Week One

Our first stop in our summer journey was the Sequoia National Forest.  We stayed just outside of Kernville, an old gold mining town now full of river rafters - but in a good way!  Such a fun little town, very nice locals and families camping.  Best of all, no one minded our dogs being off leash, which is one of the nicest parts of the National Forest system - they have very few rules compared to the National Parks system, which seems to favor tour buses over dogs...

Chamise Flats dispersed camping along the Kern River

Nice campsite from both directions.

There were two rides Dennis wanted to do around Kernville.  One was the Cannell Trail, which is a shuttle ride up to 9,200 elevation with a dizzying 8,000 foot descent.  That's not my scene at all, so I was happy to do a long hike with the dogs along the Kern River.

Nothing tastes as good as a beer after a long ride

Can you find the two dogs in the river?

Second night of camping, also along the Kern River, at Hospital Flat campground.  First time we've actually paid for a site, but it was well worth it to have a private beach and a hose to refill our 20 gallon water tank.  Oh and the portable toilets were nice too.

We have very well-defined divisions of labor on these trips.  Dennis is the trip planner, the navigator, the bike mechanic and the BBQ guy.  I'm the driver, the provision organizer and the cook.

The second ride we did was way above Kernville with stunning views of Lake Isabelle.  It's called Just Outstanding.  I think it's meant to be done just one way - down.  Since we didn't have a shuttle, we had to do a steep 1 1/2 hour ride up then turn around for a 20 minute thrill down.  The downhill truly was outstanding.  The uphill - well, at least I earned my beer at the end.

The entire ride was through old growth Manzanita

Here we are being regular tourists

The Trail of the 100 Giants

Enjoyed our first shower (note the mud) wild camping at Dome Rock

Amazing views all the way to Mt. Whitney

Dogs dig campfires

After leaving Sequoia, we drove to north shore Tahoe to spend 5 days with my brother, sister-in-law, sister + 1 and my father at their house in Dollar Point.  Coincidentally, they also have great mountain bike rides there!

Dogs run in the family

The iconic Tahoe Rim Trail

On the lake

We had to remove all food from our van so as to avoid unwelcome guests inside.  Every day we saw evidence of bears in the neighborhood with torn open bear boxes and garbage strewn all over the street.  Then we saw the culprit casually walking the streets, completely unfazed by barking dogs and cars.