Desolate. Did I mention, desolate? (But so beautiful.)