Eastern Sierra Double Century 2019

This blog post is dedicated to my dad, Paul Meichtry.  (1-23-1927 to 5-26-2019)

 

Dad with some of his planes.The exception is the P-51

My awesome dad passed away on Memorial Day weekend at 92 years of age.

He was a veteran, adventurer and pilot.  He was a constant optimist with an amazing no-quit attitude who instilled this in me and much of my family.

We had so many adventures while I was younger up in the Eastern Sierra which made me feel very close to him on this event. As young kids we hiked and fished up in the area many times. Then there were the many ski trips up to Mammoth Lakes. Many of them were flying with dad in his twin engine Cessna 402. Dad didn’t really ski much but he took us up anyway.

 I still remember buzzing the ski lifts at a low altitude before going in to land at the airport.

My wife Ginny with The 402

As a little kid just out of diapers, I started flying with dad. From a very young age I was flying in the right seat with him as co-pilot and many times in the left seat even though I never got my pilots license.

 I was probably one of the most accomplished non-licensed pilots to fly twin engine Cessna aircraft, first in his 3 different Cessna 310’s and in his final aircraft, the Cessna 402 Business Liner. The 402 was a dream to fly.

Another adventure in the Sierra was our many flights for camping at Bass Lake which is in the foothills of the Sierra above the Fresno area. Some don’t known but there was an airport there at the north end of the lake. Dad was one of the few who could bring a twin engine into that very short airstrip. He had a custom tent made for the wing of our Cessna 310 at the time. The family would fly up and camp at the lake. Below is a picture of the airport taken on one of the trips.

Bass Lake airport. Not much of a runway! I took the picture from the right seat.

Our camping spot with the custom tent.

 It’s not much of an airport. Dad was an amazing pilot.

There are too many similar flying adventures we had to mention here.

All these memories were popping into my head while riding this beautiful event up in the Sierra. I really felt his presence and had many emotional moments during the event. I felt just blessed to have friends to ride with while up there. It really helped me keep my mind in the right place and enjoy it much more.

 I am one of those people who keeps things in, mentally which I know is not good. Cycling is my therapy. Surfing was my outlet for many years but now cycling has kind of taken over since I was hooked by Ultra-Cycling.

Rest in peace dad!! You have touched so many lives in your lifetime.

_________________________________________________________________________________ 

The Event

The Eastern Sierra Double Century event has been around for quite some time. It is arguably the most beautiful of the events on the double century circuit in California.

The spring of 2019 was a strange one this year. The Sierra has just been pounded with snow and to date is still over 200% of normal on the snow pack. This has been one of the coolest springs we have had in all of California.

The weather forecast on event weekend was for building thunderstorms up in the area with rain showers. This forecast forced many people to pass on doing the event and there were only around 60 people doing the event.

It was really their loss.

The plan this year was to do the event on my tandem with my good friend Teresa.

Plans were change so I did it on my single bike.

I camped in my van at Browns Town campground at the south end of town and was up at around 4am for the 5am start.

The day started out clear with just a few wispy clouds in the sky. Things can change rapidly in the high mountains and most all who rode, came prepared. It was cool and in the low 50’s when our group started at 5am in Bishop, Ca.

Bishop is an amazing place if you love Road Cycling, Mountain Biking, fishing, hiking, skiing, mountain climbing, kayaking or just plain sight seeing.

 It is a fantastic place to stay at the foot of the Sierra.

Rolling through town at the start.                                                                                 Photo: Victor Cooper

The temps soon dropped into the 40’s as we rolled along the valley floor toward The Old Sherwin Grade.

Heading toward Old Sherwin Grade. The grade can be seen in the upper right of the photo.

This grade climbs out of the Round Valley from the Bishop area from around 4,500 foot elevation up to a summit near Rock Creek at around 7,000 foot elevation. Then you descend and climb out of a small canyon along Rock Creek to the summit at around 7,000 feet near Toms Place and the first check point.

The Old Sherwin Grade parallels Hwy 395 which is also on Sherwin Grade but goes more straight up into the mountains.

This old grade is tough and long on a bike but oh so beautiful. The views of the Sierra just take your breath away.

Below are a few pictures of the first of many climbs on this day.

Tim Sullivan climbing Sherwin Grade

Here comes Tim

This climb would be a good test of my gearing selection on my bike for this year’s event. I thought I would test my old legs and see if I could handle the ride with an 11-28 gear cluster on the rear. I knew it would be tougher but I had been training much of the year with this gearing so I went for it.

Could I handle this at 66 years young by the end of the day with most of the climbing above 7,000 feet? We will see by the end of the day.

I stopped at the bottom of the climb to remove my jacket as I was getting way too hot. All my group kept going so I would be playing catch-up. I took way longer than I should have stripping, but told myself to just pace myself and not rush to catch up.

The climb was great. Steady pace and getting out of the saddle often, I began to catch up with people.

 Many had started at 4am in the tourist division. These are people who may take much longer to do the event and don’t care about being timed. There is more time allowed for these people to make the time cutoff. The really fast people start at 6am.

 

A friend from Northern California heading toward the first check point

I got to the first check point near Toms Place with a few friends who had started with the 4am group. All my usual riding group were there fueling up. My sciatic problem on my left side was already starting to act up so I took some Ibuprofen.

 I grabbed something to eat and headed out with them for Mammoth Lakes.

This next section to the Mammoth Lakes turnoff has a few climbs but mainly is just a gradual climb. The whole event is up at altitude though so even a 3% climb feels much harder than it would near home and my 700-2000 foot elevation rides. Most of this ride is above 7,000 feet!!

Leaving Check Point One. Parallel to Hwy 395. Lake Crowley to our right.

We got on Hwy 395 for a little bit, passing the Green Church and Mammoth Airport before our turn. Really brought back memories of my flying trips with dad to that airport.

The green church on the right and Benton Crossing Road coming up. Ron up ahead of me.                 Photo: Victor Cooper

I remember that church well. I did my sleep break there when I did The Inyo Ultra466 back in 2013. 

 

From the Mammoth turn, it’s up, up, up on a long steady climb to the town of Mammoth before doing the “Mammoth Scenic Loop”. This loop takes you to one of the 3 highest points on the ride at about 8,300 feet.

 

Near the summit of the Mammoth Scenic Loop.                                                           Photo: Victor Cooper

Vic near the Mammoth Scenic Loop summit

This was a tough climb with the gears I selected. I just stayed steady. I was able to keep my friends in sight but they are much younger and better climbers than I. I soon lost all but my friend Vic who hung back with me.

The weather was so beautiful. It was still in the 40’s. Some cumulus clouds were starting to form but nothing looked too bad yet.

We rolled into the check point, fueled up and then headed for Dead Man Summit, another one of the top three elevation climbs. Not a hard climb but again the altitude makes it deceiving.

Vic at Deadman Summit

 

Next up was the highlight of this event, The June Lake Loop.

This year was the most spectacular I can remember. The big clouds starting to build up were a sign that we should not take too much time. We stopped to take pictures anyway. We just had to.

June Lake

                                                                                                                                             Photo: Loren Smith

The weather was starting to change rapidly as we went around the 3 lakes in this loop. June, Silver and Grant Lakes were so beautiful and full this year and the snow has not event started melting much yet!!

 

Look at those aspens!!           Photo: Victor Cooper                               

Rolling past Silver Lake                                                                                 Photo: Victor Cooper

Vic rolling down toward Mono Lake and Hwy 395

Vic heading into lunch.

We made it to the lunch stop in Lee Vining pretty quick.

LUNCH!!

You could really see that big storms were forming around the area.

We took almost an hour for lunch then hit the road. There was a big storm now just drenching the June Lake Loop area.

Heading south now on Hwy 395 toward our turn on Hwy 120. That is June Lake area off to the right....yikes!!

Beautiful but stating to get dripped on.

 It started to rain a bit before we made our turn east on Hwy 120. We were hoping we could beat it. Storms were building all over the place and we really thought we were going to get nailed.

I was now just riding with my friends Vic and Ron. Victor was one of my team mates on the 2018 Race across America. Ron was on our crew. We are good buds.

I had a hard time keeping up with them on the climbs due to the nerve pain which kept me from pushing harder gears. I was still able to stay within reach of them though and it was a good thing because its a lot better being with someone in weather conditions like that.

Just after the turn, it started to rain pretty well. Up to the point, it was not enough to get us that wet in the dry air. 

Putting my rain jacket on. It started hailing from our right just after this.                                          Photo: Victor Cooper

Soon after we put our rain jackets on, it started hailing with a 20 mph cross wind from the right. This lasted about 10 minutes and then it stopped and roads were dry until the last part of the ride. (For us anyway)

We now had a beautiful view of Mono Lake on our left. It was just spectacular with all the storm clouds in the area.

Now came one of the hardest climbs on the ride, the climb to Sage Hen summit.

Vic starting the Sage Hen climb with Mono Lake in the background

Ron starting the climb

Really staring to kick up now. The first of the stair-steps                                                      Photo: Victor Cooper

It is usually hot on this climb during this event. On this day it was only in the high 50’s having just hailed. It was wonderful!!

This climb is a stair-stepping climb that never seems to stop with the last one being the hardest before getting to a high mountain valley. Then there is a final climb to the summit which isn’t too bad.

I think I counted 11 stairs step climbs on this while doing The 466 in 2013. That year the first one was the hardest and I had lower gears so I got to like it as long as I paced myself.

My sciatic issue was really bothering me on this ride. (I think it had something to do with my construction work during the week. I had a plaster patching job and I was up and down on a ladder which really killed my lower back. When I got home I could hardly walk without pain.)

Ron and I heading up out of the high valley before starting the final climb to the summit. Talk about high plains. This high plain is at 8,000 feet.                     Photo: Victor Cooper

Sage Hen Summit. The last one over 8,000 feet but 2 more that are very close.                    Photo: Victor Cooper

We made it to the check point at Sage Hen Summit feeling good knowing we had a blazing fast descent coming up which would bring us into some warmer air before we started some real climbing again.

We had a lot of fun at the rest stop as our friends all re-grouped here getting there a little after us.

Goofing off at the summit with Shelby, Loren and Rick.                                                           Photo: Gloria Alvarez Arellanes

Now it was time for a little relief from the climbing.

This descent off the east side of Sage Hen Summit is typically one of the fastest on the event. I have friends who have set records on this descent especially on the tandem. I was able to cruise at around 60 mph in 2015 on this event while riding my tandem. (you can see the video if you go back to my 2015 blog which has the video in it.)

I left my jacket on but knew I would soon be taking it off as it would warm up.

Down we went. The wind was not too bad like it would normally be and the road surface was better than I remembered it. There used to be terrible ruts after getting off the steep part while rolling toward Benton Crossing. This year the road was not too bad. They made some improvements.

On this section of road before reaching Benton Crossing Road, there are 5 nasty kickers of around 12-13%. They are short but kick your butt just the same.

I just can’t say enough about the scenery on this event. This year was just spectacular and this section of the ride also did not disappoint. Here are few pictures of the area leading to Benton Crossing.

Ouch.                                                                                                                    Photo: Victor Cooper

Nice view of the White Mountains up ahead as we head toward Benton Crossing

Now came Benton Crossing. The last of difficult climbs are on this section.

I have a love/hate relationship with this section.

On The Inyo Ultra 466 back in 2013, I didn’t think this section was all that bad. Could it be because I had low gearing on my bike at that time and I was 5 years younger?

This section was done 4 times in a row as part of a 100 mile loop on that event. The event started in Bishop, then came up Hwy 6 to Benton. It was then over the hill to the intersection before starting the climb up to Wildrose Summit. It was then over another summit called Waterson Divide. Both of these summits are close to 8,000 feet in elevation. We then descended down and around Lake Crowley before turning right on Hwy 395.

We stayed on 395 past Mammoth then and over Deadman Summit with more climbing before descending to Hwy 120 for the climb up to Sage Hen Summit. It was a brutal loop with the whole thing at high altitude. We then returned to Bishop via Benton where we entered the loop.

Inyo Ultra 466 was my very first long ultra-event. Below is the map and elevation profile of the 100 mile loop.

The Inyo Ultra 466. Start in Bishop down below then 4 times around that loop.

This time up Wildrose I was way under geared. If not for the sciatic pain, it would not have been too bad. Due to that, I just couldn’t push hard. I rolled most of the way with my friend Ron as Victor just flew up the hill. At one point I had to stop to stretch out my legs and back I was in so much pain. I let the boys go while I took about 10 minutes before starting up again. I was about half-way when I stopped.

The climb starts off with a long straight rising section that slowly starts getting steeper. It then levels slightly before it turns left and kicks up again even steeper. It stays pretty steady steep for a while before a left turn at which point there is about a mile to the summit with a 10-13% grade. It’s brutal. The entire climb is about 7 miles and seems never ending.

Vic taking off up the lower slope of Wildrose

Vic being chased by the storm on Wildrose

Photo taken by Victor Cooper from about halfway up Wildrose looking down at the lower straight section. It doesn't look steep but it is around 7-8%. Very deceiving and tough going up that valley.

Ron and I climbing at about an 8% grade area. Weather getting bad behind us.                 Photo: Victor Cooper

Wildrose Summit. The Sierra and Mount Tom in the distance

There was a check point at the top thank God!!

I stopped and re-grouped with the boys.

We didn’t stay too long. Coming from the east off the White Mountains was a big storm and from what it looked like and the wind direction, it was coming right at us. I told everyone we better get out of there. (Word was that the people behind us got rained on pretty good on the climb.)

We flew down off Wildrose. That was an E ticket ride at around 40 mph on that one. We came across a couple of cattle guards on the way down.

I remember my friend Ron saying….” Wow…bunny hopping a cattle guard at 35 mph”. That is exactly what I did. Worked great!!

I was feeling great but as soon as we started the next climb, my left leg started acting up with the nerve pain again. Arrgggg……..Everything was firing on all cylinders for the whole day. My leg muscles felt great with no pain, my heart-rate was great and steady and I wasn’t cold all day. I felt just great except for that one thing that really slowed me down.

There is always something when you get older.

Ron and Eric at Waterson Divide. Me dragging my sorry arss up the rear.                                         Photo: Victor Cooper

Taking a much need break and enjoying an awesome view of the Sierra.                                  Photo: Victor Cooper

Over Waterson Divide we went and then down to Lake Crowley, one of the biggest fishing areas in the area. This is where we got our first real head-wind. We worked together in a pace line until our left turn toward the west. When we got to that point we had a nice crossing tail wind to take us to the final check point at the baseball fields. 

Ron, Eric and I heading toward the final check point. Vic standing up ahead with camera ready as usual.

There was a cold wind a blowing now. I had a cold Mountain Dew at the stop and I think we stayed way too long.

As soon as we started for the final 30 miles, I got chilled. It took me a couple miles before my engine warmed up again and I started generating some heat. I then was getting too hot in my jacket so I had to zip it down. Funny how the human engine works.

As soon as I got warmed up, one of our friends, Eric, who was with us on this last section, got a flat tire. He fixed his flat pretty quick and then we were on our way.

Looking pretty bad back toward Bishop.

The weather was really looking nasty back toward Bishop and thus far we had only had a little hail for ten minutes. I think we were really going to be in for it!

It started raining pretty steady as we cruised up and over a couple rises on the 395. It was not too bad climbing in the cold rain but I was fearing the descent which was to come up. I have only done the descent of Sherwin Grade on Hwy 395 one time before and that was in daylight and it was dry. It was now dusk and pretty dark with all the rain. There was about an inch of rain sitting on the shoulder and we did not know what was under that rain. It is a fast descent too.

Once we got to the final descent which drops from 7,000 feet to 4,500 feet in almost 10 miles, it got scary!!

 It’s a blazing descent.

This could have been a fun descent but I have to say, it was terrifying!! Luckily there was barely any traffic and we were able to take the whole right lane of the Hwy and stay off the shoulder as much as possible because the brakes barely worked in that rain.

To top that off, I started to get cold and shivery due to the wet cold on my feet and legs. It was only 44 degrees at the top. I had to hold the brakes and pedal against the breaking pressure to stay warm. It was not fun at all.

Once near the bottom, it leveled a bit and the rain stopped mostly with just a few sprinkles. The road was dry. I was still cold although the temp warmed up into the upper 50’s now down at 4,500 feet. Vic wanted to stop because he had only sunglasses on and wanted to take them off. I was so cold I could not stop. I just put the pedal to the metal and hammered at about 27 mph until I started to warm up. I then let up and let them catch me. I finally was feeling better.

We rolled the final 8 miles to the finish at around 25 mph feeling pretty good.

That was one epic event. I will not soon forget the 2019 Eastern Sierra Double.

A big thanks to Deb and Brian of Planet Ultra for putting on another great event.

A huge thank you to all the volunteers out there who took such good care of us.

Many of you went above and beyond to keep us all hydrated and stocked up on this chilly but beautiful day.

Here is the map of the ride: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/35498090

Thanks to ICAN Wheels. The "Fast and Light" wheels performed flawlessly on the flats and climbing terrain. Especially well on the descents.